Vasilisa soon realizes that she is indeed special, and that she can see creatures that most people cannot. Vasilisa was raised by her mother’s nursemaid, who is constantly telling her fairy tales that most Russians fear, but Vasilisa loves. Vasilisa’s father rules these lands, and her mother died giving birth to her, knowing that she was special. Vasilisa and her family live on the edge of the Russian wilderness. This book is a mash-up retelling of many Russian fairy tales, but with unique spins of them, which are woven together to tell such a beautiful tale that makes me breathless just thinking about how expertly it is crafted. I’m not even sure where to begin with this story, but I guess I will start by saying that this story is a love letter to stories everywhere. Under that name, he was king of black midwinter who came for bad children and froze them in the night.” But long ago, the people called him Karachun, the death-god. “In Russian, Frost was called Morozko, the demon of winter. This book was nothing short of perfection, and I’m sorry to gush, but I never expected this story to captivate me the way it did. I loved this with every bone, every red blood cell, every molecule in my body. This book is one of the best things I’ve read in my entire life. Tell us of the frost-demon, the winter-king Karachun.” It spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent. The Bear and the Nightingale is a magical debut novel from a gifted and gorgeous voice. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.Īs danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed-this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.Īnd indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village.

Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.Īfter Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. But Vasilisa doesn't mind-she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses.

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