DNF at 60%

This one wasn't for me. Books written around myth and folklore are normally my preferred genre but this was a struggle for me. I found the writing a little pedestrian and underwhelming. Granted, I know very little about Russian mythology so maybe if its something that captures your interest this book will work for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for an advanced copy in return for an honest review

I love folklore, witches and Russian history, so when I saw The Witch and the Tsar on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to have a read. Oleysa Salnikova Gilmore has written a fairytale through a modern lens by combining the story of Baba Yaga- much maligned through the descriptions of male folklorists in the 19th/20th centuries- and the brutal history of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Yaga makes a promise to a tsarina that will change her life, and the path of her beloved Russia.
This novel has everything you'd want in a reimagining of a Russian tale- snow, betrayal and more than a dash of magic realism; I especially loved the relationships between Yaga and her companions, a wolf and a very sassy owl. I was absolutely gripped and it's the perfect winter read. Huddle down in blankets with a brew and just... drink it in.

The Witch and the Tsar is an eloquently written re-imagining of the rise of Ivan the Terrible amidst Russian folklore. Not my usual genre and I found it difficult to read further than halfway. Definitely for fans of fantasy.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Witch and the Tsar. I was surprised that this was a debut novel as I found it to be so well written. It spans over a long time period, contains many characters, Gods and places and yet I had no trouble following along and knowing who and what everything was.

I found the book to be sufficiently descriptive to create a rich atmosphere, but not so overly detailed that it stalled the narrative. The author have done an excellent job of creating evocative settings, from the eerie swamps of Nav, to the charming glade with little hen, the stone walled cities.

I was particularly charmed by the non-human characters. Yaga’s supporting cast of her wolf, owl and Little Hen. These were not only delightful characters (I love the slightly sarcastic owl and dear, sweet little hen) but they also made Yaga’s power seem believable. Yaga has to do some incredible things in this book and I liked that she isn’t some all-powerful, all-magical person who can just do everything herself. Her relationships with others and their working together is what makes her powerful. This made me a lot more invested in her success.

I also really liked that Yaga felt relatable! It’s so nice to have a female protagonist in a more fantasy/historical setting who is over 30! I really liked this choice by the author to not have her stop ageing at 18-20, but to have her stop at a point where she had gained enough wisdom and maturity to face what would happen in this story. She also wasn’t perfect, she makes mistakes and even physically she describes her prominent nose and chin. All these little details made Yaga feel relatable and made me feel more affectionate towards her and invested in her success.

I was a big fan of The Bear and the Nightingale and Spinning Silver and I wanted to read more like those books. This certainly fit the bill for that. I liked the blending of folklore with historical events in this book. I read the author’s note at the end and was really interested in how much of the book was based on really events and the research they’d done for this book.

I’d definitely recommend this book.

Rounded up from a 3.5
There were parts of this book that i just loved! Maybe around 60% I loved and the rest I liked more as a friend/acquaintance.
I really enjoyed the twist on the classic Baba Yaga fairytale, I enjoyed the character of Yaga in this book, she was brave and dedicated.
This book did include one of my least favourite tropes which I felt ruined the character of Yaga. It made her a little dull, I don’t enjoy when fantasy books involve a great deal of domestic life, I’m here for the excitement!
The exciting parts were numerous and I was very invested in the characters of the book and was interested to see how the book would end. I either didn’t notice from the blurb or forgot that the king in this book was Ivan the Terrible and that definitely made the adventures feel a little more risky
I did enjoy this and I loved the myths and fairytale elements. I’m a sucker for a retelling. Also, absolutely loved the wolf and the owl!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Setting/Worldbuilding: 5/10
Main characters: 1/10
Side characters: 1/10
Dialogue: 3/10
Plot: 3/10
Technique: 1/10
Prose: 7/10
Romance: 4/10
Ending: 3/10
Overall enjoyment: 1/10
29/100 (1.45)

I'm sorry, but I am getting very grumpy at the lack of well-written Russia-inspired fantasies out there. How did the complex folkloric wonder of Slavic cultures that is known as Baba Yaga descend into a simpering, too stupid to live immortal beauty, indistinguishable from every other YA main character out there?

Bye.

