This was the perfect story for the season as we approach midwinter: even the beautiful cover and title of this book promise an enchanting tale, full of magic and infused with Slavic folklore. The story of a country lord, Pyotr Vladimirovich and his family, starts out with a recounting of the legend of the Frost King, told around the hearth by the wizened old nanny, Dunya. However, after that fairytale beginning, the story quickly pivots to a more grounded, historically-flavoured account of harsh winters and the harsh life of this family as births and deaths bring them struggles and determine their fates. Nevertheless, there are still magical elements interwoven, primarily featuring the youngest daughter of the clan, Vasya, who was born with a wild streak and with the ability to see and communicate with the spirits and demons of the natural world around her. Through Vasya, we meet these creatures straight out of Russian tradition and folklore, who live in the forests, lakes, even in homes, everywhere around the people who don’t see them but often fear them. I have always been intrigued by this kind of Slavic mythology (I’ve seen a lot of it in the pages of the Hellboy graphic novel — which is not as goofy as its name sounds, I promise) and was eager to read more of it in this story. To Katherine Arden’s credit, she seemed to be invested in telling this kind of story in a way that was as true to the Russian cultural and historical context as she could manage. I can’t fault her for that, but unfortunately as someone with very little familiarity with the culture, the authenticity she may have achieved was lost on me, and instead I became somewhat put off by my difficulty in engaging with the story.

Many characters were introduced early on (since we were reading a lot about the family seeking their fortunes at the court in Moscow) and many names were thrown at us with very little means of distinguishing them. Additionally, often the characters would switch between formal forms of names and the familiar forms used by family (for example, Vasya is actually the familiar form for Vasilisa), which added another set of variant names. Characters also had names for their horses and dogs, that were like family members as well. In the end, it’s hard to fault Arden for using so many names, but they led to a lot of confusion, and I found it very difficult to track the plot threads and stakes for each of the many characters when I could not distinguish them or follow what was happening to them. To be fair, it’s partly my fault for lacking familiarity with the culture (as many Russian words were also thrown into the dialogue, adding more cultural texture, but also further distancing us who are unfamiliar). The names are probably incredibly distinct to someone with a trained ear (just as how Chang, Chung, Cheng, Chong, and Ching are names that are relatively distinct to me given my Chinese background). By the midpoint I was looking forward to getting more of the fantastical aspects of the story brought out into the foreground.

Additionally, there were other difficulties that I had with this book. While it made sense, given the way this story seems to be a new story told in an old fashion, the characters’ dialogue felt curt and choppy, lacking the natural flow of conversation. It made characters feel kind of iconic, and it may have fit with how characters speak in folktales, but it also kept them somewhat two-dimensional to me and didn’t help me understand their motivations. Similarly many of the scenes were written in a way that is full of quick action and dialogue, but lacking in a sense of positioning and location. Like watching a stage play without backdrops, it was hard to know what’s around the characters and where they are when they say or do certain things. Often I would suddenly read that a character has said something or done something, and I had not even realized they were there as part of the scene. Lastly, the audiobook narration added its own issues for me. Perhaps also in an attempt to achieve authenticity, the narrator would speak the narrative lines with a normal American accent, but for dialogue she affected a Slavic/Russian accent. So it was jarring to hear “winter” in the narration, then “weentur” from a character.

After Pyotr lost his first wife, he remarried and his young, strictly orthodox Christian wife’s arrival set up the classic conflict between step-mother and step-daughter with Vasya, along with a Christian vs pagan conflict. Much of the story focused on the relationships within this family clan and especially on Vasya and keeping her in line, but through the cold winter many started to look to the spirits and demons as the cause of misfortune and death, Vasya as witch and connection to those demons, and the conflict between the two worlds continued to escalate. The last third of the book had a very different feel than what came before. It was almost entirely set in a world (the same world, but feeling different) full of magical beings, even introducing a few new ones. In many ways, this was the story that I had been expecting and waiting through the rest of the book to read. Unfortunately, by the time I got there I had lost a lot of my excitement and enthusiasm. Maybe if Arden had arrived at this part sooner, this overall story would have been more enjoyable to me. 

Nevertheless, if you are able to extract from this story the rich cultural flavours and moody atmospheric vibes of a chilly Russian winter, this could be a rewarding reading experience for you. Arden has clearly woven a lot of those threads together into a textured and detailed tapestry. Now that a lot of the magical, mythical aspects of the story have been introduced, part of me is tempted to pick up the other books of this Winternight Trilogy to find out what happens to Vasya and the Frost King. Perhaps we’ll see how I enjoy the rest of the seasons in the coming new year before I decide to return to chilly Russia and its winter.

2.5 stars

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