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A review by emtees
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.25
Vasya is done with her fairytale. After her symbolic marriage to the Winter King Morozko helped defeat his arch enemy the Bear and save her people, Vasya is meant to take Morozko’s dowry and use it to marry a human man. That’s how the story always ends. But Vasya has no desire to marry, and with her people whispering that she’s a witch, she decides to take the dowry and use it to fund a new life as a world traveler, disguised as a boy and alone with just her magical horse Solovey. But it’s not as easy to leave her old life behind as she thought. On the road, Vasya finds herself embroiled in a threat to the reign of the Grand Prince of Moscow - Tartar bandits have been kidnapping girls from peasant villages, and there seems to be something supernatural about the way they’ve evaded pursuit. When Vasya attempts to rescue some of the girls, she winds up entangled with the Grand Prince’s court, which includes her brother Sasha, the famous warrior monk, and her sister Olga, the Princess of Serpukhov. Sasha and Olga know who she is, but to everyone else she is a boy, and the reveal of her identity could have devastating consequences for all of them.
I enjoyed this one even more than the last book in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale. Like the first book, The Girl in the Tower is heavily based on Russian folklore and fairy tales. It’s not an area I’m very familiar with, but Arden sprinkles the plot with just enough background to understand the various mythological and archetypal figures and story arcs in play. The folklore isn’t just there for flavor or set dressing; Arden is speaking to the heart of these stories and questioning the truths they tell and the lessons they purport to teach. This book also expands the setting of the story from Vasya’s remote forest home to Moscow, bringing in the real history of the 14th century Rus. The rich but restrictive culture of Christian Moscow is set against the whimsy and danger of the pagan woods, which adds a lot of depth to Vasya’s story. Vasya has followed the path of many fairy tale heroines before her, but there is a lot about both their fate and the expected life of a proper Christian noblewoman that this independent and restless young woman doesn’t want, and the question of how much room she has to forge her own path is a big one.
Vasya continues to be a likeable heroine, but I appreciated that in this story we see her more out of her depth. She was comfortable and confident in her own terrain, but out on the road, and then among the court of Moscow, she is in over her head and that means mistakes and poor decisions. I liked that this wasn’t the kind of story where, because the young hero was strong and had done impressive things, she was able to accomplish just anything. In fact, Vasya’s confidence in her own abilities gets in her way at times; she gets complacent and makes mistakes that get her and the people around her in trouble. The story simultaneously understands Vasya’s desire for freedom and anger at the restrictions placed on her by her sexist society and questions the cost of her freedom to the people around her. Vasya’s relationships with her siblings were great: messy and full of misunderstandings and resentments, but also deeply loyal and loving.
The fantasy elements of this world continue to be intriguing. The main plot of this book is a largely stand-alone adventure, but there is a lot of background building up, presumably to be explored in the last book of the trilogy. Both the mysteries of Vasya’s family heritage and her complex relationship with the Winter King Morozko get a lot of page time. After not caring very much about Morozko in the first book, I enjoyed his relationship with Vasya in this one a lot more. Arden humanized him and therefore his interactions with Vasya in a way that made me feel for him.
I enjoyed this one even more than the last book in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale. Like the first book, The Girl in the Tower is heavily based on Russian folklore and fairy tales. It’s not an area I’m very familiar with, but Arden sprinkles the plot with just enough background to understand the various mythological and archetypal figures and story arcs in play. The folklore isn’t just there for flavor or set dressing; Arden is speaking to the heart of these stories and questioning the truths they tell and the lessons they purport to teach. This book also expands the setting of the story from Vasya’s remote forest home to Moscow, bringing in the real history of the 14th century Rus. The rich but restrictive culture of Christian Moscow is set against the whimsy and danger of the pagan woods, which adds a lot of depth to Vasya’s story. Vasya has followed the path of many fairy tale heroines before her, but there is a lot about both their fate and the expected life of a proper Christian noblewoman that this independent and restless young woman doesn’t want, and the question of how much room she has to forge her own path is a big one.
Vasya continues to be a likeable heroine, but I appreciated that in this story we see her more out of her depth. She was comfortable and confident in her own terrain, but out on the road, and then among the court of Moscow, she is in over her head and that means mistakes and poor decisions. I liked that this wasn’t the kind of story where, because the young hero was strong and had done impressive things, she was able to accomplish just anything. In fact, Vasya’s confidence in her own abilities gets in her way at times; she gets complacent and makes mistakes that get her and the people around her in trouble. The story simultaneously understands Vasya’s desire for freedom and anger at the restrictions placed on her by her sexist society and questions the cost of her freedom to the people around her. Vasya’s relationships with her siblings were great: messy and full of misunderstandings and resentments, but also deeply loyal and loving.
The fantasy elements of this world continue to be intriguing. The main plot of this book is a largely stand-alone adventure, but there is a lot of background building up, presumably to be explored in the last book of the trilogy. Both the mysteries of Vasya’s family heritage and her complex relationship with the Winter King Morozko get a lot of page time. After not caring very much about Morozko in the first book, I enjoyed his relationship with Vasya in this one a lot more. Arden humanized him and therefore his interactions with Vasya in a way that made me feel for him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual harassment
Sexism, misogyny, and the threat of forced marriages or other restrictions on women are a major theme.
There is a graphic birth scene in which the main character is forced to choose between letting the mother die or letting the child die. She makes the choice against the mother’s own wishes.