The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Title: The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight #1)

Author: Katherine Arden

Publisher: Del Rey 2017

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 319

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; In Case You Missed It - 2017

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.

Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Plodding. That’s the one word that comes to mind in attempting a review of this book. I just couldn’t seem to stay engaged in the story or the characters. Most of the characters are highly unlikeable. It doesn’t help that we really don’t get to see much of them except of glimpses through Vasya. The main character isn’t even that interesting. Most of the story is things happening to her, not her doing things. And for that, I was just not that interested in the story at all. I do like a good Russian folk tale redone, but this one was too slow and not engaging enough to make me want to read the rest of the series.

Winternight

• #1 The Bear and the Nightingale

• #2 The Girl in the Tower

• #3 The Winter of the Witch

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

Title: The Crane Husband

Author: Kelly Barnhill

Publisher: Tordotcom 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 120

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; 52 Book Club - Book starts with “the”

“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.”

A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. For six years, it’s been just the three of them—her mom has brought home guests at times, but none have ever stayed.

Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.

I randomly picked this one up from the New Releases shelf at the library. And I was so glad that I did. This is a very strange slim novella based on a reimagining of a classic folklore story. Right away we are dropped into a world that seems just like our own except that our narrator’s mother has brought home a crane to be their new Father. Very strange indeed. Over the next 100 pages, we slowly have to come to terms with the fact that there’s a crane/man living in the house disrupting the usual goings on in the family. Ultimately this a very sad story of a broken family.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack

Title: Anya and the Nightingale

Author: Sofiya Pasternack

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020

Genre: MG Fantasy

Pages: 416

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR; 52 Book Club - Written in Present Tense

It’s been a year since a violent Viking terrorized the small village of Zmeyreka and Anya and her foolish friend Ivan saved a friendly dragon from being sacrificed for his magic.

But things still aren’t safe in the kingdom of Kievan Rus’. 

After embarking on a journey to bring her papa home from war, Anya discovers a powerful forest creature terrorizing travelers. But she soon learns that he’s not the monster the kingdom should fear. There’s an even greater evil that lurks under the city. 

Can Anya stop the monster, save her papa, and find her way home? Or will the secrets of Kiev leave Anya and her friends trapped beneath the city forever?

Another decent, if not super exciting book for this series. I wanted to love this book more than I actual loved this book. I think this is a case of the book not being written for me. If I was 12 and reading this one, I think I would have given it 5 stars. It just felt a little too juvenile for me. I wanted to Anya to dive a little deeper into the culture and the stories. Instead, we get lots of angst and a very transparent mystery.

Anya

• #1 Anya and the Dragon

• #2 Anya and the Nightingale

Next up on the TBR pile:

Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

Title: Anya and the Dragon

Author: Sofiya Pasternack

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2019

Genre: MG Fantasy

Pages: 394

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR

Anya and the Dragon is the story of fantasy and mayhem in tenth century Eastern Europe, where headstrong eleven-year-old Anya is a daughter of the only Jewish family in her village. When her family’s livelihood is threatened by a bigoted magistrate, Anya is lured in by a friendly family of fools, who promise her money in exchange for helping them capture the last dragon in Kievan Rus. This seems easy enough, until she finds out that the scary old dragon isn't as old—or as scary—as everyone thought. Now Anya is faced with a choice: save the dragon, or save her family.

I had checked this out months ago, but never got to it before it was due at the library. I remembered that I had wanted to read it and checked it out again. I wasn’t quite expecting the story I got, but enjoyed most of it. I loved following Anya through her adventure involving many magical creatures and a friendly dragon. Once the story finally got going, I enjoyed the adventure. The problem is the story takes way too long to really get going. We spend too much time listening to Anya whine about life. I would have loved to meet the dragon much sooner or even diving more into Ivan’s life much sooner. I am wondering what will happen in the sequel and will probably read that one soon.

Next up on the TBR pile: