Overall rating: 3/5
Setting and world building: 4/5
Characters and plot: 2/5
NON SPOILERY SECTION
I’m really struggling to give a synopsis for this story, I think the best way I’ve heard this book described is a love letter to Russian folklore. This book is set in medieval Russia during the time where Orthodox Christianity is attempting to eradicate traditional beliefs. We follow the main character Vasya, someone who can see magical creatures from folklore as she struggles to deal with her step mother who has essentially forbidden Vasya from honouring the household spirits and following her faith.
I had to reflect on my thoughts for quite a bit of time before I decided how I really felt about this book. I initially gave this a 3.75 but I am bumping it down to 3. This is because on the one hand, I loved the writing style. It was pretty without falling into the trap of being too flowery and using metaphors that just straight up made no sense. I also love the world within this story, it’s so well realised and there’s so much lore, which is something I always love and appreciate. The way Katherine describes her worlds and settings, you feel the sharp, icy atmosphere as you’re reading it. The experience of snuggling up in bed with a cup of tea whilst writing this book was really just incredible. So for atmosphere, writing style and world building I would have to give it a 4/5.
That being said, this book greatly lacked everywhere else. The characters were honestly weak and difficult to tell apart as their personalities were not distinctive enough from each other. There was nothing special about each character, and because of that I didn’t fall in love with the characters like I wanted to. I also couldn’t tell who the main character was for the first 100 or so pages of the book because of how unremarkable they were. Along with this, this book is just straight up lacking in plot. There wasn’t a cohesive, overarching narrative. I genuinely couldn’t tell you what is tying these characters together (obviously other than them being related). I enjoy a well realised world but it is not the most important part to me. For characterisation and plot I would give it a 2/5.
Overall, I still enjoyed the reading experience just because I loved the writing style and the atmosphere of the book THAT much, but everything else was just so lacking and confusing that I couldn’t give it higher. Apparently this is fixed in the rest of the books and there is a proper plot that runs throughout the rest of the story and because of how cool the world seems, I wouldn’t be opposed to finishing the trilogy. I would pick up this book if you like YA or if you like atmospheric stories like The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern or Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.
SPOILERY SECTION
I feel like this is going to be overwhelmingly negative despite the decent rating I gave this book. I already went into detail about a lot of the positives as it’s not really a spoiler meaning all of the positives are already above. But I don’t want it to come across like I hate the book, I don’t. It was just frustrating to read because it was so lacking in terms of plot and characterisation.
It felt like there were a million little subplots that were barely connected and didn’t flow into one another. It felt like a bunch of individual events happened with no cohesive overarching plot. In itself, this isn’t a bad thing if this is what the book is meant to be, for example in the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss we basically follow Kvothe in different stages of his life but it feels smooth and intentional, with ties between each story to keep the reader intrigued. This book wasn’t so successful with this, it was really difficult writing a summary because it just felt so disjointed and clunky. This really wasn’t officially the plot but it kind of felt like the entire book was them trying to figure out what to do with Vasya; first they try to marry her off but once that fails they threaten to send her to a convent. And that’s only half the book.
I’m also not the biggest fan of Vasya. I find her a little bit irritating and bland. She’s kind of the typical non conformist girl who doesn’t fit in with society. I’m a little bit tired of seeing protagonists like this with nothing new added to them. I’m just thankful Vasya didn’t fully fall into the ‘not like other girls’ trope, so for now I’m just neutral about her.
Despite all this negativity, I am still excited to see where this trilogy goes because I feel like it has potential and Katherine has the prettiest writing style that I just eat up.
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