I know I was scared all I could picture were the gruesome images by Stephen Gammell that accompany the Scary Story book series by Alvin Schwartz. At one of our book club meetings, we discussed how frightening the novel could be when the dead begin to rise and eat people. On a sentence-level, the writing feels more adult than juvenile. Readers need to have some knowledge of Russian history and naming conventions, and Russian words are used throughout (there’s a glossary at the end). Katherine Arden’s novel is often described as a young adult reading level, but I disagree. But the Bear has a brother whose role as Death can’t be ignored, but may provide unexpected help. He will bring the end of life to the village. And the Bear, a terrorizing demon that slumbers when the spirits are admired, is beginning to wake up. A deep freeze settles in, crops won’t grow, the horses are struggling.

Neglected, the small demons cannot protect the village anymore.

But Anna brings a new priest to Pyotr’s village who makes the villagers fear God, a God who will burn them alive if they praise anything other than Him. In Pyotr’s village, people both leave offerings to small demons who protect the village and attend church. The only place Anna doesn’t see them is in churches, but her pleas to be sent to a convent are ignored and she’s given to Pyotr, whose remote village deep in the forest will keep Anna from embarrassing her noble family. When Vasya is a small girl, Pyotr remarries to a devout Christian woman from Moscow who sees demons. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods.Ītmospheric and enchanting, with an engrossing adventure at its core, The Bear and the Nightingale is perfect for readers of Naomi Novik's Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. 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.īut for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, read by Kathleen Gati.

Categories Adult Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy

The bear and the nightingale book 3