I studied Russian history at A Level and really enjoyed it so when I saw The Witch and the Tsar I was eager to pick it up, especially seen as we didn't really focus of Tsar Ivan 🙌 we definitely didn't focus on folklore so it was great to learn more about their myths 😍
I found the dialogue between Yaga and Noch, her owl, quite peculiar but I relaxed into it and enjoyed the gentle banter between them.
Slavic tale meets historical fiction meets feminist literature. A captivating, Gothic read with sooo many features of a good book 🙌

The Witch and The Zsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore's debut is loosely based around the Baba Yaga of folklore, such is common across Eastern Europe and Russia. This novel is set in Russia with a mix of traditions, folklore, myths, legends and magic.

The Yaga of this novel is a kind healer using her powers for good despite being vilified by people who don't understand her powers.
Here, she is a healer, using her magic and potions to help others, She lives in an isolated hut in the woods which stands on chicken legs, with Dyen, a wolf, and an owl called Noch (night). When her old friend Anastasia comes to seek help, (the wife of Tsar Ivan the Terrible) Yaga has to push through these barriers in order to save her friend.

Yaga must join the Royal Court and help save Russia not just her friend. This is a fairytale with dark elements and the gory side of warfare and persecution. Enjoyable on the whole but left me unsure how I felt about it.

This book had a magical atmosphere and I really enjoyed the authors world building at the start. Overall, the plot was good but I found the ending fell short of what I expected and the middle part of the plot didn’t feel connected to the start and the end. I also found that the writing starting a little too whimsical for me but seemed to improve throughout the book. I also found that the plot lacked a direction although that was likely due to the narrative choice. Thanks to HarperCollins for giving me access to the eARC.

To say I was excited for this is possibly an understatement. Slavic folklore meets actual historical events, seems like a potential match made in heaven. And it was...almost.

I really wanted to like this new take on Baba Yaga but it just didn't work for me. Otherwise I enjoyed this as an "alternate history with folklore/fantasy elements".

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the advance reader copy.

This story is set in 16th century Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. It is a mixture of history and folklore with a handful of magic thrown in for good measure. I was expecting a light easy read but this is quite a tome and I think it tries to do a bit too much making it more complex and with a larger cast than perhaps is necessary or easy to follow.
Having said that there were some parts of the story I very much enjoyed. The humanising of Baba Yaga was good and descriptions of Ivan's spiral into madness and his reign of terror after the death of his beloved wife is well imagined. All in all I probably enjoyed the historical elements more than the fantastical parts. Descriptions of the forests and winter and the cold were all very real and well depicted too.
If you like folklore and fantasy that is complex and involved this might well be a book for you. I am very happy to have read it and would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the arc copy in return for an honest review.

This was jam packed with gothic splendour and Slavic folklore, a wonderful fairytale for the feminist lovers of, magic and mystery. An ancient woman of power and prestige brought low by the jealousy and fear of men gets a chance to prove her loyalty and worth.

I loved it, steeped in vodka and herbs like the cures that Yaga used to heal poisons and ward off evil!

Uhhh so I'm one of the people for whom this book was a miss. I thought I'd give this a try as I have a slavic origin but not familiar with the folklore.
The writing style was a little bit off and didn't really keep me interested in the story, let alone make me invested in the main character.
I have received the eArc of this book in exchange for a honest review.

In 16th Century Russia, the half-immortal daughter of a goddess lives in the woods with her familiars and chicken-legged house.
Yaga is drawn out of her seclusion at the request of her old friend, the Tsarina Anastasia, who is being poisoned by someone at court.
This is not a simple case of dangerous politics - the old gods are somehow involved and Yaga must try to solve the riddle, whilst Tsar Ivan becomes evermore paranoid and dangerous.

Now, I read this whilst suffering from covid and it definitely made it harder for me to concentrate. I never really felt truly absorbed in the story - although it had an interesting setting and plot.
However, the multiple time jumps made it difficult for me to connect with some of the characters and I felt like there was a bit too much going on at times - for example, all the “rituals” seem to require lots of work but get sorted in a few pages.
I also never really believed that Yaga was anything other than the age she physically appears.

Overall, an interesting story set in an interesting time that I'm sure lots of people will enjoy, but, sadly, not one that I ever felt attached to.

The Witch and the Tsar is a novel that should have been very much to my taste. I usually love novels that take folklore or myth and breath new life into. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me.

I love the premise and the main character inspired by Baba Yaga. I like the way in which the author observes that the women on the fringes of society often become targets of one kind or another through no fault of their own. I love the hints of magic and mystery. Sadly, I didn’t get on with the writing style at all, and found it so difficult to engage with that I couldn’t finish it.

Three stars as I think that this is a case of me, rather than the book. It should appeal to fans of Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy and The Book of Gothel.

