A review by cassroberts89
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Could not put this down! This is such a magical, dark fairy-tale-esque story. The dichotomy of Christianity and paganism was fascinating. Every single character was well-drawn with unique voices. Probably the most interesting character (besides our main heroine and maybe-hero) is Konstantine, the priest who comes to the village. He clearly gets drunk on power and the love/fear of those he convinces to follow, but I’m still trying to decide if he himself truly believes he is doing good works. There is one act that guilts him, but I’m not sure about the rest. Anyway, beautiful story. I’ve already started on the second in the trilogy.