Wow! This book was such a fun, but incredibly bizarre, read! I loved the little illustrations below each chapter number!

I went into this book blind (I had no idea what it was about) so didn't know that it was a modern fairytale based on the Russian tale, Vasilisa the Beautiful. Even so, I had no previous knowledge of this tale anyway, so when the story began to develop I kept thinking, "oh that's odd" but I just rolled with it.

And first things first- there is NO world building. So if that is your reading pet peeve, I wouldn't recommend this book. When I started reading, I definitely felt like I was dropped into the middle of a story so I was slightly confused from the start.

I mean, one of the first things you are introduced to is a block of painted wood with arms and legs that is not only alive, but also a snacking kleptomaniac that doesn't listen to Vassa (it's owner). Then you discover that the nights last a very long time. Long enough for teenage Vassa to wish that there weren't weekends. But nobody seems to talk about how long the nights are.

Later, you learn about a store that dances around on two legs and has a shop owner that beheads shoplifters, which the public thinks is okay. Oh and the employees of the shop? Two severed hands... so obviously I couldn't help but imagine Thing from The Addams Family, only with nail polish.

Even though I enjoyed reading this book, I also had a few issues with it.

The first was obviously the lack of world building and the confusion that it caused. I wish we had just a bit of an intro that really dove in and explained things to set us up properly.

The second was simply the characters motivation. I just didn't understand why they made a number of decisions. Specifically, going into the shop. Like, hello, if I saw a shop that had severed heads on spikes outside of it, you bet I would steer clear. But no, characters in this book actually go into the store. Some over and over again just for the thrill of it.

The third issue I had was with the very awkward romance bits that really didn't add to the story or even make much sense. I feel like they could have been completely left out. It seemed to me like the author was just trying to check all the "typical YA" boxes with Vassa crushing on a human boy one night, but then wanting to tell him she was crushing on someone else the next. But the third night she's suddenly back to having feeling for the human? Bleh. When these parts came about I found my interest in the story taking a serious nose dive.

Overall, definitely worth a read if you're looking for something a bit strange!

Favorite passage:
Not that there isn't any magic around here. If you're dumb enough to look in the wrong places, you'll stumble right into it. It's the stumbling out again that might become an issue.