The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilo ...

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden book review

Jul 04, 2020

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.


The Girl in the Tower picks up right where The Bear and the Nightingale left off. Vasya is leaving the only home she has ever known, and has chosen to see the world that is beyond the forest that surrounds her family’s home.

And since it is absolutely unheard of for a girl to go exploring the world on her own, and since the ways of men can be cruel to a girl traveling alone, Vasya disguises herself as a boy and ventures out to see what the world has to offer. Well, unfortunately, Vasya soon finds that the world has to offer many cruelties, and some of the surrounding forest towns have been burned down and had their young daughters stolen away.

Vasya can’t help but want to save these people that remind her so much of her own village back home. And soon her path crosses with her older brother, Sasha, who has devoted his life to God, and her older sister Olga, who has devoted her life to motherhood after wedding a prince. Vasya hasn’t seen either of these siblings for ten years, so it’s quite a reunion to say the least. And Vasya soon finds out that her niece is much more like her than the world would want.

Once again, we enter a wondrous world of magical creatures, good or mischievous protector spirits, ghosts and horses that are actually birds.

Arden creates such a glorious and wonderful world that I was actually disappointed to see this book end. All of the little creatures she includes in her book - from the bathhouse spirit to the stable spirit - really transform this book into a classic.

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