3/5 stars.

Vassa Lowenstein lives in Brooklyn with her half-sisters Chelsea and Stephanie, and Chelsea's mother. Her own mother, an acclaimed painter, died some years ago, leaving her a sentient and talking wooden doll named Erg. Erg likes to steal things when no one's watching, so Vassa's half-sisters point the blame on her. To Stephanie, it's done out of maliciousness. To Chelsea, it's a desire to get her mother back.

Either way, Vassa feels alone in the world. But weird things are going in Brooklyn, besides a talking doll. The nights are getting longer for some reason. Vassa and others figure that it has to do with the chain store known as BY, a store that stands on chicken legs that you have to sing to to get into. However, if you're caught stealing anything, the chain owner Babs and her two henchmen, the severed hands Sinister and Dexter, will chop your head off and put it on display with the others. One night, Stephanie makes Vassa go out to BY in order to finally be rid of her. Vassa doesn't have a lot for her in life, so she resigns herself. However, in an unexpected twist, Vassa winds up being Bab's retail worker for three days. But Babs is dead-set on getting Vassa killed, to add her head to her collection of severed heads posted outside the store, but Vassa and Erg won't give up. With the help of strange-looking lawyers, a motorcyclist made from the sentient Night, and parts of the weird store itself, Vassa will find the strength in herself to go on.

So, I have mixed thoughts about this book. It's a re-imagining of the Russian fairy-tale Vasilisa the Beautiful and in terms of YA fairy-tale re-imaginings, it's one of the more unique ones. Sarah Porter avoids some, some, of the tropes that most other authors in this subgenre employ consistently which makes it seem entirely predictable and boring. Vassa in the Night is weird, unique, and can get pretty gory at times, but not too gory to where it ventures into the genre of horror. It delivers on some things, but completely slips on others.

For one, Porter does the misunderstood teen protagonist better than the other YA authors out there. Vassa's mother is dead and all she has left of her is memories of her weird art and her doll Erg. Erg does care for Vassa, but she's so mischievous sometimes that it makes both Vassa and the reader question her. Additionally, Vassa's father ran out on her, her step-mother, and her half-sisters. He ran out to be transformed into a dog to appease his father who never felt proud of him--there's a short, whole chapter about it. Basically, Vassa feels withdrawn and unloved. She doesn't go on mopey rants about it, but we do see how it informs her thinking and actions. She dyes her hair purple to distinguish herself--in reality, it's her secret cry of attention as many teens do--and she questions when other people, like Chelsea, a boy she meets named Tomin, and even Erg, do show care for her and if that care is genuine. It's a realistic portrayal of a teen who feels unloved and cannot process the kindness shown to them. However, where I get critical with Vassa, and by extension with the plot progression, is how Vassa's feelings on certain things and people changes suddenly. These changes are often very sudden, we don't see Vassa's thought process; adding that would have been more beneficial. This sudden change and though eventually culminated in a moment in the climax of the story that ruined the book for me, but I will get to that in a bit. Overall, however, I did enjoy Vassa's character arc and how her feelings surfaced and what she learned about herself and her mother. The Vassa at the end of the book is not the same as at the beginning of the book.

Tomin and Chelsea were nice enough characters, but I didn't get to know them as much as some of the other characters. Interestingly enough, the motorcyclist made from Night had more character development than them, and he could barely speak proper sentences. I suppose it was the mystery behind him that fueled this. The two creature lawyers were alright; funny, but not wowzers in terms of characters. Erg was probably my favorite character despite not liking her at first. She does care about Vassa and as things get more dicey her more sensitive and serious side comes out. There's so much she wants to tell Vassa but can't due to the unspoken rules of the magic in the world. As a brief aside, we're never told what these magic rules are, though they are apparently different for each magical being, or who made them and frankly we don't have to. It's like any traditional fairy-tale. Anyway, Erg also doesn't want to leave Vassa alone and the mystery as to who she truly is partially the reason behind it. When Erg tells Vassa she might have to leave her side for good and how upset Vassa was about it genuinely made me sad. Erg is mostly responsible for revitalizing Vassa's suppressed emotions and her fate, while fitting to the conclusion of the story, made me sad.

Babs is an interesting villain. She's adaptation of the hag witch Baba Yaga from Russian folklore. She clearly has it out for Vassa especially. We do learn the origins of this hatred and although we're never in her head, when can see how it fuels her. She's truly a vicious and hateful villain, trying to get something out of Vassa's fate to satiate her anger caused by another witch called Bea, who we only see briefly throughout the book. And I'm not kidding when I say that Babs is vicious, she does a bunch of twisted stuff throughout the book and her own fate is perhaps appropriately twisted. Seriously! Her fate is one of the most graphic things I've seen in YA.

As for the prose, I love how varied it is. In between Vassa's perspectives as some chapters that take place prior to the events of the story written in the third person. The prose in these chapters is beautifully written! Atmospheric and elegant, but not too much where it runs into purple prose (not that I mind purple prose). In Vassa's perspective, the prose is not as elegant, but there's still some lovely descriptions about the things around Vassa, such as Night, and in her less-sudden thought processes. Occasionally, there's some "teenage talk" that isn't too outdated, although it can make it feel like the book is written by somebody who thinks that's what teenagers talk like. I didn't take a star off for this, because it wasn't that bad or cringey to me.

