The Girl in the Tower
The Girl in the Tower
A Novel
by Katherine Arden
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Del Rey
Sci Fi & Fantasy
Pub Date 05 Dec 2017
Review
The Girl in the Tower is a magnificent novel, rich in history and filled with the magic that warms dark nights and lingers in memory. It is a fairy tale deftly woven, that easily mesmerizes the reader transporting them to a time long past in a country foreign in nature and experience. Vasya is not a beautiful princess, instead she is far more - a woman who dreams, unafraid of challenging the status quo, unwilling to accept the constrained life even fortunate women must endure. She sees what has been forgotten, beings fading in time and memory. Some say she is a witch, but she doesn’t know what she is. Her power lies in her courage and uniqueness and her willingness to act and remember. Vasya is at once hero and pawn in a game where elder powers struggle to remain and monotheism is on the rise.
I loved The Girl in the Tower. I didn’t think it possible for a follow up to be as good as the original - I was wrong. I highly recommend Katherine Arden’s novel to anyone who loves fantasy, fairy tales and the romance of history.
5 / 5
I received a copy of The Girl in the Tower from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Description
The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.
Praise for The Bear and the Nightingale
“A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up.”—Naomi Novik
“An extraordinary retelling of a very old tale . . . A Russian setting adds unfamiliar spice to the story of a young woman who does not rebel against the limits of her role in her culture so much as transcend them.”—Robin Hobb
