Review: THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden Also by this author: The Bear and the Nightingale, The Winter of the Witch
Series: The Winternight Trilogy #2
Published by Del Rey on December 5th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Pages: 352
Also in this series: The Bear and the Nightingale
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy is one of the most captivating series I’ve ever read. I fell in love with the series last winter when I read the first book, The Bear and the Nightingale. Filled with lush worldbuilding, a feisty heroine, fascinating Russian folklore, and a touch of the supernatural, The Bear and the Nightingale entranced me from the first pages and I just fell in love with everything about the story. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the second book, The Girl in the Tower, and was thrilled to be approved for an advanced copy to review on my blog.
I didn’t think it was possible to top the gorgeous storytelling in the first book, but Arden proved me wrong. As much as I adored The Bear and the Nightingale, I thought The Girl in the Tower was even more amazing! It has all of the same wonderful elements as the first book – the magic, the Russian folklore, beloved characters like Vasya, her horse Solovey, and the Frost Demon. But then, there’s just also so much more to love.
In The Girl in the Tower, Vasya has really come into her own in terms of character growth. She is still a free spirit who refuses to bow down and do what society expects young women to do, but now she is also more mature and a bit wiser because of what she went through in the first book.
The Girl in the Tower picks up right where The Bear and the Nightingale left off. Because of what happened to Vasya in the first book, there are rumors swirling around her village that she is a witch. Faced with the choices before her – either marrying someone she doesn’t love or being sent to live in a convent — Vasya decides to create her own destiny and runs away from home. When the story opens, we meet Vasya traveling, disguised as a boy, with only her horse, Solovey, by her side.
The roads she travels on are rugged and unsafe, but Vasya’s journey ultimately takes her to Moscow where she is reunited with her monk brother, Sasha; her sister, Olga, who is now a princess; and her cousin Dmitrii, who is the Crown Prince of Moscow. Desperately trying to conceal her true identity, Vasya gets caught up in a web of deception, lies, and political unrest and finds herself faced with extremely dangerous choices everywhere she turns.
How will she get out of her predicament and what will happen to her if her true identity is revealed?
As with the first book, the atmospheric quality of The Girl in the Tower was one of my favorite parts of the novel. As soon as I began reading, I felt as though I had been transported to Vasya’s world. Arden masterfully paints a medieval Russian landscape and skillfully dots this landscape with a fascinating mix of supernatural elements and Russian folklore. Her descriptions are so vivid that I could practically hear the snow crunching under Solovey’s hooves as he and Vasya traversed the snowy landscape, just as I could easily envision the tiny magical spirit guardians hidden in each building Vasya entered.
Vasya is of course still a major favorite of mine. I admire her bravery and her feistiness and the fact that she doesn’t want to be forced into marriage or into a convent. She has no interest in society’s expectations for women and, instead, wants to be an adventurer and travel the world. Vasya has a spirit that cannot be tamed, and I couldn’t help but cheer her on, even though I know it’s likely to be dangerous for her.
In addition to Vasya, another favorite character of mine is her stallion, Solovey. Solovey and Vasya can communicate with each other, and some of their exchanges are truly hilarious. I love Solovey for his loyalty, his sassiness, and for his fierceness. You’ll want a Solovey of your very own after reading this story. He’s the perfect companion for Vasya.
And, of course, I can’t leave out an unexpected favorite character, Morozko, the Frost Demon. Arden adds layers and layers of complexity to Morozko in this second book and I just fell in love with him even more than I did in the first book. The details of his history, along with his connection to Vasya, are what truly take this story to the next level, and even though I probably shouldn’t ship Vasya and Morozko, I totally do. I just can’t get enough of the two of them together!
I also loved that this story seemed a little darker and a little more grounded in reality than the first story because of the focus on political unrest in Moscow. It added a layer of danger and intrigue that really made for an exciting and fast-paced read.