DNF at 40%

This should have been right up my alley: Russian fairytale set in a far away time, snow and cold and spirits and witches yet The Witch and the Tsar is soooo boring, every page drains me. Despite my best intentions it's impossible for me to continue forcing myself to read something I really, really don't enjoy! Sorry!

This is a beautifully written novel. I was transported to historic Russia, the landscape, the people and the folklore were richly brought to life.
I think I was expecting a little more than I got, which is my own fault, it didn't quite feel like the Baba Yaga I was expecting, I have read a couple of versions of the tale, I don't know how traditional they were, but this, I don't think, was supposed to be a retelling of the story.

Without the expectations of who it is about, as a standalone story, it is beautiful, tragic and gripping.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.
Actual rating: 1,5 stars, but rounded up.

For me, there are two ways to look at this book.
One is taking it at face value, and the other is looking at it as a historical fantasy that is based on Russian folklore and history.

When I just look at the book itself and rate my enjoyment, I'd give it 3 stars.
It's decent, I enjoyed it, but I was also frustrated. The writing is okay, it did bother me a bit that all these Russian words were randomly thrown in, followed by the English translation. I'm all for including foreign words from whatever language/country a book is based on, but there are more elegant ways to do so.
I also wasn't a fan of the pacing, and sometimes I was missing explanations, and it felt a bit jumpy at times.
The FMC was frustrating at times, because she seemed so ignorant and quite frankly stupid. She walks into Moscow with a pet wolf but is confused when people look at her, even though she's trying to blend in? Huh?
But overall, the plot itself was okay, not my favorite, but definitely enjoyable for the most part.

BUT as mentioned earlier, this is a historical fantasy based on Russian folklore, and when I take that into account, I have no choice but to lower my rating.
I get that creative liberties (usually) have to be taken in historical fantasy, but there's a line between creative liberties and lazy research/writing.
My main issue was the FMC. I was excited to read a book featuring the Baba Yaga, this scary but clever witch, instead, I got... a naive forest witch who's supposedly hundreds of years old but acts like a teenager at times. It's clear that the author changed the character to make her more likable and easier to root for, but in my opinion, it is not okay to re-write a central figure of Russian folklore just to make her fit your novel. To me, that seems like wanting to profit off the name, without putting in the work and research to write her into the complex character she is. And I know the author's intention was wanting to write a more feminist version of Baba Yaga because most of the tales about her were written by men, but personally, I think a badass swamp witch who eats children is kinda cooler than a naive girl who is oblivious to politics and society despite supposedly being immortal.

The historical inaccuracies were also questionable to me. The novel is set in the 1560s Russia, where Ivan the Terrible is ruling. Now here's what I don't understand: The real historical figure Ivan the Terrible makes for a great villain, with his greed and cruelty and ruthlessness. So why is book-Ivan... not all that? He felt like just another bad ruler, when he had so much potential.

There were more things I noticed but I think other reviewers have done a better job at pointing out the issues this book has. This was just what I picked up on despite my limited knowledge of Russian history and folklore. I wanted something different from the book, maybe if it had been high fantasy or set in a secondary-fantasy Russia, I would have been able to enjoy it more, but if I read a historical fantasy novel that feels poorly researched to me, I just have a hard time getting into the story.

I do think the author has potential and I would like to read whatever she writes next, but this just was not for me.

I was expecting this book to be quite an easy read - along the lines of Katherine Arden, but it’s not at all. Although it’s very enjoyable, it is a dense heavy read!

The story is based on Russian folklore, the tale of Baba Yaga and the Tsar, there is a huge cast and as mentioned, the tale is complex, and richly written.

I did very much enjoy it!

My review is based on an advance copy that I received from the publisher

The witch and the Tsar is a fantastical reimagining of Baba Yaga from Slavic Folklore intertwined with real historical events during the rule of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

I really enjoyed this book, though it is a slow starter so took me a little while to get into it. The switch between first person for Yaga’s point of view and third person to show the points of view of the villain were done very well and Olesya Salnikova Gilmore paints a beautifully, dark and vivid picture of the world of the Slavic Gods.

I loved the humanisation of Baba Yaga, not a hag at all in this version of the story and the way that duality and balance is woven into book. There were moments my heart was in my throat, moments that made me smile and moments that brought a tear to my eye.

The description of Ivan the Terrible’s reign of absolute terror was done well as well as his descent into the madness that killed his oldest son.

I don’t want to give too much away but I love the villain in this book and I completely understand why she did the things that she did, even though she could have perhaps gone about it differently