“Blood is one thing. The sight is another. But courage—that is rarest of all, Vasilisa Petrovna.”⁣
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Vasya is the fifth child of Pyotr, a feudal lord of northern Rus', and Marina, daughter of the prince of Moscow. Marina knows her daughter, like her mother, will have the sight to see and commune with the spirits of their land. She also knows that the cost of Vasya's life will be her own. But so she chooses, placing her wailing child in the protection of Pyotr and their nurse, Dunya. Pyotr does his medieval best by all of his children, but political machinations have domestic and spiritual ramifications that he is powerless to avoid. Peril seems drawn to them, drawn especially to the spirited Vasya, who can't help but see the world as it is and walk as herself in it. ⁣
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There is an obvious struggle between the old religion and the new, but this is really an epic yet domestic battle between faith and fear, with themes of courage, self-determination, coming of age, coming of power, and sacrifices made for loved ones. It's beautifully written, comfortably paced, and both subtle and startling — at times barely tinged with magic and at others plunged deeply into it. ⁣
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Content notes: stepmother trope, hunting, domestic violence, marital rape, bloodshed, zombie vampire slaying, oppressive gender roles (and the subversion of them)⁣