The only issue I had while reading this book was that it started out a little slow for me. It may have been because it took a few pages to actually get to Vasya’s story, but I’m actually going to chalk it up as a personal issue because I was trying to start the book while riding on a train and was constantly distracted. Once I got home and continued reading where there were less distractions, I devoured the rest of the book in less than 24 hours.
The Girl in the Tower is a tale that is beautiful yet dark, enchanting yet also horrifying. With its gorgeous prose, memorable characters, and intricate storytelling, it has also secured itself a spot on my Top Reads of 2017 list. Katherine Arden has truly captivated me with this series and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final installment. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a strong, feisty, independent heroine and good solid storytelling, as well as to anyone who is interested in Russian folklore. You won’t be disappointed!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.
Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.
About Katherine Arden
Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent a year of high school in Rennes, France. Following her acceptance to Middlebury College in Vermont, she deferred enrollment for a year in order to live and study in Moscow. At Middlebury, she specialized in French and Russian literature. After receiving her BA, she moved to Maui, Hawaii, working every kind of odd job imaginable, from grant writing and making crêpes to guiding horse trips. Currently she lives in Vermont, but really, you never know.
Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books On My Winter Reading List
Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR List, which gives us all a chance to share what we’re planning to read for the next few months.
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It’s always hard for me to put together a definitive list because I’m such a mood reader and what I’m keen on reading seems to change from minute to minute. That said, here’s my tentative reading list for the upcoming winter months. I may also try to squeeze in a few titles off my backlist that I kept neglecting like Dark Matter, Nevernight, and The Raven Boys, but the ARCs and recent releases below are high on my priority list.
TOP 10 BOOKS ON MY WINTER READING LIST
1. THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert
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2. NICE TRY, JANE SINNER by Lianne Oelke
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3. THE WIFE BETWEEN US by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
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4. THE IMMORTALISTS by Chloe Benjamin
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5. SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE by McKelle George
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6. NEED TO KNOW by Karen Cleveland
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7. HONOR AMONG THIEVES by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre
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8. TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN by John Green
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9. THE HUSH by John Hart
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10. A QUIET KIND OF THUNDER by Sara Barnard
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Question: What books are you planning to read this winter? Are any of my titles on your list?
Review: Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva
Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel of Christmas Past by Samantha Silva 
Published by Flatiron Books on October 31st 2017
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 288
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
Samantha Silva’s Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a charming, heartwarming tale that follows Charles Dickens at a difficult time in his life. Dickens has been a hugely successful writer for years, with each book selling better than the last. That is, until Martin Chuzzlewit, whose sales have unexpectedly flopped. Three weeks before Christmas, Dickens’ publishers pay him a visit to tell him the bad news about his book sales and to issue him an ultimatum: write a heartwarming, best-selling Christmas book in the next three weeks or else face financial ruin.
Needless to say, this does not put Dickens into the Christmas spirit, especially when on top of his bad news, he also has to contend with his family who is expecting the same lavish Christmas that they are used to. Additionally, one of Dickens’ cousins is lurking about because he wants money for an investment, and Dickens’ deadbeat father is also milling around town racking up debts and expecting Charles to take care of them.
Dickens begins to feel backed into a corner and starts to lash out at those around him, eventually driving his wife and children away from their home. At first, Dickens flat out refuses to write a novel on demand because it’s not his style, but ultimately realizes he has no choice and sits down to write. There’s just one problem – he has no inspiration whatsoever and a huge case of writer’s block. Growing increasingly frustrated, Dickens begins to wander aimlessly around the city of London and eventually finds himself on an Ebenezer Scrooge-like journey that ultimately becomes the inspiration for what ends up being his most beloved novel, A Christmas Carol.
There were so many things I loved about this book, but I think the Dickensian atmosphere was what I loved the most. I truly felt like I had been transported back to Victorian London while I was reading. Silva does a marvelous job of capturing all of the sights, sounds, and smells (both the good and the bad!) of the time period and the overall effect was just magical! It was instantly clear that Silva had done her homework, both with respect to Dickens himself and to the time period.
