The Girl in the Tower

The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden, 362 pages

Vasya has left her family home and set off into the wider world, with only her horse Solovey and some gifts from Morozko, the frost-demon. But there is danger stirring. Bandits are ravaging the eastern districts, appearing and disappearing without a trace. The Golden Horde, long thought powerless, has sent another emissary to Moscow to claim the tribute the Grand Prince has withheld. A ghost is walking in the kremlin of Moscow – or is it merely a child’s uneasy dreams? Vasya’s beloved sister and brother are now players on the political stage, and they must work with her to solve the riddles, as a sinister power begins to take shape.

The Girl in the Tower addresses all my issues with The Bear and the Nightingale. The political unrest hinted at but given short shrift comes to the forefront here. The family members introduced then quickly written off take center stage. The prophecy unfulfilled, it becomes clear, did not refer solely to the events of the first book but will cover the whole trilogy. I liked this book a lot more than The Bear and the Nightingale as a result. I kept thinking, “Oh, so that’s why Arden included that in the first book.” As previously, Arden draws a new plot around ancient folklore (my favorite kind of fantasy book). It’s certainly worth dealing with the slight confusion of The Bear and the Nightingale (itself already a good book, don’t get me wrong) to get to this well-crafted tale of intrigue and the supernatural. Content warning for implications of sexual assault.