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A review by doughtah
The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Arden
5.0
“The Girl In The Tower” is the sequel to Arden’s first book - “The Bear And the Nightingale” - and it follows without losing a bit of power or momentum. Everything from Arden’s first book - the beautiful descriptions, the play of myths coming in and out of the mundane world, and the indomitable Vasya - comes back into focus in the sequel with added adventure Arden so gracefully drew us into before.
With false identities, romantic overtures, and new and returning cast members, Vasya must maneuver a larger world than she ever had to back in Lesnaya Zemlya. And we the reader get to watch the firecracker grow into herself a bit more as the story progresses. While her adventuring spirit was a thrill to watch in the first book, it was gratifying to see Vasya respond to and grow with the higher stakes that meet her instead of relying on more childish tactics. As she’s no longer on her home turf, we also get to ride alongside with Vasya as she explores medieval Rus’ and Moscow. Arden’s attention to detail in her descriptions of village life, the realities of the peasantry and the highborns, as well as life in the terem help bring together Vasya’s story and the historical world. And it’s a thrill to see all of the attention Arden’s put into the book.
One of my favorite things, and reader be warned as beyond here there be spoilers, is the return of Father Konstantin, who seems to have only fallen further into the unhinged fervor we saw of him in his story moments back in “The Bear.” Arden continues to use him as a figure caught between (unhappily) the Church and the Old beliefs. While Vasya, bobbing and weaving between the two beliefs, is able to live without fear or self-hatred, Father Konstantin holds fast to the beliefs he prided himself on before going out into the countryside and is the worse for his inability to expand his ideas. His attitude toward Vasya makes me really interested to see how Arden ends this sad priest’s story in her third book (which I’m waiting with baited breath for as it comes out in August).
With relationships tested amongst family members, power plays, and mythology flying in and out of Arden’s writing, “The Girl” proved to be a formidable sequel and one anyone who’s read “The Bear and The Nightingale” can thoroughly enjoy. If you haven’t picked up “The Bear,” then I thoroughly recommend you do if YA fiction, historical fiction, mythology, and action/adventure are up your alleys.
With false identities, romantic overtures, and new and returning cast members, Vasya must maneuver a larger world than she ever had to back in Lesnaya Zemlya. And we the reader get to watch the firecracker grow into herself a bit more as the story progresses. While her adventuring spirit was a thrill to watch in the first book, it was gratifying to see Vasya respond to and grow with the higher stakes that meet her instead of relying on more childish tactics. As she’s no longer on her home turf, we also get to ride alongside with Vasya as she explores medieval Rus’ and Moscow. Arden’s attention to detail in her descriptions of village life, the realities of the peasantry and the highborns, as well as life in the terem help bring together Vasya’s story and the historical world. And it’s a thrill to see all of the attention Arden’s put into the book.
One of my favorite things, and reader be warned as beyond here there be spoilers, is the return of Father Konstantin, who seems to have only fallen further into the unhinged fervor we saw of him in his story moments back in “The Bear.” Arden continues to use him as a figure caught between (unhappily) the Church and the Old beliefs. While Vasya, bobbing and weaving between the two beliefs, is able to live without fear or self-hatred, Father Konstantin holds fast to the beliefs he prided himself on before going out into the countryside and is the worse for his inability to expand his ideas. His attitude toward Vasya makes me really interested to see how Arden ends this sad priest’s story in her third book (which I’m waiting with baited breath for as it comes out in August).
With relationships tested amongst family members, power plays, and mythology flying in and out of Arden’s writing, “The Girl” proved to be a formidable sequel and one anyone who’s read “The Bear and The Nightingale” can thoroughly enjoy. If you haven’t picked up “The Bear,” then I thoroughly recommend you do if YA fiction, historical fiction, mythology, and action/adventure are up your alleys.