
The Girl in the Tower
Winternight, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Kathleen Gati
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By:
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Katherine Arden
About this listen
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, read by Kathleen Gati.
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....
©2018 Katherine Arden (P)2018 Random House AudiobooksThe story continues immediately after the first book. Or rather, it starts somewhere around the last third or quarter of the first book, but in Moscow, following Vasya's two older siblings, Olga and Sasha. We get a few more different perspectives in this book compared to the first, and Katherine Arden's medieval Russia became grander, bloodier, and slightly more cruel.
Vasya's stubborn challenge on medieval gender roles features prominently in this book. Understandable as Vasya is now sixteen but still wild and headstrong, refusing to live her life walled in either by marriage or the convent. Also more prominent in this book is romance, or rather strong hints of it. I didn't mind either, but the one thing that I missed more of was the old spirits. There are a couple of domovois and banniks, and even a new dvorovoi, but these encounters are few and far between. They are fading in Moscow, but not gone. The struggle between old golds and new carries on.
Yes, this book is a continuation of the first, and is a foreshadowing of the next. But it is also a book in itself. There is another story in this story about fairy tales; and that one (arguably) began and ended in this book. And that is why The Girl in the Tower, despite being in the middle of a trilogy, can stand on its own.
Kathleen Gati's voice remains soft and dreamy. I realise now that the prose itself is lyrical, and perhaps the narrator is building from that. But now she also had hard edges and shrill panic and breathless excitement. Much improved.
Although I love the first book more (largely because I love the girl Vasya more than the teen one), I don't think I loved a middle book as much as I loved this one. If you've read The Bear and the Nightingale, you know you need to read The Girl in the Tower. Get this. Now.
Fairy tales within a fairy tale
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I wished it would never end
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waited a whole year for it..I was not disappointed
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My goodness though, this second one. I am eager to start on the next/last book. But I shall be so sorry to finish this trilogy.
It just sucks you in.
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