The Bear and the Nightingale

Hi gamers,

How's your day been? Mine has been a waste. I meant to start/finish a paper before the next week deadline, so I wasn't stressed. You know what I did instead? Finished a book I should've finished Friday and this book I'm gonna talk about right now.

I just finished The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, the first in the Winternight Trilogy. It's a rendition of Russian folklore, though I couldn't tell you the entirety of the folklore. Basically, the book takes place in a fantastical medieval Russia, out in the low key country/forest. Vasilisa's mother dies giving birth to her. Eventually, her father gets remarried and the stepmother is, as per usual, a monster. She's made it impossible to follow their old ways, with major consequences following. Then she tries to send Vasilisa away, who's the only one keeping their lands functional. With little house spirits and mysterious demons, this should not have taken me five days to read, but alas.

So, I've been waiting for the final book in this series to come out for a while. Since it had been a while, I forgot what it was about. Then I read the blurb, and I was furious. I could've used this book for my whole paper. But it's fine. I'm not bitter or anything. Plus, it's a good book. I've developed a love for fairy tales and this is like something I want to write. A whole fairy tale, but in novel form. I think a bit of what took me so long was because I was used to reading like, 10-page fairy tales with wide margins and this is a whole 300-page book. Also, the fact that I was angry that if I read faster earlier in the year, I could have used this for my paper. But all is well.

Vasilisa is a queen. She was born in the wrong time period and could be the wildest girl she wanted it she was created in the 21st century. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and that's part of the purpose of the story. I like how she always stays true to herself. She trusts herself more than those around her and she doesn't succumb to the will of the patriarchy. I also appreciate her brother, Alyosha? I don't really understand the Russian naming system. There's like five different names people are called and I'm not sure why. Like, Vasilisa is called Vasya most of the time. But why? I guess I should go look up Russian stuff. Anyway, Alyosha is a cool dude. I also liked Sasha, but he was kind of pretentious for no reason. I like how he went off to be a monk, but he's very bad at it.

Konstantin was a wild creature. Like, part of me liked him but the other part wanted him to just chill. Stay in church and paint your pictures. Also, he was very God-fearing, which is whatever, but he painted idols and the people worshipped him. So doesn't that make him an idolatrous? I know I don't read my Bible like I should, but that's what it looked like. Morozko is interesting. I know she's not to trust him, because he's chaotic neutral Jack Frost, but I do. Her dad, patriarchal. The oldest brother, patriarchal. Anna. Needs to go to an asylum. Why couldn't her dad just put her in the convent? All my problems would be solved. I kind of understand her, but also, go away.

All right, I have a group project to go to, but I enjoyed this a lot. Hopefully, for the next book, I won't be stressing so I can in-depth analyze it. Bye.

Ship: I don't have one. . .
Snake: Anna
Gemini: Konstantin
Like: Alyosha, Morozko, the little house spirits, Solovey

8/10
~Book Panda