Book Review: The Girl in the Tower, a Magnificent Must-read Sequel
If The Horse and His Boy was your favorite Chronicles of Narnia book growing up, you will love this book. As you know from my review of book one of The Winternight Trilogy, I wasn’t convinced this series was for me at first. It was so slow moving, but that wasn’t the case with book two, The Girl in the Tower. Chapter one was a little slow, and I had a split second thought of, oh no, not again. But the action started pretty immediately and didn’t let up. This is the rare sequel that doesn’t suffer from second book syndrome, and Arden paints such an incredibly atmospheric setting. Did I immediately start book three this week? Yes.
Things to Know:
Russian Folklore retelling
Nods to the Firebird + Koshei folktales
Book two of a completed trilogy
Character driven
Talking animals is a ‘trope’ I’m pretty obsessed with, so it should come as no surprise that I LOVE Solovey, Vasya’s magical stallion. The relationship she has with him, and how fierce of a protector he is, made me stressing at every sign of danger–of which there was plenty.
I loved seeing Vasya reunite with her brother Sasha, and her sister, but of course, under the circumstances, it complicated things. It was also quite fun to see Moscow painted as a medieval city and how it may have looked. Arden once again does a fantastic job of immersing you into this old world. From the forests, to stables, and buildings, and ‘palaces’. I love her descriptions.
“She was not supposed to enchant you.”
I feel so bad for Morozko, and I just want them to be together. Is that so hard? Apparently it is. I was a bit disappointed with some of Vasya’s decisions in this book. She’s young and impulsive and a lot of her decisions come off as a little petulant child. I get it, she wants to be free and see the world. But she seems to not care who she puts at risk because of those decisions (at first).
I was still frustrated and at times enraged by how women are treated in this story. The scene with Vasya and Koshei in front of the people was tough to read. I really would not have done well in Medieval Russia.
“You cannot love and be immortal.”
Konstantin is still around making all kinds of trouble. And I didn’t know we were going to get Koshei in this book! Oh, how I LOATHE him. What an evil, evil man. And we got a glimpse of the Firebird! I’m curious how that’s going to play out in book three.
Once again, this is not a happy fairytale. It’s dark, and paints a bleak picture of Vasya’s life, and the lives of women—even privileged women. I’m itching to find out how it will end, and I am really hoping for a HEA, but not sure I’m going to get that. But at least stay for the beautiful writing, and a headstrong girl with her magnificent horse. 4.5 stars.
“Truths are like flowers better plucked at the right moment.”
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