Wait wait wait. Winternight as in the series that starts with The Bear and the Nightingale? Because if so I need to move that WAY up on my reading list.
THAT’S THE ONE!!!!
Honestly you should absolutely bump the series up your list, I devoured them in four days over the course of a (somewhat nervewracking) trip to one of my partners’ parents’ house and they were just absolutely enthralling. The main character, Vasya, reminds me a lot of Jame from the Kencyrath in all the best ways–she’s fierce and wild and loyal and determined, and so, so weird, I love how authentically odd she is from start to finish. The definitional line from her is absolutely “I will be free, and I will not count the cost,” and I just…that’s my shit. Morozko is beautifully inhuman and you know how much I’m a sucker for the trope of “all powerful arrogant figure of fable falls hopelessly for the first steel-spined human to call them a weak bitch,” and listen. Listen. Vasya/Morozko is WAY the hell up there in that category.
Also, a sort of…freeform associative list of other things that I enjoyed about these books!
Vasya’s family is so compelling, I love how complicated they are and how complicated their love for Vasya is.
The prose is just…*chef kiss* absolutely enchanting. It’s so beautiful, it’s in perfect harmony with the fairy tale elements and the magic that grows through the story.
HORSES, hey, y’all, if you ever had a horse kid phase PLEASE read these books (re: book 3, just trust me okay it’s going to be okay when have I ever let you down, remember that I said it was going to be okay)
I’ve talked in the past about how, much as I love Celtic legends and folklore, I really love getting the hell out of like…northwestern Europe in fantasy novels. The Russian folklore angle of this is just absolutely delightful.
MOROZKOOOOOOO, I just absolutely love Morozko, he’s so compelling as a person who is also a literal force of nature who is just mortally offended by having grown feelings. DEATH! GOD! IN! LOVE!
Vasya’s vicious determination to take the third option–always, forever, no matter what–is my favorite thing about her.
This book has beyond a shadow of a doubt my FAVORITE take on “folklore meets the forward push of Christianity” I’ve seen. Most historical fantasy takes the stance of “organized religion and faeries/spirits/local legends/whatever are intrinsically incompatible” and I’m not going to tell you what happens with this, but IT AIN’T THAT.
The above being said, Father Konstantin is just…mm. Yes. A fascinating monster, playing the pawn of a greater and more fascinating monster. I’m absolutely riveted.
Anyway, TL;DR, they’re great and you should ABSOLUTELY read them. I would say that if you enjoy Labyrinth, the Kencyrath, Robin McKinley, or, apparently, Spinning Silver, you would LOVE these books. (Conversely, if you enjoyed these books, you would enjoy any of those.)
