Review: The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2)

4 stars. Love this whole vibe. Katherine Arden manages to pair cozy fairy tale flavors with intense action and chaos for the characters we know and love at this point. It definitely suffers a bit from second book syndrome, and it took me a longggg time to get through, but The Girl in the Tower really just works. Jumping in immediately after the end of the first book, it follows Vasya as she travels, reunites with her siblings, and finds a lot of trouble along the way. 

I would've wished for a bit more of the creepy spooky bits I loved in The Bear and the Nightingale, and a bit less of the politics, but I get what's going on here. I don't mind a reasonable, deliberate expansion to further along her arc. The way Arden incorporates folklore and legends is really beautiful and interesting. She excels especially at villains - almost more so than heroes. The bad characters in these books are really nasty.

Vasya is a wonderful and flawed heroine. She's brave, smart, determined, stubborn and incredibly selfish. She also demonstrates growth and wisdom and a fierce protection of self despite the constraints of the time. There are hints of what's to come in the finale, and I have a feeling that Arden is going to collectively drag us all across the coals in a very well-written way... can't wait.

The Girl in the Tower on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads