Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Girl in the Tower

I liked this less than the first book (mostly because Vasya made basically every bad decision possible) but I am still excited for the final book of the trilogy!

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I didn't really enjoy this book as much as the first one, but I hope the next book in the series pays off. I think I was kind of expecting a book without Vasya as the protagonist and for the story to focus mostly on Olya but even though it didn't meet my expectations it wasn't bad.

What I liked:

I liked Vasya's different relationships with everyone in Dmmitri's court and how it evolved the longer she decided to keep her true identity concealed.
I liked Masha and I hope we get to see more of her in the next book
I'm not a horse person by any means but I liked all of the horse related stuff in these books. I think Solovey was probably my favourite character overall because he was so full of life and personality.

What I didn't like

The combination of different POVs (that kind of stopped after a while) and pacing made me struggle with the flow of the book. I don't know how to explain how I would improve it but I found myself skim-reading at times.
Remember when I was like "yay no romance between Vasya and the Frost King!"? Yup, joke's on me, huh? 🤡

I just really didn't care for the romance, let alone the whole back and forth of whether it was better to be immortal or to be in love.
It didn't really feel like it amounted to anything other than him quietly disappearing without much of a trace.
I thought the firebird was disappointing, especially in comparison to the bear from the previous book. Although the latter didn't come until the latter half of the book, it felt like he was built up more to be the final boss and had (and still has) a lasting impact on Vasya and the plot. In this book, it's just like "oh by the way, this dude transfigured a firebird into a horse and now it's going to fly off and burn everything - bye!"

Content Warnings

raptorq's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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geminisoul's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I cannot begin to describe how much I love this book. The author has created such depth in her characters and the world. I am honestly sad that I have finished the book.

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aksmith92's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

The second installment of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy was an absolute delight. While it did veer to the Young Adult side of the spectrum, I still very much enjoyed this book and liked it even a bit more than the first one.

The setup: Trying not to spoil anything from the first book ~ Vasilisa, AKA Vasya, is set to travel the world after defeating many challenges in her hometown, the frontier country of Rus', in the last book. Ousted from her community and deemed a witch, she is ready to find solitude in the great outdoors with her beautiful horse, Solovey. That Solitude lasts about a day when she stumbles upon villages that have been burned and their young girls taken. Dressed as a boy, since it is still medieval Russia and the time is not kind to adventurous girls and women, she sets on a quest to find the girls and help the villages outside of Moscow.

During her adventure, she links up with family and soon finds her way to Moscow, where she becomes comfortable in her boyhood. But darker and grimmer things await her. Throw in Morozko, the frost demon straight out of fairy tales, and you also have a sprinkle of a love story without taking too much away from the plot.

What I loved: This was an atmospheric book with beautiful prose. The vocabulary was a bit different, just like in the first one, because Arden did her best to try to stick with the medieval Russia (Rus') theme in a historical context. However, it was pretty poetic yet readable. I had a blast.

Additionally, each character was developed and layered in their own way, especially Vasya and the frost demon. And, I must admit, I couldn't help but love a talking horse (only to Vasya, though). Plus, unlike the first novel, this book had more profound plot points and action scenes, which I thought was a nice touch.

Lastly, there was something quite beautiful about Vasya's development in this book. For context, this book was deeply misogynistic, just like I would imagine medieval anywhere to be. Vasya, as someone who diverts from the typical girl-to-woman tracks, was not regularly rewarded or applauded. Therefore, a lot of this book was saddening and sometimes even uncomfortable to read. Vasya had to deal with choices that focused on being herself or possibly getting herself into real trouble and, worse, getting loved ones in trouble because of her actions. Because of this, I would imagine some people reading this might become frustrated with Vasya and her decision-making, but to me, it was about Vasya trying so hard to be herself in a world that didn't allow it.

Any critique? I gave this book five stars - my first of the year! Therefore, I have minimal criticism. From maybe another reader's perspective, I will say that I'm not sure how much the plot flows from the first to the second one, meaning that the plot didn't seem to be 100% connected other than throwing in fairy tale elements. Some characters were the same, and their stories continued to be connected, but the plot differed slightly from the first book. I loved it anyway because I felt like each book focuses more on one piece of the fairy tale.

I loved this book and cannot wait to read the trilogy's final installment!

Content Warnings

latashman's review

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adventurous emotional tense 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

4.0

Great sequel to the story and answered questions from the first. This book read a lot slower than the first one and I found some of the character choices to be stupid toward the end of the book. looking forward to reading the next book.

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eagoldberg's review

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.0

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