The Summary

At the edge of the Russian forest, where winter lasts for the majority of the year, Vasilisa and her siblings like spending the long evenings by the fire listening to the fairy tales their nurse used to tell them. Vasya adores Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, above everything else. Because he captures innocent souls, wise Russians are afraid of him, and they revere the spirits that guard their houses from evil.

The bereaved father of Vasya then returns from Moscow with a new spouse. Vasya's stepmother, who is a devout woman, prevents her family from honoring their house spirits, but Vasya is afraid of what this might bring. Indeed, bad luck starts to follow the village.

Vasya's stepmother, however, only gets stricter as she works to change the community to her liking and raise her disobedient stepdaughter for a convent or marriage. Vasilisa must use perilous abilities that she has long kept hidden in order to defend her family from a danger that has materialized from her nurse's most terrifying tales as the village's defenses deteriorate and evil from the forest draws closer.

My Review

This was the kind of story that made you long for the days of your youth, when you had unflinching confidence in wishes, magic, and the reality of all possibilities.

A wonderful fusion of traditional literature, fairy tales, and Russian mythology. You begin to feel like you are a part of the story and connected to all those legendary monsters as your bones begin to shake from the cold and the demons waiting to take you to the end of the world.

Superstition and a sense of uncertainty are successfully conveyed by the atmosphere. Between the old and the modern, the characters are imprisoned. They follow modern religion, but they maintain a strong connection to ancient myths.

In this book, there was nothing less than magic. The book's beautiful imagery, evocative town and forest, and the characters who made me cry ceaselessly all serve to convey the notion that girls can be whatever they choose to be, regardless of what society tries to confine them to.

I'm sure I'll pick this up again around Christmas time to read in bed before I go to sleep. Because everyone deserves the kind of wonderful warmth and comfort that this book provides during the coldest of times.

My ratings score:

★★★★★ Fantastic! Made me go through a lot of emotions & the entire book is incredibly beautifully done! 

★★★★ Memorable! Despite its shortcomings, this book was incredible and taught us a lot. 

★★★ Good work! Nothing particularly remarkable, but still nice.

★★ Meh... Mediocre with great room for improvement.

★ Extremely Poor.