Review: The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Ebury Publishing via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

Published: 25th January 2018 | Publisher: Ebury Publishing | Cover Design: Head Design | Cover Illustrations: Aitch | Source: NetGalley
Katherine Arden's Website

For a young woman in medieval Russia, the choices are stark: marriage or a life in a convent. Vasya will choose a third way: magic...

The court of the Grand Prince of Moscow is plagued by power struggles and rumours of unrest. Meanwhile bandits roam the countryside, burning the villages and kidnapping its daughters. Setting out to defeat the raiders, the Prince and his trusted companion come across a young man riding a magnificent horse.

Only Sasha, a priest with a warrior's training, recognises this 'boy' as his younger sister, thought to be dead or a witch by her village. But when Vasya proves herself in battle, riding with remarkable skill and inexplicable power, Sasha realises he must keep her secret as she may be the only way to save the city from threats both human and fantastical... From Goodreads

My other reviews of the Winternight Trilogy:
The Bear and the Nightingale (#Ad)

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features fire and arson, crossdressing/woman pretending to be a boy, transphobic undercurrents, slavery, burned bodies, abduction, threat of rape, forcibly removing a woman's clothing in public, sexual assault, stillbirth, and violence against women.

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Review: The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

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The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

Published: 6th March 2018 | Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing | Source: Present
Amanda Lovelace's Website

The witch: supernaturally powerful, inscrutably independent, and now—indestructible. These moving, relatable poems encourage resilience and embolden women to take control of their own stories. Enemies try to judge, oppress, and marginalize her, but the witch doesn’t burn in this one. From Goodreads.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features child abuse, intimate partner abuse, sexual assault, eating disorders, trauma, death, murder, violence, fire, menstruation, and transphobia.

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Review: Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

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Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

Published: Trapeze | Publisher: 11th September 2018 | Cover Designer: TomásAlmeifa | Source: Bought
Nikita Gill on Twitter and Instagram

Poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of fairytales poetically retold for a new generation of women.

Traditional fairytales are rife with cliches and gender stereotypes: beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory.

But in this rousing new prose and poetry collection, Nikita Gill gives Once Upon a Time a much-needed modern makeover. Through her gorgeous reimagining of fairytale classics and spellbinding original tales, she dismantles the old-fashioned tropes that have been ingrained in our minds. In this book, gone are the docile women and male saviors. Instead, lines blur between heroes and villains. You will meet fearless princesses, a new kind of wolf lurking in the concrete jungle, and an independent Gretel who can bring down monsters on her own.

Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation. From Goodreads.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features discussion of racism, abuse, alcoholism, sexism, trolling, eating disorders, trauma, rape culture.

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Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Del Rey via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Published: 5th October 2017 | Publisher: Del Rey | Cover Design: Head Design | Cover Illustrations: Aitch | Source: NetGalley
Katherine Arden's Website

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales. From Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features discussion of abortion, death in childbirth, people freezing to death, the dead crawling out of their graves, death by vampire, and sexual assault.

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