4.5 Stars
“Come in, Vasya,” the man said. “It is cold.”
The perfect book for winter reading, The Girl in the Tower, much like The Bear and the Nightingale is set during the depths of winter and you can feel the cold winds blowing over you as you read.
The Girl in the Tower picks up right where The Bear and the Nightingale left off, and continues the adventures of firey Vasilia. Vasya is a charming heroine, ironically full of fire for a book about the cold and winter.
Katherine Arden debuted admirably with The Bear and the Nightingale and her second novel, The Girl in the Tower is only stronger. Unlike The Bear and the Nightingale, I had no problem jumping right into The Girl in the Tower. I had a hard time with Bear’s slow start and felt that the pacing lagged. Arden clearly learned as she went along and Girl is tightly paced. I was turning pages as quickly as I could, but didn’t find myself so beset with suspense that I needed to skim pages just to find out what happened.
In The Bear and the Nightingale Arden explores the strict gender roles in medieval Russia, and those roles – the literal confinement of women – is even more starkly on display in The Girl in the Tower.
The Girl in the Tower is a fantastic read for any lover of fairy tales. Grab a hot drink, put on some thick socks and settle in against the cold – you won’t want to put The Girl in the Tower down.
The second in the Winternight Trilogy, The Girl in the Tower hit shelves December 5, 2017. I’m already dying for the third, and can’t wait to see what Vasya will get up to next.
I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Alex Can Read 
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