I also loved the way Silva brought Charles Dickens to life for her readers. She portrays him as likable and charming, and yet so flawed and human at the same time. His family means everything to him and he’s worried that he may not be able to take care of them because of his lagging book sales. I really sympathized with what he was going through –everyone wanting something from him because of his success, his wife telling him that he has changed and that she and the children are leaving until he gets himself sorted out, and then having to write a Christmas story on demand in order to keep from falling into financial ruin. It’s a lot for anyone to have to deal with and Dickens also feels the tremendous pressure of up-and-coming writers such as Thackeray and begins to doubt that he can compete with them. Dickens’ frustrations were palpable and so very understandable, as were his feelings of self-doubt. The writer’s block that follows is something that all of us who write can relate to, and I thought it was brilliant that Silva uses all of these pressures she has piled onto Dickens’ shoulders to take him on a Scrooge-like journey of his own, which is what ultimately inspires his writing of A Christmas Carol.
I’m a huge fan of both Dickens and A Christmas Carol, so every time I was reading and happened across a shout out to either A Christmas Carol or one of Dickens’ other works, it made me smile. I thought it was especially fun when he came across names he thought would make good character names and jotted them down, or on other occasions when he met someone he didn’t like and vowed to use them in his book to exact his revenge on them on paper. I also chuckled to myself that Dickens would grumble “Humbug, bah!” when he was in a particularly foul humor and then ended up incorporating the now famous words into his tale, since he obviously modeled Ebenezer Scrooge after himself. In this sense, I would think the book would be a lot of fun for Dickens fans.
Overall, this was such an enjoyable read for me, but I will mention that there were a few spots that were heavy in description, which slowed the pacing a bit. Thankfully though, the lulls were brief and the action picked back up pretty quickly.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a charming, heartwarming tale that is perfect for fans of Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, or even just Christmas itself. I personally think it would make a lovely Christmas gift for the Dickens fan in your life.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Shakespeare in Love meets A Christmas Carol in this transporting debut novel set during the whirlwind period in which Dickens wrote his beloved classic, as he embarks on a Scrooge-like journey of his own.
For Charles Dickens, each Christmas has been better than the last. His novels are literary blockbusters, and he is famous on the streets of London, where avid fans sneak up on him to snip off pieces of his hair. He and his wife have five happy children, a sixth on the way, and a home filled with every comfort they could imagine. But when Dickens’ newest book is a flop, the glorious life he has built for himself threatens to collapse around him. His publishers offer an ultimatum: either he writes a Christmas book in a month, or they will call in his debts, and he could lose everything. Grudgingly, he accepts, but with relatives hounding him for loans, his wife and children planning an excessively lavish holiday party, and jealous critics going in for the kill, he is hardly feeling the Christmas spirit.
Increasingly frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace and inspiration in London itself, his great palace of thinking. And on one of his long walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets a young woman in a purple cloak, who might be just the muse he needs. Eleanor Lovejoy and her young son, Timothy, propel Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey through his Christmases past and present—but with time running out, will he find the perfect new story to save him?
In prose laced with humor, sumptuous Victorian detail, and charming winks to A Christmas Carol, Samantha Silva breathes new life into an adored classic. Perfect for fans of Dickens, for readers of immersive historical fiction, and for anyone looking for a dose of Christmas cheer, Mr. Dickens and His Carol is destined to become a perennial holiday favorite.
About Samantha Silva
Samantha Silva is an author and screenwriter based in Idaho. Mr. Dickens and His Carol is her debut novel. Over her career she’s sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema and TNT. A film adaptation of her short story, The Big Burn, won the 1 Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2017. Silva will direct, her first time at the helm.
Silva graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, where she studied in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C. She’s lived in London three times, briefly in Rome, is an avid Italophile, and a forever Dickens devotee.