The Bear and the Nightingale is a fun ride that gives you a bit of everything: a lovable female lead, a fairy tale, relationships, cosy, terrifying, good and evil and things in between. And most important is its unexpected sense of humor.

Here is my recap of this book.

PART 1

It’s a cold night. Actually, most nights are cold in this book, and the writing certainly makes sure you feel that icy Russia. Four children huddle next to an oven as their nursemaid tells a story. Olga, Alyosha, Alexandr, and Nikolai. Good luck remember these names and their variations.

It’s a story about the frost demon who rewards a gentle maiden with a great dowry and punishes her disobedient stepsister with death.

Marina, the mother of the four children, tells her husband Pyotr that night that they’re expecting another child. And she has a feeling that this one will be special, just like her mother was.

Dunya, the bada** nursemaid, tells Maria flat-out to get rid of the child because having her may cost Maria her life. But Marina insists again that she wants a daughter who can do what her mother could. And Dunya is like, you know you have four other kids, right? What are they gonna do if you die? Good point. Even Pyotr is like, yeahhh… I love kids, but are you sure you wanna do this?

But Marina has the child anyway. A girl named Vasya. As Dunya predicted, Maria dies after giving birth.

Baby Vasya grows up pretty lawless. In an adorable way, though. She loves to steal cakes and runs into the forest in winter. She knows the forest so well that it’s like her home. Her brothers and sister all love her.

One day, Vasya wanders too deep into the forest and gets lost. Here she has an encounters with an old man dressed with only one good eye and a strange man on a stallion. They both look like they want to kidnap her so Vasya bolted. Very good and quick girl.

After the incident, Vasya’s favorite brother Sasha suggests to their father that maybe baby Vasya needs a mother, a woman to manage her. Dunya is too old and can’t run around playing hide-and-seek with Vasya all the time.

Poyotr mulls on this. A while later, he decides to take his two oldest sons – Sasha (Alexandr) and Kolya (Nikolai) to Moscow.

Their arrival at the palace is quite opportune because the Grand Prince has all the answers to their problems. Or we should say that Pyotr’s family is the answer to the Grand Prince’s problems.

The Grand Prince’s son has a nephew who might be a threat to his own son’s ascension to the throne. The Grand Prince also has a daughter named Anna — a little mad, scared of everything, talks to herself a lot, and refuses to take baths.

So, the Grand Prince’s solution: give his mad daughter to Pyotr as wife, and give his nephew to Olga as husband. Not only this, he proposes the idea in a way that makes it sound like HE is doing Pyotr a favor. And Pyotr is like, I’m pretty sure something is wrong with this guy’s daughter but asking would be rude so whatever.

And it’s settled just like that.

During this trip, Sasha also gets to fulfil his wish of meeting a famous priest. Sasha has always wanted to become a priest himself and this meeting just seals the deal for him.

Pyotr isn’t happy about this. Sasha is his most capable son; horseback riding, archery, combat – Sasha can do it all. So Pyotr was kind of hoping Sasha would take over the family’s business. All that talents and Sasha is going to spend his life growing carrots and dusting books? It’s incomprehensible to Pyotr.

But Sasha is too passionate about this whole priest thing to yield, Pyotr gives him the choices: You choose that life, you get no money from me. Grow your own potatoes and raise your own chickens.

Sasha: Sure. Boy is pretty devoted.

Finally, Pyotr lets Sasha go under one more condition that Sasha will take one year to think about it clearly.

On the day father and sons get ready to head home, a strange man appears, cast magic to make time freeze, threatens Kolya and demands a conversation with Pyotr.

He gives Pyotr a jewel and makes him promise to let his second daughter wear it. To which Pyotr agrees, mostly to save Kolya’s life.

They get home, Anna gets introduced, and it becomes clearer why she’s a bit mad. Anna is one of those who can see… stuff. Little creatures in nooks corners, things that no one can see. It drives her crazy.

