Review: The Bear and the Nightingale

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The Bear and the Nightingale The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story is so beautifully written! You can feel the magic and darkness woven through the story. It is a fairy tale within a fairy tale based on Russian culture and folk lore. This book is great for fantasy lovers who enjoy rich detail, world, and character building.

Marina's childhood nurse maid has followed her to help take care of her own children, three boys and one girl. Where they live in Russia, the winter is harsh and long. Every night the nurse tells the children stories and one night Marina requests the story of Lord Frost the demon. That night she confides in her husband that she is pregnant again and insists that this baby girl will be special.

Vasilisa never gets to know her mother and grows up being raised by her sister Olga and her nurse. One night she travels too far into the forest and gets lost. She happens upon two men and tells them who she is and asks which way her home is. The men frighten her and she runs straight into her brother's arms but never forgets that night.

Her father takes Vasya's two eldest brothers to Moscow and returns with a step mother. Vasilisa's step mother looks down on fairy tales and forbids such childish things but Vasya knows they are real and soon everyone else will too.

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