The Girl in the Tower

A Novel

By: Katherine Arden

Narrated by: Kathleen Gati

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage and life in a convent and instead flees her home - but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

©2017 Katherine Arrden (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up." (Naomi Novik)

Slow and Stubborn

I don’t normally write reviews, but this is the first book in a long time I just couldn’t finish. The first book was painful for me, and this one was so frustrating I stopped 3/4 the way through. And I NEVER quit books. It feels like a betrayal. The book is a giant miscommunication/pointless secret. The overarching plot moved soooo slow, with a romance constantly providing obvious suggestions that need to just pan out. I found myself not caring at all about the current predicament, and just wanting the actual story to happen. Vasilisa is so obviously good at everything (of course she can fight well, and ride a horse well, and win races, and everything else), who’s only flaw seeming to be stubbornness and arrogance. I don’t know why but this book just wasn’t for me.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

This sequel of the The Bear and the Nightingale, Kathleen Gati is a stunning performer of these books. Medieval Rus is an intense place to be!

still a good story despite characterisation

I still loved the story, the overall plot and conclusions. But about halfway through, Vasya's impulsiveness lost its charm and became annoying. It's not enjoyable to keep using a (main) character flaw repeatedly to move the story along. It makes the main character look like an idiot and seems to make it so that her suffering is deserved.

I had wished for a slightly wiser Vasya in this book. Not this impulsive, unthinking, short-sighted girl playing at "independence". I hope the growth she exhibited towards the end is maintained in the next book.

I was glad to see what had become of Olga and Sasha. I think their characterisation was realistic, even though they were harsh.

Kathleen Gati's performance is impeccable.

Captivating

Just as in the first book in this series, I felt a strong connection to Vasya despite the differences in age, era, surroundings. This second book was every bit as captivating as the first and I look forward to the third!

Hard to Follow

I read a hard copy of first book in this series and really enjoyed it so I figured I’d listen to the 2nd book on audible. However, I feel like I missed a lot listening to this book. By listening to it I couldn’t quite visualize the story and the characters in the same way as when I read the first book. There was just too much going on to take in and weave together. The story line in general wasn’t as good as the first either. I think I may try reading the hard copy and maybe all of the small details, nuances and foreshadowing won’t be lost in translation.

distracting accents

I love this series, but found the accents too distracting and that it changed the feeling of the book too drastically for me. I like the effort to add accents, but it felt forced...

Don’t give up!!!

Extremely slow @ first.. painfully so..
But don’t give up as it turns in a truly beautiful Russian fairy tail.. princess
Vile villains true heroines and beautiful bewitched horses..

Bedtime story with a grown up feel

Narrator: The narration was good. The accent used sounded more like a mix between Italian and Native American instead of Russian. I got a bit tired of the stilted pauses in the narration, but the book was well read and the emotions conveyed.

Story: Overall I liked the story. 13 hours was a bit long and I felt it would have kept my attention better had it been shorter. Some parts were a bit confusing between dream/vision and reality. But then again, that may have been by author's design to help you feel the confusion for the main character.

Some parts were too raw for my taste, but are probably accurate for the time and culture. It had the overall feel of a of a bedtime story, but a more grown up version.

Magical

I absolutely loved this book. Kathleen Gati did a fantastic job with the characters and her pronunciation of the Russian words. This was a magical story that warmed me from the inside out. I can not wait for the next book to come out!

A little porny

This book starts out just as good as the first, but near the end certain features of female anatomy are mentioned explicitly.