We know that Vasya also has this ability, but she rather appreciates it. She even approaches the creatures to learn more about them. What Anna calls “devil” are actually cute, squishy little pets to Vasya.

The villagers believe in the creatures too. They leave offerings around for them despite how they can’t be seen except by the gifted.

One day, Anna hears Vasya talk to a domovoi – a kitchen spirit, she freaks out and hits Vasya. And that’s where the stepmother-stepdaughter relationship stands.

A year later, Sasha leaves for Moscow, Olga gets married, and baby Vasya is lonelier than ever.

PART 2

In Moscow, there is a priest named Konstantin. Blonde, good looking, a great painter, and charismatic. Too charismatic and that people flock to him with passion. This worries Alexei, the Grand Prince’s advisor priest, and what does he do? Send Konstantin to Lesnaya Zemlya, Pyotr’s village.

These people kind of treats Pyotr’s village like a dumpster, don’t they. A madwoman? Give her to Pyotr. A threat to the throne? Let Pyotr’s daughter take him. An arrogant priest? Let him preach to Pyotr’s people.

So, Konstantin packs up and goes to this village. He sees this trip as a humiliation and would rather make use of his great hair in Moscow.

On the day he arrives, a water-spirit tells Vasya she might eat him if he ever shows his face too close. But Vasya warns her to leave him alone since he hasn’t done anything bad yet. Give him some time, Vasya. I think you’ll regret your decision soon enough.

Konstantin is introduced to Pyotr’s household. He looks at Vasya once and goes: she is ugly. I knew it, bad boy from day one. And he says so himself — he isn’t supposed to notice a woman’s outlook.

One day, Anna is comforted by Konstantin in the church and kind of forms a crush on him. Don’t, Anna. This man’s demons might be worse than anything you see in your bedroom corner.

The next day, Vasya takes Konstantin into the forest to collect pigments to make paint. They have a little private talk.

KONS: I am here on God’s behalf to save your village.

VASYA: We’re doing fine on your own, thanks. Want some blackberries?

KONS: (She’s repulsive. Why do I keep noticing her?)

When the family next go to church together, Anna dresses up so extravagantly that even her uninterested husband is like, what’s going on here.

Konstantin’s preaching start to have an effect on the people. They begin to abandon the spirits and flock to Konstantin like a cult. It’s like the medieval version of bad Twitter posts going viral and getting followed.

The spirits stop protecting the village. Disasters start to hit. And who has to solve their problems? Vasya. It’s interesting how the story doesn’t make the male lead into a powerful, solve-all figure. He is one of the spirits and has his problems to deal with too. Just like the domovoi or the rusalka, he needs people to believe in him to survive.

When the Winter King stops being such a drama queen, things calm down a little.

Vasya washes her clothes and sleep on a tree branch like a cat. This girl is… something else.

When she wakes up, guess who is running into trouble like a fool in front of her? Konstantin. He gets bewitched by the water-spirit who wants to eat him. And not without good reason.

Vasya saves him.

Once again, Vasya reminds Konstantin to stop trying to “save” her, or she will let him save himself next time a green woman with crazy hair wants to eat him.

Konstantin watches Vasya hang out with her horse and gets jealous. Like, how can she smile at the horse and always frown at him — HIM, the messenger of God. Dude, stop bringing God into this. This is all you.

Next, Konstantin seeks out vasya to thank her for saving his life and gives her a cross, as a Thank-you gift and a reminder of God for her. More like an excuse to hold her hand for one second, but whatever.

Anna is jealous of this development. She creeps into her husband’s room at the crack of dawn to tell him she thinks Vasya needs to be married and sent away right now. And I don’t blame Pyotr for nearly choking her, thinking she was an assassin.

Pyotr and Dunya have a conversation about the necklace years ago. Pyotr tries to deny that the strange man he met in the market could be the Winter King out to capture young maidens, but Dunya says he’d better believe it. In the end, they decide maybe marriage is Vasya’s best bet, after all.

