Book Review: The Winter of the Witch, *Spoilers*
I have so many feelings after finishing this third installment in The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden. The Winter of the Witch book picks up directly where book two ended, and it’s not a happy beginning. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Not only are women continually treated horrifically, but some pretty shocking events take place almost immediately. This book is part real-life war, and part magical world and I have to say Arden does such a beautiful job straddling them both.
Things to Know:
Russian Folklore retelling
Nods to the Firebird + Baba Yaga folktales
Book three of a completed trilogy
Character driven
As you know from my review of book two, I’m a huge sucker for any sort of animal friendship in books. So I was horrified when we lost Solovey in such a monstrous way at the VERY BEGINNING of this book. I was in shock. Then it made me angry. I was so mad, in fact, that I wanted to stop reading. I absolutely cannot abide animal cruelty, and I hate animal deaths in books. So we’ll just say, this book didn’t start off on very good footing with me.
And how was Konstantin not arrested for kidnapping Vasya’s niece?! I feel like I spent most of this book enraged at everything that was happening. It was one bad thing after another. But I have to hand it to Arden, I still loved the gritty atmosphere she expertly creates. You do feel as if you’re in medieval Russia. However, “swollen with pleasure like a tick” is not a phrase I ever want to read again.
“Magic is forgetting the world was ever other than you willed it.”
I’ve spent three books waiting for a happily ever after and I’m still not sure I completely got one. But with dark folktales, you rarely do. I’m pretty heartbroken at some of the characters we had to say goodbye to, but I suppose I was left satisfied with this ending. And some characters even got a sliver of redemption, for which, I’m grateful. Four stars.
“How could there be dawn in a country made of midnights?”
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