The Bear and the Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is a fairy tale – I’m unsure if it’s a retelling or original, as I’m not the best at Russian folklore. Regardless, it is a lovely book that is perfect if you’re ever in a ‘I want to read fantasy, but not like fantasy fantasy’ mood.

The tone of the book is beautiful. The setting is medieval Russia, and Arden sets the scene so beautifully I could feel it. The Russian vocabulary and names were reasonably easy to pick up, and it’s such a nice change to have a book that isn’t set in pseudo-England.

I was a bit ehhh about this book for the first half. I’m quite plot/character driven, and this was much more of a meandering wander through the setting and atmosphere. Some of the plot threads were left drifting and unexplained for a little too long and I got to a point where I just wanted them to get on with it. However, both the setting and atmosphere is absolutely beautiful, and Arden has such a pretty way with words. An example:

“All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.” 

Our heroine who says the above is Vasya, a girl who possesses her grandmother’s magic and is deeply connected to the old Gods. She fights against what is expected of her by society, her father and step mother, and the new priest. She has to fight the incoming clash of the new Christian religion and the old Gods of her village and forest.

By the second half, the plot picks up pace, several points that awkwardly hung over the book start to come to fruition and there’s a lovely climax at the end that left me deeply satisfied.

There is to be a sequel to this, but it reads well as a standalone. It is also Katherine Arden’s debut, and I will happily read more from her in the future.

Verdict: Slow start but a satisfying ending. 

Read if you like: Eastern European folklore, beautiful and atmospheric setting

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden: ★★★