The pacing felt weird throughout this book. In the flashback/prequel chapters it flowed at a fair pace despite the more florid writing. In Vassa's perspective, it was all over the place. Most of the time, it was reasonable, but then there were some dragging parts that made me feel a bit bored and disconnected and then some rather quick moments, because of the aforementioned sudden thought changes. This book isn't as long as most other YA books out there, but it certainly felt like a much lengthier book at times.

But now, it's time to talk about the part of the book that had me fuming. I am putting it under spoilers despite this book being seven years old, but just in case for curious minds.

Spoiler

Tomin attempts to help Vassa rescue Erg after she was captured earlier by Babs by sneaking around the store. However, they get caught by Babs and her severed hand servants. Tomin is disremembered right in front of Vassa, like brutally. Babs then kills one of the severed hands, Dexter, because he helped Vassa earlier, but this makes the other hand, Sinister, conflicted. Vassa finally finds Erg and they tearfully reunite--it was a beautiful scene! Through Erg's cryptic advice, Vassa deduces that she can bring Tomin back, but is interrupted by Babs and Sinister. A pack of swans that Vassa healed earlier come in, lead by Erg, and attack Babs--they claw and peck that old lady nearly to death. After Vassa has healed Tomin's body, but not yet brought him back to life, Babs has been incapacitated. Erg and the swans want to throw Babs off the store to her death.

Here's where I got mad.

Vassa, however, doesn't want to do that. She wants to question her first, which is understandable, and if she lies she's not against throwing her off, also understandable. BUT, Vassa doesn't want to kill Babs if she doesn't have to. She pities her because she thinks she's subject to the same laws of magic that Erg is and wants to save her.

...

EXCUSE ME!? Babs nearly tries to Vassa several times throughout the book just out of spite, forced her into servitude, has beheaded several people whom she set up just to behead them, dismembered Tomin in front of Vassa, and then killed Dexter who helped Vassa. WHY DOES VASSA WANT TO SAVE HER!? WHY DOES SHE PITY HER!? And then the interrogation is interrupted, because Sinister jumps down Babs' throat and rips it out from the inside and then the swans throw her out--which she deserved! But what was the point of all that sudden pity if she was just going to die anyway? Where did that pity come from? WHY!? AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, despite that infuriating climax halt, I did enjoy how everything wrapped up in the end. There was genuinely good conclusion to Vassa's story and the emotions involved were palpable. Porter is good at portraying certain emotions from teenagers. I wish more YA fairy-tale retellings where like this book in terms of the weirdness.

An interesting retelling of the Vasilisa tale, this one was definitely written for an older YA crowd. The themes and ideas in this story are very nearly adult, even if the characters themselves are only in highschool.

I really enjoyed the retelling of the Night story, and the depths and oddities that Vassa found in the BY's. The modernity was at times too much for me - I was obviously not the intended age group for this story - but I enjoyed having a new spin on the tale.

This book was weird as shit and I loved it.

This book is magical realism set in a dystopian version of Brooklyn, New York. It's a magical place where the nights last longer and the corner convenience store jumps around on chicken legs and flies around until the children sing the jingle convincing it to land. Inspired by the Russian folklore tail Vassilissa the Beautiful, this fairytale is dark in the way the original Grimm's tales are dark.

Vassa isn't herself a magical being, probably. But she enters the world head-on, accompanied by a sentient doll, Erg, a gift from her dead mother, who is a constantly-eating, overprotective kleptomaniac with a plucky personality. Vassa is stubborn, strong-willed, and fearful. She makes mistakes. She makes things happen.

Vassa starts the story frustrated and feeling unloved. She and her two sisters fight, so Vassa takes off in the night to 'show them' by heading to the store, despite the heads of supposed shoplifters displayed on stakes around the parking lot like warning signs. Instead, she ends up trapped in the magical world of the witch, Babs Yagg, forced to stay working at the magical convenience store under penalty of death.

At once strange and foreboding, this story is really the story of a girl who finds power within herself. It was especially powerful that, despite being a YA novel, her motives are not related to romantic relationships. Throughout the journey of the story, Vassa learns about the world and her place in it. She discovers secrets of where she came from, who her mother was, and the power of the love of her sisters and strength of friendship.

Be prepared for the world to be quirky and weird. Expect the story to get dark, it borders fantasy and horror in equal measure. Still, it was a worthwhile journey and an excellent read from a strange new beginning to it's bittersweet end.

I loved this book. It was strange and magical and beautiful and striking. It is an excellent retelling of the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful, and its fairy tale roots show through every page.

Also, it's nice to have a stepsister who isn't evil.

Oops! I finished this a month ago and forgot to review. Fortunately, it's still fresh in my mind.

I loved this book! I didn't think it was as bizarre as other reviewers though, and that's probably because I have been reading and re-reading folktales since I was a kid. I'm pretty used to those odd stories.

I can say that it's nothing like the average YA book. Which is fantastic. I also loved that the author didn't go with Cinderella or Snow White like so many others. I am a little wary of fairy tale retellings since it's usually the same story every time, but this one was a creepy old Russian tale. Points for that.

All in all, a wonderfully creepy and odd story.

It's a very odd story that feels like a series of bizarre dreams. The writing is beautiful and the underlying messages are important ones.

And I thought the original Grimm tales were dark -- this update of a Russian tale got positively gruesome in places. I managed to keep reading because I was rooting for Vassa to win her struggle with Baba Yaga.