The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden, book review.

The Bear and the Nightingale was this months book club book and it sounded interesting but I don’t think it would have been one I would have chosen to read.

The Blurb

Beware the evil in the woods…

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.

But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .

My Review of the Bear and the Nightingale

Reading the blurb, I would have been intrigued. Having the book recommended for people who have enjoyed Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ (which is one of my all time favourites) would certainly have intrigued me.

But, what was off putting was the language style which felt almost as difficult as reading Shakespeare! And the names, I swear each character had at least three names.

Big tip: There is a glossary in most books. I thought I’d struck unlucky and got one without a glossary but it turned out that there was another chapter from the second book at the end and I hate reading the ending of a book so I didn’t check carefully enough. I found the glossary too late but it was useful. Some words I’d managed to work out myself, like dvork was obviously the yard, but I didn’t know that dochka was daughter. I did wonder about where the nightingale came into it and learnt from the glossary that solovey was nightingale.

Back to the story, set in ancient Russia, or Rus’ it tries to convey the way they would speak in those times, which is what made it so difficult to get in to. But as the story evolved and and the language becoming more understandable, it was actually a good read. Or so I thought. I’m not sure about the rest of the book club as I didn’t make the meet up due to a migraine.

The young girl, Vasilia or Vasya, was born from a witch or demon seer who died during childbirth. Vasya could see the demons that protected their home and village. But she was also seen as a ‘wild’ child. Her father had a new wife who could also see demons but kept it to herself. A priest came from Moscow to ‘save’ the village from their demons but he made things worse. He drove out the demons that protected them and allowed in the ones that caused harm and starving.

The father had to go and help another village and the step-mother was convinced by the priest that her daughter had to go to a convent. (She’d previously scared off her suitor for marriage.) So she ran away and that’s when she met the Bear and the Nightingale.

It’s not a simple straightforward story and you have to take yourself back in time and to believe in the unbelievable to have any kind of enjoyment from the book.

I have to admit that, by the end of it I was really getting into the story and I would like to know more about what happens to this family and Vasilia. I might be tempted to get the second book. I even enjoyed reading the sample chapter at the end of the book.

So, despite the blurb being so intriguing, it took me so long to get into it that I would not have chosen to read this book by choice. But I was glad I did. I’m putting it on my Reading Challenge as a genre I wouldn’t normally read, but I may change this later as I will probably stretch myself to read to something more different.

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