What do you do when your whole world changes? That is the question Vasya must answer in Katherine Arden’s gorgeous story of Russian history and mythology.
Vasilisa Petrovna has always been a strange girl. Everyone in her village says so; her face looks like a frog’s, she runs around in the woods like some sort of wild thing, and she has a habit of talking to the air. What the villagers don’t know is Vasya has the sight and can speak with the chyruthi – spirits of nature and the home. And the chyruthi are afraid.
A new priest, sent from Moscow, has arrived in the village. Lusting for power and acclaim, he’s filled the villagers with fear, saying God will condemn them to burn in Hell for the traditions they keep to honor the spirits. But something is waking up; an old evil that grows stronger as the rest of the chyruthi weaken, and Vasya is the only on who knows.
Beautifully blending historical fiction and fairytales, Arden displays the tensions between the pagan traditions and Christian teachings in medieval Rus’, as well as the struggles of women at a time when the only paths allowed by society where marriage or a convent. The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) is an excellent choice for fans of historical fantasies like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, or other Slavic-inspired stories, such as Shadow and Bone and Don’t Call the Wolf.