Vassa in the Night
Ratings12
Average rating3.3
If you thought “Alice in Wonderland” was a psychedelic trip, wait till you see what “Vassa in The Night” has in store.
You can read my full review on my blog: https://vicsense.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/vassa-in-the-night/
Vassa In The Night is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa The Beautiful. The main characters are pulled out straight from the original fairy tale but, the world behind the story couldn't be any different.
This book is so weird. Not a little bit weird, but like, genuinely and truly weird.
Weird can be good, but it can be terribly bad and hard to digest too. For me, Vassa In The Night sits right on the edge of those two outcomes. It's basically yet another Wonderland-esque world where really strange and nonsensical things keep happening to the heroine. My problem with it is that there were so many dense nonsense/dreamlike sequences that, if I had to interrupt my reading of it, whenever I started reading again, I was completely and utterly confused as to what was happening. If you read it in one continuous swoop, the nonsense makes sense; but stopping to breathe between chapters is not recommended.
It took a little bit to get into and sort out what was going on, but it was still interesting enough to plow through the confusion. I guess it wouldn't have been so hard had I remembered it was based on the Baba Yaga folklore and had a better understanding of her story to begin with, but I still loved it. I especially want to get more acquainted with Russian and Eastern European folklore now! Definitely an enjoyable read.
Second read: loved it! Forgot how gruesome it got but I liked it because it brought a sense of Halloween into my summer
Vassa in the Night is a modern retelling of an old Russian folk tale, and it is an enjoyable blend of magic and the real world. The plot was engaging and managed to involve a good number of unique characters despite taking place almost entirely in one small location. There were a few aspects of the story that seemed insufficiently developed, but not having read the original folk tale perhaps I was missing some references. Overall a good read for fans of modern fairy tales.