Reviews

Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

holyhekkador's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I was a little hesitant to pick this up after I received it in the Owlcrate October box because I thought it would be surreal, and I hate surreality with a vengeance. No worries! It's not a surreal story; it's just a fairytale taking place in Brooklyn. The universe in this story has zany rules, but there's a definite rhyme and reason. Plus, one of the things that drives me up a wall with surreality is people's numbed reactions to things. Something crazy will happen, and the characters will accept it. It kind of makes me . . . anxious? But when crazy things happen in Vassa in the Night--out of the ordinary things--Vassa reacts in a normal way. Some things, like Random Acts of Magic, she's used to. But others--dismemberment, for example--cause her to freak out. The highlight of this story was definitely Erg, Vassa's talking doll. I'm insanely disappointed that I don't have my own wooden kleptomaniac to hug my finger when I'm upset.

max1701's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I️t was okay

monicaliu's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Does her foot stay as a swan's? And why was her name considered a half name?

nmkelsey's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Vassa in the Night is an urban-fantasy retelling of the Russian folktale Vasilisa the Beautiful. The tale is about a young woman, Vasilisa, who was given a little wooden doll by her mother on her deathbed. Her father remarries and Vasilisa becomes a slave to her stepmother and stepsisters.

One night while her father is away, the stepmother leaves all but one candle lit after giving the girls each a task to complete. The light eventually dies and the stepsisters urge Vasilisa to go to the hut of Baba Yaga to fetch more light, determined they can accomplish their tasks without it.
Baba Yaga is an imposing figure who lives in a hut on chicken legs in the woods surrounded by a fence of bones. One can assume they are from the victims who could not complete the tasks set before them by the witch and were eaten. Every day the hut is visited by three horsemen: a horseman in white, representing the day, a horseman in red, representing the sun, and a horseman in black, who brings the night.
She gives Vasilisa three tasks to complete in exchange for light with which to return home. With the help of her little wooden doll, Vasilisa performs each impossible task to perfection. Baba Yaga has no intention of allowing her to leave but Vasilisa escapes, returning home with a glowing-eyed skull from Yaga's gate. (There are variances; this particular telling I found at https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/65r.pdf)
Porter takes this folktale and drops it within the confines of New York City, transforming the tale with an urban twist.
The hero of our tale, Vassa Lisa Lowenstein, true to the fairytale, lives with a stepmother, Iliana, who seems to loathe her existence, and two stepsisters, Chelsea and Stephanie. While her relationship with her sisters is not quite as volatile as in the folktale, there is still hostility between them.
One night, the lights go out and Stephanie dares Vassa to fetch more bulbs. So late at night, there is only one store open: BY's, a chain open 24/7, with a nasty reputation for beheading shoplifters and placing them as trophies on pikes surrounding the store that dances on the legs of a chicken. This particular location is run by an old woman by the name of Babs Yagg (our Baba Yaga). Babs catches Vassa 'stealing' and gives her three nights, one task a night, to prove she's as honest as she claims.
While this particular twist does not have a horseman, we do find the store to be guarded by a man in black on a motorcycle who, throughout the night, constantly rides around the perimeter of the locations. And there is much more to him than appears.
With the help of Erg, a magical doll given to Vassa by her mother on her deathbed, Vassa is able to complete the tasks and break free of Yagg's clutches.

Porter's spin on the tale is truly unique, and my comparison leaves many more intricacies to be discovered within the pages of the book. After reading Vasilisa the Beautiful, I was able to identify the similarities and differences throughout. It is dark, gruesome, but overall, captivating. I recommend diving into this world.

https://whiskeyandwonderlands.blogspot.com/

juliannareads_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I liked the beginning but that's really all I liked. It was really confusing and i didn't understand any of the plot or magic system.

ms_winford's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

I was really expecting to love this book based on the description, but it was not what I was expecting at all. Glad to have read it, but it isn’t a book I will be remembering years, or even months, down the line. I think 14+ would be more apt as some content could be said to be disturbing, especially re: beheadings, and even I needed to re-read passages as I felt as though I had missed something. There are a lot of redeeming qualities though, especially the female: male character ratio, and that the only real male character of note (Tommin) is not coming in to save the day, but rather being saved by Vassa. It was…good to see a male character put in the role normally reserved for female characters, I think it reinforces the idea that girls can very much be heroes and do not need to wait to be saved by a knight in shining armour. I also appreciated Vassa having to give up Erg, and that though immensely difficult, it was necessary for her growth and you know she is going to be just fine. I am usually wary once I see a book described as ‘coming of age/learning to love yourself,’ as they have frequently been awkward and full of clichés (maybe I’ve just read a lot of bad ones), but Vassa in the Night definitely did not fall into this category, at all.

jennifrencham's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Porter, Sarah. Vassa in the Night. TOR, 2016.

