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A review by harmshoney
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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? It's complicated
2.0
DNF! back at it again with my unpopular opinions π«£
first I want to say that if you loved this book, ππππ ππ πππ ππ ππππππ ππ πππ ππ πππ. we all have such different brains & convictions. you're allowed to have your own unique perspective. so, here we go..
I disliked this book so much that I'm in a major funk, & haven't wanted to read or create videos π₯²
this is meant to be a fairytale/folklore story, & that concept fascinates me. as I've stated before, I believe that as a Christian, it's possible to be able to enjoy & learn moral lessons from fiction stories without taking them on as a religion. with that said, these are my issues with this book..
as stated, I enjoy fairytale/folklore.. when they're just that. this, however, did my least favorite thing when it comes to that genre: it mixed in a real religion - Christianity. the *second* this theme came up, I knew I would have a problem. had this story remained solely folklore, I am sure I would have actually enjoyed it a bit more.
why did this mixture bother me? because there was an incredibly strong biased against Christianity. I'll paint a picture for you: this story follows a little girl who is able to see the folklore creatures. the water nymph, the stable guardian, etc. this initially intrigued me before religion was introduced.. thinking it was going to be about those relationships between her & these creatures - a fairytale story. but no.
her stepmother comes into the story. a devout "Christian" & absolutely TERRRIFIED of everything under the sun. she can also see these creatures, & she believes they are demons. this woman is crazy, cruel, & abusive. her "pastor" is a fairytale version of a gospel preacher, oozing with narcissism & having no care or honor for Christ. he had good one-liners, but don't all false teachers? the reviews stated he got worse throughout the story.
so really, this turned into paganism vs. Christianity. the story strongly in favor of the former. the folklore was presented as very real, while Christianity was viewed as a false system of legalism & abuse.
I can't help but see everything through a Christian lens. not sorry π€·π½ββοΈ reading this book, all I could think was, "I'd be the crazy woman calling the creatures demons". because in reality? that's what they would be. in a story, in a fairytale? they're pretend. just like Narnia or Lord of the Rings. but here, they were presented as real in our world & that Christians are crazy, hateful, & wrong to think they're bad. other things I disliked: the writing was probably some of the worst I have read. it was choppy, robotic, confusing, & the story telling was hard to follow & just weird. I couldn't find a "flow" at all. there were far too many characters, most of unimportance. overall, I reallIIIlly didn't like this. so yeah, don't recommend. avoid.
first I want to say that if you loved this book, ππππ ππ πππ ππ ππππππ ππ πππ ππ πππ. we all have such different brains & convictions. you're allowed to have your own unique perspective. so, here we go..
I disliked this book so much that I'm in a major funk, & haven't wanted to read or create videos π₯²
this is meant to be a fairytale/folklore story, & that concept fascinates me. as I've stated before, I believe that as a Christian, it's possible to be able to enjoy & learn moral lessons from fiction stories without taking them on as a religion. with that said, these are my issues with this book..
as stated, I enjoy fairytale/folklore.. when they're just that. this, however, did my least favorite thing when it comes to that genre: it mixed in a real religion - Christianity. the *second* this theme came up, I knew I would have a problem. had this story remained solely folklore, I am sure I would have actually enjoyed it a bit more.
why did this mixture bother me? because there was an incredibly strong biased against Christianity. I'll paint a picture for you: this story follows a little girl who is able to see the folklore creatures. the water nymph, the stable guardian, etc. this initially intrigued me before religion was introduced.. thinking it was going to be about those relationships between her & these creatures - a fairytale story. but no.
her stepmother comes into the story. a devout "Christian" & absolutely TERRRIFIED of everything under the sun. she can also see these creatures, & she believes they are demons. this woman is crazy, cruel, & abusive. her "pastor" is a fairytale version of a gospel preacher, oozing with narcissism & having no care or honor for Christ. he had good one-liners, but don't all false teachers? the reviews stated he got worse throughout the story.
so really, this turned into paganism vs. Christianity. the story strongly in favor of the former. the folklore was presented as very real, while Christianity was viewed as a false system of legalism & abuse.
I can't help but see everything through a Christian lens. not sorry π€·π½ββοΈ reading this book, all I could think was, "I'd be the crazy woman calling the creatures demons". because in reality? that's what they would be. in a story, in a fairytale? they're pretend. just like Narnia or Lord of the Rings. but here, they were presented as real in our world & that Christians are crazy, hateful, & wrong to think they're bad. other things I disliked: the writing was probably some of the worst I have read. it was choppy, robotic, confusing, & the story telling was hard to follow & just weird. I couldn't find a "flow" at all. there were far too many characters, most of unimportance. overall, I reallIIIlly didn't like this. so yeah, don't recommend. avoid.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry