The Bear and the Nightingale is an enchanting folklore of Russian winters, magic, and the power of believing in yourself. Arden is a beautiful storyteller. Her book is rich with interesting characters and stories within the main story. It feels like I'm reading a fairy tale with little short stories that all tie back to the big over-arching plot line.
I do feel that for all the buildup, the ending of the story seems a bit over-simplified, in the way that fairy tales often are. I'm not sure if Arden is going off of existing Russian folklore, so it's possible there is a limit to the material she had to work with.
I particularly enjoyed the main character Vasya; she is strong-minded and doesn't just want a life of being married off and having children. Instead, she wants to have adventures and see the world. When bad things start to happen to her village, she steps in without fear and tries to help, even when she is met with disbelief and nay-saying. How could I not love a character like that?
For me, the one negative of the story is that sometimes it was hard to follow all that was going on. That may be partially due to each character having multiple Russian names and ways of being addressed, so it was a little confusing to remember who was who. Also the author doesn't quite spell out exactly why things are happening, just that they are, so that it contributes to the fairy tale feeling, but it leaves a logistics-minded person like me curious about the question "why?" and wondering about the details.
Still, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the trilogy.
Readaroo Rating: 4 stars
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