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Book Review : The Girl In The Tower

BOOK DETAILS:
Book Title : The Girl In The Tower
Author : Katherine Arden
ISBN : 9781785031069
Publisher : Del Rey (Penguin)
Genre : Fantasy / Russian Fairytale Retelling
Publication : 2017
Pages : 363
Format : Hardback 

BOOK BLURB:
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.

RATING: 4 ☆'s

REVIEW:
Second book from the #WinterNightTrilogy - and I was excited as hell to get to know more about Vasya - our fiery protagonist from the series and of course Morozko - he sure knows how to win hearts for he definitely has mine, how does it matter if he is the frost demon.
Now that you know where my heart lies with respect to the book, shall we move on to the review (don't blame me if it's a little biased, blame it on Morozko for stealing my heart)...

WHAT I LOVED:
  1. Vasya and Morozko --- I love how Vasya has grown as a character in second book, I mean I loved her free spirit in first book and I didn't think it possible for her to grow into something more, but Katherine has done an incredible job at developing and growing Vasya as she did. And Morozko, oh Morozko, the mystery about him is tantalising - it draws you in and makes you want to love him and it makes you want more of him and his story and that is what a good author and a good book should be.
  2. Breaking Stereotypes --- I simply loved how our dear Vasya breaks one stereotype after another and lives true to the punch line - why should boys have all the fun.
  3. The Perfect Balance --- Katherine has managed to brew a perfect blend of Magical surrealism through fantasy and Russian culture and their day to day living from the era gone by. The balance is so perfect that it takes you right back into that era and makes you believe that everything is possible and is happening for real.
  4. Pace of the Book --- unlike the first book in the series, this one started off with a bang and had you hooked from the first few pages itself. The struggle came much later but even then it was fast paced and didn't drag on.
WHAT I DISLIKED:
  1. Shrunken Romanticism --- what I had loved in the first book was the Russian Folklore on which the series was based but this book concentrated more on political unrest in Moscow and it was more action packed than sticking to the romanticism of the Russian Fairytales - it was more action packed than folklore packed (for lack of better word) in the middle which made me lose interest in the book and made it difficult to continue reading - it was my love for Vasya and Morozko that I didn't give up on the book.
THE VERDICT:
Usually, a second book in a trilogy is a let down - it's just a book that links first and last book with not much happening in it - at least that has been my experience -  but this one is not that. It surely ties some loose ends and creates some more mysteries as a second book should but the book does that with a power packed story and this is what makes this book worth reading.
If you loved the first book, you will love this one too - that's a given.

READ, IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR:
  • A Feminist Book with strong Female Protagonist
  • Russian Folklore, Magic and Fantasy woven together
  • A Fast Paced Book 


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Location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

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