Julie's Review: The Bear and The Nightingale

Author: Katherine Arden
Series: Winternight Trilogy
Publication Date: January 10, 2017
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 336
Obtained: friend
Genre:  Fairy Tale, Fantasy
Rating: 3.75/5
Bottom Line: A gorgeously written novel that evokes a world of Russian Fairy Tales
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village. But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales. ~amazon.com

Review: The Bear and the Nightingale isn't really my usual book because it really does fall into the fantasy category even though in essence it's a Russian Fairy Tale. Having said that I'm glad my friend recommended it and sent it to me.

It is the story of family, love, history and of finding your own way. Vasya has been different from her siblings since day one but her mother told her father she would. Unfortunately, her mother isn't around to teach Vasya the ways of her ancestors. So, Vasya through her younger years and as she becomes older has to rely on herself.  Obviously because of this factor she has limited understanding and doesn't understand her place in the current struggle between the old ways and the church. It doesn't help that her step-mother has forbidden practicing the old ways which honored the spirits and protected the village.

Vasya needs to learn to trust herself and her instincts very early. She needs to learn that she is different and that she needs to be the one to protect her family. She will need to rebel against her father, step-father and the local priest. Vasya is a strong, independent heroine that will need to learn how to harness her powers because not everyone will understand.

Ms. Arden has done a fantastic job of creating a unique world that enraptures you from the very beginning. It is one that gets your imagination going and you can vividly see the forest that they live in.

While I did feel that some of the middle of the novel could have been edited down, I loved the climax and very much look forward to the next book, The Girl in the Tower, which is released in December.
If you are a fan of Harry Potter and/or The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you will want to check out this series.

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Julie's Review: Bitter Greens

Author: Kate Forsyth
Series: None
Publication Date: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press
Pages: 496
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  historical fiction, fairy tale
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: A wonderful historical fiction novel interwoven with the orgins of a classic fairy tale
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love. French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens. After Margheritas father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition. Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does. Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman. ~powells.com

Review: I love dual point of view novels but this one takes it another step and adds one more point of view. I loved all three views in Bitter Greens but I think I found Charlotte-Rose the most fascinating. She was a strong-willed woman who would not let the constraints of society hold her back. Unfortunately, in the court of Louis XIV, unless he was the one in scandal it was forbidden. Charlotte-Rose was also a gifted storyteller. She could weave a tale for the court that would delight. It is this talent that gave the world Rapunzel as we know it.

Charlotte-Rose's life was one of love, adventure, stories and indulgence. Being on the court of the Sun King was interesting. You were either in favor or out of favor. For someone like Charlotte-Rose who needed her income from being on court, it was important to stay in favor. It's also hard for someone like Charlotte-Rose to be demure when she wants to seize life. Oh and boy did she ever. She led quite the scandalous life.

It is these scandals that cause her to be banished from court and sent by Louis XIV to a convent. Can you imagine being sent to a convent and it's not your choice? How hard would that be to adapt to a life of piousness when you were used to a life of extravagance?  Lucky for her she meets a nun who opens up her creative juices.

The other two stories of Selena and Margherita are intertwined. It is these stories where we get into the darkness of the tale. Fairy Tales didn't originate as happy/cheery stories but rather they were dark. They often detailed the macabre and dark magic. I loved this aspect of the story. I loved that Ms. Forsyth gave the evil witch her own story, it added depth to the story. It was her story, after Charlotte-Rose's, that I found intriguing. Her life wasn't easy but it also didn't excuse her treatment of Margherita.

Ms. Forsyth takes historical fiction to a new level here. This isn't a fairytale retelling, it is the history of the tale and the story of the woman who wrote the story. The details of the time period are phenomenal and it's evident that she did her research.

Each character had their own voice and each was distinctive which was key in moving from chapter to chapter. I enjoyed the time that I spent with each of these women. Each was fascinating and strong in their own way. Each of them overcame and persevered in their life.



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Julie's Review: Boy, Snow, Bird

Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Series: None
Publication Date: March 6, 2014
Publisher:Riverhead
Pages: 320
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Fairy Tale
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: 
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty — the opposite of the life she's left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she'd become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy's daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitman's as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time. ~powells.com

Review: Boy, Snow, Bird is an expertly written novel that takes the fairy tale of Snow White and spins it 180 degrees. What if Snow wasn't as pure as the driven snow? What if the step-mother wasn't really evil? What if the truth is somewhere in between? Ms. Oyeyemi explores this and how a family deals with the issue of race within society and themselves.