Pyotr breaks the news to Vasya, who doesn’t take it well. She remains calm in front of her father but runs away afterwards and cries.

Vasya bumps into Konstantin. He tries to calm her down but he seems even more freaked out by the news than she is. She asks him to pray for her. See? Vasya has nothing against God. She just has a bone to pick with narcissistic men who THINK they are God.

Enters Vasya’s suitor, Kyril. In short, no one is really impressed by him. Vasya is disgusted by his vulgar compliments. Alyosha wants to punch him in the face for being pushy with his sister. Pyotr is only impressed by his stable income and physical strength, not his personality.

Konstantin doesn’t say much, but I think he secretly wishes Kyril would drop dead.

One night during this unfortunate chapter of her life, Vasya visits Konstantin. At first, it looks like she wants to seek comfort from him but NO. Girl is a straight up bada** and tells him to stop trying to “save” her people. She is fed up with his crap lately.

Konstanstin snaps and slaps her. But what he actually wants to do is kiss her. Nope, I did not make this up. The man actually thinks she’s fascinating. But of course, he blames it on her being a “demon”.

When Vasya leaves, a voice suddenly speaks to Konstantin. A voice that claims to be God. Oh no…

One day, Vasya jumps on a horse and rides like mad to save her cousin from falling off his own horse. This does the job, all right. Kyril is humiliated that his “future wife” can behave in such a way – you know, reacting to an emergency and saving someone’s life and all that. He takes off the next morning.

The mysterious voice continues to talk to Konstantin, occasionally manifesting itself as a shadow, telling him to keep convincing people to abandon the spirits and trust in “God” only. The voice even gets Konstantin to put on a show in the church where it appears as a shadow and scares the villagers into believing. This Shadow is a professional troll and it’s Konstantin who’s getting trolled the hardest.

Anna has a breakdown that evening. Her daughter Irina has to beg Konstantin to come over and talk to her since he seems to be the only man Anna trusts.

The conversation between them is all kinds of funny and tragic, it’s genius.

ANNA: I saw an evil spirit.

KONS: You did not see an evil spirit.

ANNA: OK, I did not see an evil spirit. But I see you and your perfect hair.

KONS: I’m unavailable. (somebody thinks too highly of himself over here)

ANNA: Not for a date. I want to be saved and seen.

KONS: Yeah, I looked. Didn’t see much. Sorry.

The Evil Shadow doubles-down on his attack. Several villagers and animals disappear and die.

The domovoi and the water-spirit warn Vasya that soon, things will become worse; and they won’t be able to help much. You see, these spirits need the people’s beliefs and offerings to stay strong.

Poor Vasya has to feed the domovoi her own food and blood to keep her own family safe.

Dunya has a dream in which the Winter King asks her to give Vasya the jewel ASAP. It isn’t the first dream. Yeah, I don’t know what this guy wants, but maybe it’s time to try doing what he says since everything else has failed to keep the Evil Shadow at bay.

Dunya becomes sick afterwards. This time, it’s serious. It looks like she’s going to die. Konstantin offers to pray for her.

Vasya is like, Go get a life.

And Konstantin is like, Girl, would you let me do my job? It’s been really boring around here.

Dunya gives Vasya the necklace at last.

That night. A zombie* comes to their house! Don’t read this at night. This dead thing is controlled by the Evil Shadow; it actually gets past the domovoi and waltz around, getting into Konstantin’s bedroom.

Why is this so horrific and funny at the same time? The one guy who is so sure that no devil can touch him has a zombie/vampire/upyr climbing onto his bed!

Konstantin, who is dreaming about kissing Vasya, is shaken awake by a scream up and finds the zombie on top of him.

Vasya chases the zombie away with the help of another mysterious shadow. We all know who it is at this point.

Konstantin faints. Drama queen.

