The lure of folklore, fantastical creatures, the mystery of forests, unfolding into an almost creepy, dark parade of characters that share how they came to be with a startling past, connection to the present, and some sort of unsought wisdom and knowledge being imparted to those who interact with them.

The story was one that took me back to my absolute love for Grimms’ fairy tales. I really enjoyed parts of this one, for very specific reasons. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.Īs danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed–this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.Īnd indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.Īfter Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind–she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales.

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses.

The bear and the nightingale trilogy