Vassa lives in Brooklyn where the nights are becoming longer and longer. When one of her stepsisters sends her out for light bulbs, she becomes trapped at BYs, a strange dancing convenience store surrounded by severed heads on pikes. She has to work for three nights to free herself, but will she survive?

This is a classic magical realism YA novel. It helps to be familiar with the Russian fairy tale Vassilissa the Beautiful before reading this book, although it's not entirely necessary. I would recommend this book to strong teen readers because it is indeed very bizarre and can be rather gory at times.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: lots of gore b/c Baba Yaga kills thieves, so there's blood and axe-chopping, etc.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alike Suggestions: [b:As I Descended|28218948|As I Descended|Robin Talley|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1455557048s/28218948.jpg|43113512], [b:Bone Gap|18806240|Bone Gap|Laura Ruby|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1402928507s/18806240.jpg|26737294], [b:Egg & Spoon|20708810|Egg & Spoon|Gregory Maguire|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1400886880s/20708810.jpg|40031771]

kempsey18's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This is one of those books that kept popping up in my Goodreads and Amazon pages as suggested reads and I thought it looked interesting, but man there are some very mixed reviews about it out there so I was a little hesitant. I downloaded the audiobook and started that way, which I think was good since the book was a little slow to start in the beginning. The narrator did a fantastic job though and I loved her voice and pace as the novel unfolded. I ended up half listening half reading the book because there were some events that I could not wait until I had to get back into the car to listen too.

Vassa in the Night is based off a Russian Folktale, Vasilisa the Beautiful, that I had actually not heard of before. I did not read it before this book either, because I wanted to just go into it not really knowing a whole lot about it. Which in hindsight might have not been the best idea because I was thoroughly confused for the first few chapters of this book and reading the folktale might have helped with that. On the other hand, I think this book is meant to be a little fantastical, so some confusion might have been normal.

Vassa herself was very interesting character, lost after the death of her mother, she does not really know where she belongs. Except for her doll that has been her companion for six years, she feels alone. The book explores her ability to find out who she is and what she is going to choose to stand up and fight for. She is stumbling through life at the moment and as readers we are right there with her trying to navigate the world she is in and the obstacles she faces that seem impossible much of the time, but then have very simple solutions. She has quite a bit of help from unexpected places as well, to guide her to her ultimate end goal.

While the magical elements of the novel were no surprise to me, the amount of bloodshed did catch me a little off guard. I guess it shouldn’t have, since outside the BY’s store there are detached heads on pikes, but the first half of the book did not have a lot of things happen that were bloody. The second half though, there are quite a few moments that were pretty gruesome. Not stomach turning, but just things I did not expect. It took on a darker tone than the first half of the book.

Reading this review, I know I am not describing the book very much, but honestly, I could not do that in a simple review. There is way too much happening in this book and giving all of those details away would just ruin it I think. I liked this book, I did not love it. I really did not love the ending, but I read that there might be another book in this world eventually which I think is necessary. If you want to read something that is very different from anything else out there right now and just strange, then I would give this book a try. I would read the folktale it is based on first, just so you have some idea of what is going to unfold as you enter this world. I will be watching to see if there is a sequel in the future.

saltybadgeradii's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

For full or more reviews check out my blog at http://adiisbookshelf.blogspot.com/

I really really really liked it! I would have to give it a 4/5. I would have given it a 5, but somethings seemed to drag along. Or there were somethings that I feel like could have been completely left out of the story. Like the whole thing with her dad? It didn't make any sense at all. I don't see why it was part of the story... I personally felt like it was more distracting than helpful. The stuff about her mother was a little different because it eventually made more of a connection to the book. It did take a while to pick up, and it had it's moments of dullness, but still it was worth it! I will admit I did cry.. And I won't tell you why, but I did.

I really liked that Erg, Vassa's wooden doll, is involved a lot! I like that she's alive all the time not just wen Vassa needs help. The book is full of magic and I like how it's slowly unraveled how somethings work. Like Erg, or what's happening at BYs and how they're able to get away with beheading anyone in the modern day.... I also like how later on in the book there seemed to be subtle hints here and there. I can't give away too much, but just pay attention to certain things...

vmwexler's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and WOW was it AMAZING!!!!! It is so refreshing to read a work of YA fantasy that is incredibly different from pretty much everything else out there.

Everything about this book was perfect. The main character, Vassa, was spunky and likeable, and the plot was twisted and creepy in all the right ways. It was fast paced and fun to read, and kept me guessing until the end. It's not for the faint of heart, but I would highly recommend it to lovers of dark fantasy and modern retellings of classic fairy tales.