The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy #1)

Synopsis

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse's fairytales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. 

Then Vasya's widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya's stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fear what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya's stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village's defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has concealed-- to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse's most frightening tales.

Loved

• Russian folklore. Nothing is more atmospheric and wintery than being snug and cozy in a cabin while the wind howls outside and talking with the little house demons. My favorite is the domovoi, who hangs out in the oven and presides over the kitchen. Who knew that there are so many little creatures that guard pretty much everything in the house and the woods? I thought these pagan "demons" (although mostly friendly and harmless) were charming and Vasya's regard and care for them shows her compassion and bravery. We also get some not-so-friendy demons, such as the Frost Demon, the Bear (a one-eyed man who feeds off fear, appetite and madness), and vampires. Seeing these Russian fairytales come to life and affect the people of the village is terrifying, but very intriguing how they choose sides and fight together.

• Paganism vs. Christianity. This took some getting used to and some processing for me, and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. But overall it was really interesting to see the clash between medieval Christianity and the pagan folklore that ruled the beliefs of country dwellers long before Christianity was brought to Russia. The Christianity represented here is extremely different from the Christianity I believe in, which took me a while to bridge. However, watching the battle between hysterical fear and blind faith was fascinating, especially seeing how it affected the characters' beliefs and actions. I've never thought about how Christianity would've been received to medieval villages who had believed in paganism for so long, and it was eye-opening to imagine.

• Vasya. This is a heroine who's way ahead of her time- she's as fierce, compassionate, and feminist as I'll get out. She's exciting to root for because she fights against the "cages" put on women during these times- either getting married to someone as a power move or being sent to a convent. Vasya's courage makes her wise, empathetic and understanding when everyone else around her is rigid, blind, and cruel because of their fear.

• The morally gray characters. For the first quarter or so of the story I felt frustrated because I couldn't decide how I felt about most of the characters- whether they were good or bad. But then I realized that besides Vasya, pretty much every character is very gray, which makes each one intriguing. We have Konstantin, who can be quite cruel, but is trying his hardest to follow God. And Anna Ivanovna, who is also cruel, but young, frightened and bound to her situation by her status as woman. We also have the Frost Demon, who also can be cold and unfeeling, but at other times quite compassionate and giving. The characters are all, for the most part, trying to be dedicated to their beliefs and doing what they feel is right by God- in true Javier fashion- so it's hard to truly dislike any of them, which gives the story a lot of depth.

• Other things to like:

• A potential love interest who is extremely morally gray, mysterious, and immortal

• Very atmospheric- taking place during the frost of a pastoral village in medieval Russia

Didn't Love

• I had some issues with this story, and it's taken me a few days to pinpoint exactly what the issues were, but I think I figured it out:

• The writing. For a while I didn't know what I didn't like about the writing. But as I thought about it, this story is told as if around a hearth- which gives it charm, for sure, but it's not told very well. If a family member was telling a story, they usually are going to leave out details, and we don't get inside characters' heads to understand their thoughts and feelings. We just get events. That's how this story is- we don't get inside any of their heads very much, and that makes it hard to connect with the characters. 

• Which leads me to my next issue: the characters. As I talked about above, the characters are fascinating. However, because of the way the story is told, I didn't connect with any of them. There were no moments where I thought, "oh yeah, I've felt that before," or laughed at the witty thoughts going on in someone's head. We just don't get the opportunity to connect with them because we simply don't get to know them enough.

• It's confusing. Maybe I was distracted while listening to the audiobook (I was cleaning out my storage room while listening to most of this), but I kept getting so confused. There were a lot of Russian names thrown around and by the end of the story I still didn't know who some of them were. It felt like people were just thrown into the story with no warning or explanation, and then they'd get called a few different names. There is a glossary at the back (which I discovered later), but it still made the story confusing.

• It doesn't flow. This story felt like a lot of cool ideas put together, but it wasn't seamless. It felt like the writer had written a few chapters that she liked and then tried to piece them together, and it felt a little patched together at times.

Content

• Language: 
• Taking the Lord and Mary's name in vain.

• Sexual content: 
• A young girl gets married and isn't interested in sex with her husband, but remembers him being "rough" with her.
• A lot of references to women being "supple" and "pliable" in men's hands in bed.
• Men lust after women and treat them as objects.
• One man sexually assaults a woman and touches her chest.

• Violence
• Lots of death: some involve children, some main characters.
• Death from wolves, vampires, demons.
• Mentions of wounds: throats torn open, necks snapped, only bones left of child eaten by wolves.


• Other themes: 
• Disturbing images: characters coming back from the dead as violent vampires.
• Lots of talk of demons: the demons are mythological creatures from Russian folklore who guard different parts of the house and forest. Many are harmless and friendly, some are very frightening and evil. None of them really relate to hell.
• Theme of Christianity in a medieval setting: sermons, exorcism, trying to get people to fear God by literally being frightened. Different scenes of a priest speaking with God and God is a shadow in the room.

Overall Thoughts

This is a story that I really really wanted to love, but I just didn't. Don't get me wrong- I did enjoy it and there were aspects that I really liked. But I just couldn't completely get into the story because the writing bothered me, I couldn't connect with the characters, and I felt confused for a lot of it. I also had mixed thoughts on the Paganism vs. Christianity theme throughout- it was very interesting, especially since it was historically fairly accurate. However, medieval Christianity is not comfortable and it felt quite dark. That being said, I know many people absolutely love this trilogy, and I totally understand the appeal. The mythological creatures are both terrifying and intriguing, the morally gray characters provide depth and reality, and the dark, wintery setting is magically atmospheric. If you love fantasy, definitely give this a try because I think I'm very much in the minority with not loving this book. I think most fantasy readers would love it, and maybe I was just not in the right mood or too distracted cleaning my closet to really immerse myself in the atmosphere ;)