Dunya dies. But she becomes one of the walking-dead too because her spirit was claimed by the Shadow.

Afterwards, Vasya tells Alyosha what happened and what they could do to protect the house. The both of them go digging around the cemetery to look for disturbed graves. Vasya is one friggin’ brave girl during all of this, cause I can tell you – anyone else would have bailed.

Pyotr has to leave to bring aid to another village under his care. At home, Anna and Konstantin cook up a plan to send Vasya to the convent.

But Vasya runs away. She is found by the Winter King, aka Frost-demon Morozko, in the forest. Finally! I don’t know what’s going to happen, but anything has got to be better than what Vasya is facing at home.

PART 3

The Winter King brings Vasya to his winter resort, feeds her, gifts her a horse. He doesn’t think he can stop Vasya from running around forests like crazy all the time, so best to provide her with the means to… run around like crazy.

At home, Konstantin finally figured out he’s been trolled. The voice that talks to him isn’t “god” at all, but a demon, the twin brother of the Winter King.

But Konstantin still wants to find Vasya, for… whatever reason he thinks he has, so the Shadow makes a deal with him. If he brings the demon another witch, the Shadow will release Vasya.

At the winter resort, Morozko tells Vasya more about magic and the history between him and his brother the Bear/Chaos-king, aka Shadow. The more fear there is, the stronger the Bear becomes, and Konstantin is the one who’s leading people right into this trap.

Other than that, Morozko seems to enjoy making Vasya confused. Vasya, on the other hand, won’t stop pestering him with questions.

She wants to help fighting the bear, but Morozko is like: uhh… how about I give you some money and clothes and you go hide in your house instead?

Vasya storms away in anger.

MOROZKO: What have I done?

MOROZKO’S HORSE: You opened your mouth, that’s what.

Thing is, Vasya doesn’t want Morozko to put her in a box like everyone in her life has done.

One cold morning, Konstantin wakes Anna, charms her a little, then leads her to the Bear. Never thought I’d say this, but poor Anna. Konstantin is the first person she’s ever trusted.

Vasya comes back home. Irina tells her Anna is missing. Well, there’s only one place she can be, Vasya goes to the church and finds Konstantin there. He tells her he has sinned for her. Vasya isn’t impressed, she just wants to know where Anna is.

Took her to the forest and left her there, Konstantin replies. Oh, shoot. Vasya dashes right away.

She tells Alyosha the truth about what they need to do. If the Bear has a witch, he escape his bonds completely.

Alyosha and Vasya run to the forest’s clearing and met the Bear, Anna, and vampire-Dunya there. Morozko appears just in time too. A fight breaks out with chyerti fighting for either side.

Vasya uses her blood to make Dunya snap out of her vampire mode. But for her to die in peace, Morozko needs to take her spirit away from the Bear and the battle. It’s Morozko’s part-time job to lead souls to the right place.

He doesn’t forget to kiss Vasya before leaving, though. Not really keeping his priorities straight, is he.

Pyotr arrives just when Alyosha is struck down by the Bear. The Bear makes him a deal: Vasya for Alyosha. But Pyotr sacrifices himself to save both of his children. Oops, Bear didn’t see that coming.

The magic from a willing sacrifice binds the Bear again, and pretty tightly too.

Pyotr dies. Anna dies.

Vasya visits Konstantin again in the church. He thinks she’s here to give him a hug of forgiveness so he’s all ready to turn into mush and everything. Hold your horses, Konstantin, the girl comes with the Winter King himself.

They asks Konstantin to leave this village. Otherwise, they will turn him mad the way Anna was turned mad. You’ve got to love this new Morozko-Vasya collaboration.

Later, Vasya decides that she also needs to leave the village. There’s nothing for her here. The villagers hold a grudge against her and her siblings will be despised by association if she stayed. But most of all, she wants to see the world and see her siblings in Moscow again.

END

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