lisaandthebooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I don't think I understand every theme that was explored in this book so I won't even try to analyse it. I just read this book for pleasure so I didn't make notes or anything. I can say that there is definitely loads of things to analyse and think about though.
I loved the way the myths were mixed with real events and people. It just feels like an alternative universe.
This series is officially one of my all time favourites. The writing is amazing, as is the storytelling. The characters range from good, to horrible, to amazing, to very morally ambiguous. The exploration of good & bad and if there even is such a thing in the first place was done so well. This book had a twist I truly did not expect. After the 3rd big chapter I thought everything was over (because in every other fantasy book, that is how the story ends), everything that came after was just so unexpected and amazing. I can't say more without saying too much and spoiling the book so I won't. This is truly a series you should know as little as possible about before reading.
Also I was surprised by how fresh this book felt. I have read so many fantasy books by now and I can enjoy a book while still realising how tropy and cliquee it is. This book felt like something new and exciting though.
I can only highly recommend this book! Especially if you are interested in russian folklore :)
Moderate: Blood, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, War, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Body shaming, Death, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping, and Sexism
thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition
4.5
I absolutely adore Vasya's growth, especially in this book. Can't say much without spoilers, so just read these.
CW: same "it's set in the 14th century, so" as the others
Graphic: War, Grief, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Misogyny, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Child death
ciarramist's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
saintyeehaw's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Spoiler
We are pretty much outright told that no man can resist Vasya's wild/unique charm; while that's something seen in the behavior of other men in the previous books, making it some kind of general rule that gets her out of more than one life threatening situation feels pretty cheap. I also don't feel great, or even good at all, about a 17 year old feeling forced by a dire situation to have sex with an ancient winter god. I was already iffy about their relationship but this book pushed it from questionable to straight up ick for me. Not loving that the only queer relationship in the entire series is between the two villains either. Finally, if we're going to undo some of Vasya's greatest development into adulthood by bringing Solovey back, at least give us more time with him.Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Murder
szuum's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault and Torture
ehmannky's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
The only thing I didn't particularly love was that it felt that there were essentially two parts that felt like an ending-one part in the middle and the other was the actual end of the book. I don't want to spoil it, but I felt that after one of the major forces of antagonism in Vasya's life are defeated, there was a 50 ish page gap where the book felt like it sort of stalled. Overall, I didn't hate it and I get thematically why this split exists and the meaning behind showing that "defeating evil" is not enough for a victory in a complex world, but it felt odd in a book that's so action-focused to have this weird lull roughly 2/3rds of the way through.
Overall, extremely satisfied with this series and its ending, and good god
Spoiler
was it satisfying to see Konstantin die. Still not sure how I feel about Solovey being resurrected in the last 10 pages of the book, but it is a very fairy tale twist so I did appreciate it.Graphic: Death, Animal death, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Blood, and Child death
Moderate: Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping
Minor: Vomit
swordsandsapphicsyay's review against another edition
- 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
Overall I loved how these clashing worlds of religion, politics, and magic all blended together to create what I would consider the darkest book and most fantastic finale in an already utterly dark and wondrous series.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Torture
aseaoftomes's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
This picks up right where Girl in the Tower left off with Vasya in Moscow after the events of the chaos of what happened. We continue to follow not only Vaysa, but her family members too - Olga and Sasha primarily. This book converges the two sides - in BitN we focused a lot on the pagan side of things, in GitT we focused more on the humanity and Christianity side and now it WotW we see the two come together and reach a place where both can coexist.
As with the two previous books, I loved the setting and atmosphere. Since we get to deal with both the human and the chyert sides, we get to see both human and chyert lands and I loved seeing the similarities and differences between them. I just love how Katherine Arden writes her worlds.
The writing was also fine. Of the three books, I think this is one of her strongest with regards to pacing and overall writing especially with regards to plot.
The plot was also great. Katherine Arden managed to fit a lot of different things in without it feeling disjointed or out of place. It's hard to explain much of the plot of this one because of spoilers, but I loved all of the conflict between the humans and the chyerti - that was such a huge part of the book. But also the politics and turmoil between the Rus' and the Tatars and then with Vasya and the chyerti. It was just all really interesting to watch and ultimately see how it all concluded.
Finally, the characters. I loved Vasya in this, probably the most out of the three. She really grew into her own and I feel like we got more internal conflict from her than previously. She felt more manifested in this than previously. I also really liked both Sasha and Olga's character arcs and their growth and how their relationship with Vasya was portrayed. And of course, as always, I love the chyerti - literally all of them. They add so much to the books and they're written so well. Once again we get to meet several new spirits and they were all delightful. Morozko remains my favorite (always) and I loved watching his relationship with Vasya in this book (I love them, but you probably know that already) and looking back on where they were in the first book to where they are now and I just loved it.
All in all, this is a really great conclusion to a great series, and I had a really great time rereading it. (As with all of the books, I read this in winter with snow outside because it adds an extra layer to the atmospheric element).
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Excrement and Vomit