Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

161 reviews

geminisoul's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was just so immersive. I couldn't help but fall in love with Vasya and enjoyed watching her grow into herself.  I can't wait to read the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

pitchblackkoi's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault

tlbignerd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

It has a little slow start, but information that was needed for the story. Everything came together incredibly well, and I can't wait to read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

the_rabble's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book is all vibes and worldbuilding. The next books are now on my "to read" list.

Takes until about halfway through to get going, but you've been primed with so much lore you're still having a good time before some of the set up action hits.

When it does hit, it's hard to put down and stays true to the style of the book.

I'm not big on kid protagonists, but this was like if Anne of Green Gables was a horse girl who had a cadre of friends from Russian folklore and maybe

Gilbert's

an ominous, timeless embodiment of winter with questionable motivation.

Narrator: the Kathleen Gati recording is really clean. Voice acting was good- deploys Russian accents in dialogue. The pace could have been faster at times in prose. She's got an excellent fairy tale quality to the read.

Who I Wouldn't Rec This To: Misogyny and casual domestic violence is part of the setting, so if you're not in a headspace to deal with that allll the way through, wait on reading this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

janieboucher's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming

furreverreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So good! 
Chilling, exciting, atmospheric. A perfect mix of frustrating characters, and lovable characters; villains and heroes.
Arden wrote it beautifully, incorporating the Russian language and traditions well I think. I was not ready for it to end, but do think she ended it well. 
Ugh! So far definitely the best book I’ve finished in 2024. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

zeddy_s's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Blood

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

4.5

Sometimes too descriptive but this was mostly only in the beginning to set the background, introduce everyone, etc. That made it hard to get into the story but finally around 65 pages I was intrigued!

Who is this stranger? What does he want with Vasya? I was hooked and didn’t want to put the book down! I loved the folklore and “spirits” throughout the story. It was very atmospheric and tense! The characters were confusing at first and it would’ve helped to have a guide to everyone’s names and their nicknames to keep track. I got used to it after awhile luckily!

Overall an exciting and interesting tale 😍 I can’t wait to continue the series and see what happens with the characters! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, and Religious bigotry

megan_pristineprose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is very dark. Not as whimsical as I had hoped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore and Physical abuse

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, and Murder

thebankofbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury