This book was slow to start and a little boring at the beginning but when the story really picked up about halfway in I started to really love it so much. I loved the characters so much especially Vasya and her siblings as well especially her her fiercely protective older brother Alyosha and of course Morozko Death personified and Solovey the horse. What I loved about Vasya was her wildness and her want to be free and her love and protectiveness for her family and just how far she would go to save all of them. I missed a character that was Vasya's Father he was willing to go above and beyond to save his Daughter and that to me makes him a great Father to Vasya and all of her siblings. The characters I hated were the Stepmother and the Priest that just made things worse for the village they lived in. I liked the plot especially towards the halfway point where I actually started to like the story it is written a lot like a folk tale I really liked that from the start. The story starts slow telling about Vasya's mother and how she died when Vasya was born then it goes on to tell that Vasya is a wild child that needs a mother so her Father goes out to find another wife. The lives of the characters only get worse as the Stepmother moves into the picture and that's where the story starts to be told and pick up and finally becomes a well written story that I will read more books of. So overall I loved this book even if it took a little while to catch my attention.