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

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Amazing, brilliant & gorgeous. Just everything about this book is perfect, from the gorgeous cover art to the incredibly immersive storytelling. I’ve never been happier to learn that this is the first part of a trilogy so that I still have two more books to enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Misogyny, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Gore, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Sexual harassment

The misogyny, rape and adult/minor relationship cw warnings are very period-typical as it (sadly) was the norm for that time. It’s the whole *hand wavy gesture* women being treated as objects with little to no agency over their lives and futures & teens being arranged to marry men twice their age thing. Also I wasn’t sure whether to tag for psychosis as Anna wasn’t really delusional, but her attacks were pretty intense (as were how she was treated by those around her) so that’s why I still chose to.