This story belongs to both Boy and Bird, with Snow being both a catalyst and a symbol. Boy is somewhat of an enigma throughout the whole book and even at the end. She's aloof, cool and bit frigid.  That doesn't mean I didn't like her because I did. I felt that when the story was told through her she was honest. Honesty doesn't always make you the most well liked person. You never really know what Boy's intentions are with Arturo. Does she truly love him? Does she know how to love? I never really figured it out.

Bird is a wonderful character. She's full of life and love and curiousity that will serve her well in life. She aspires to be a investigative reporter. What I find interesting is that in someways she is shunned by her own family but is embraced by the community. She is cautious to get to know her sister, Snow. Why was she sent away? What is it about Snow that people seem to revere here? Why is she treated like an artifact in a museum?

Snow remains an enigma for the whole novel. Is that the purpose? Yes. It makes us question if someone can be pure good or have they been put on a pedestal to suit the needs of the family? Is Snow adored because she doesn't show the family's true race? Are they proud to call her their own because she's so white? Is she symbolic of the pressure we put on black people to be more white? Maybe it doesn't speak to now but it certainly was true back in the 50s and 60s.

There are some loose ends that were never tied up or never fully came to fruition. What was the deal with the mirrors? Why drop the bombshell and not really do anything with it? Was the point to help us understand Boy and her upbringing? While I enjoyed the dropped bomb, I'm not sure if it helped me understand at all.

Ms. Oyeyemi writes a truly beautiful and lyrical novel. She weaves a story and pulls you into her spell and doesn't release you until the final word. I look forward

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Alice's Review: Snow White & Rose Red: The Curse of the Huntsman

Summary:  Welcome to the Festival of Roses, a world full of magic and romance. Every year during the festival each boy leaves a flower at the door of the girl he believes is the "fairest of them all." Naturally, Snow White gets dozens of flowers, while her younger sister Rose Red is ignored. This year, though, things are different. For the first time, Rose Red has a mysterious admirer, and this year she isn't the only one jealous of her sister's beauty. But even though it’s a time of celebration, when girls begin disappearing, the festival turns deadly. With mysterious strangers arriving every day, an ominous marriage proposal, and magic and danger everywhere, Snow White and Rose Red will need to work together to survive the festival and solve the mystery.

In this fun and whimsical re-imagining of Snow White and her often-forgotten sister Rose Red, Lilly Fang creates a never-before-seen story of magic, mystery, and the bond between two sisters. A must-read! ~amazon.com

Review:  I have never read a fairy tale. That’s not true. A couple years ago, I downloaded Beauty and the Beast. I loved it. That was the only one. I don’t remember reading them growing up. My knowledge of fairy tales comes strictly from Disney movies. I think it’s one of the reasons I am in love with the ABC show Once Upon a Time. It’s awesome to see my beloved Disney characters come to life. Now, you may wonder why I would choose to read Snow White and Rose Red: The Curse of the Huntsman by Lilly Fang. Well, because I was curious about written fairy tales and well, this ebook was free on Amazon.

Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by this short novel. It was different and interesting. It was also unlike anything I have read before. I loved that Snow White has a sister, Rose Red. I love that both sisters live with their mother. I love that she is teaching her daughters to be strong, self-reliant women.

I loved all the characters involved especially Rose Red and the Huntsman. Rose was a strong willed, adventurous girl whose middle name should have been Moxie, not Red. Always in her sister’s shadow, she was a bit disheartened but did not fault Snow. She loved her sister. The Huntsman was everything a dark romantic hero should be. Mysterious, callous, courageous, caring, protective. There were a few twists in this story, all unexpected by me. My favorite (of course) dealing with matters of the heart. What I really enjoyed the most in this fairy tale was how the sisters helped each other. They relied and supported each other.

I know I will search out other retold fairy tales in the future. Especially if they are as well thought-out and written as Snow White and Rose Red: The Curse of the Huntsman . I really enjoyed it.

Final Take: 4/5