Sarah Porter

In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, Vassa uses a magical gift from her dead mother to take on Babs Yaga, the witch who owns the local convenience store. Inspired by the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful.

A Novel

Vassa in the Night

Lacy W

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tw: decapitation, attempted suicide, assault, murder, blood, captivity

I might have to stop reading Russian fairy tale retellings because so far, I have not been a fan of the ones I have read. I didn’t care much for the Bear and the Nightingale. And I did not like Vassa in the Night at all. It was a chore to read and I just did not like it at all. 

During the course of the book, I was bored and confused. I didn’t understand how Baba Yaga could get away with literally murdering people and hanging their heads in the street? This book took place in modern day New York. Even though there was magic involved, I find it hard to believe that no one did anything about this. If you are going to have a magic system in your book, you have to make sure it makes sense, otherwise the reader is just going to be upset. 

While I didn’t care for Vassa, my biggest character complaint lies with Erg. Erg is a magical doll that Vassa takes care of as it was given to her by her mom. Erg was awful! I couldn’t STAND her. She treated Vassa poorly and guilt tripped her all the time. She had no concern that her actions were hurting Vassa and putting Vassa in situations that she couldn’t talk her way out of. Now, I don’t know if Erg is part of the original fairy tale but if she wasn’t, I don’t think she needed to be in this book. She did nothing but upset me. 

I think my problem with the book wasn’t realistic enough. It had a magical system like I mentioned above but it wasn’t blended in well enough. It felt like the magical system was battling to fit into the real world. It just wasn’t well done at all. There were characters in the book that I assume were from the original fairy tale but they didn’t make sense to the world. The whole thing was just a big plot of confusion. 

Overall, I didn’t like this book as you could all probably tell. Maybe I would have liked it if I had read the actual fairy tale? I’ll never know. All I do know is that I need to stay away from Russian fairy tale retellings for a while because so far they have not been a hit with me at all.

Beatrix Haase

4/5
I am finally done. Oh my god that felt like it took forever for me to finish. Now I can finally move on and read another book. Good lord! 

It was a super creepy book at times and it peaked my interest from the start. Dark and moody but super interesting retelling. 

xoxo,
Bebe

Jillian Clare

Laura Yaneth Martinez

Sadly I was diss appointed. I did not connect with this book


i couldn't even physically read and pick up the book. i was just so confused. im pretty sure if youre a fan of whimsy this might be good. but i was looking for whimsical horro vibes & it just ddint hit the mark. 

kinda wish i dnfed but whatever u live &u learn

“A dark, thoroughly modern fairy tale crackling with wit and magical mayhem.” —Leigh Bardugo, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow and Bone “An enchantingly twisted modern fairy tale, perfect for those who prefer Grimm to Disney. Inventive, darkly magical, and beautifully written, it will stay with me for a long time.” — Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns Vassa in the Night is a powerful and haunting modern retelling of the Russian folktale “Vassilissa the Beautiful” for teen fans of urban fantasy, fairy tales, magic, and horror who enjoy books by Leigh Bardugo, Kendare Blake, Catherynne Valente, and V. E. Schwab. In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood. In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Yanelle Ruby

laura

I will admit this was a super odd book and some parts went very over my head. But it was a compelling read. I kept wanting to read more but i did get a tad lost in the details of the story overall.

Iween Suni

Overall:
• the writing is pretty easy to follow through and I could imagine things happening very vividly (and disturbingly because this book is gory) 
• characters: At first I found our main protagonist to be funny in an endearing way. But as the story develops, I found it very difficult to continue reading because of her voice - she is far from what you'd think of a hero and the story follows her through becoming one but even so, I never felt that kind of connection to her. I couldn't find it in me to root for her or to be scared for her and that I'm disappointed by that. Another character is Erg who I did find myself liking a lot. She lives up to the book's quirky vibes and yes, I rooted for her. I feel pretty so-and-so with our villain in the book. She was terrifying for the most part, but also distant. Her presence kind of hung around you but never really too much that I think I would remember her at all soon. Her little mischief squad might have actually had more presence and impact in the story than her, in fact!
• storyline: there was always something going on in every chapter and that was pretty awesome, to me. I didn't feel like it dragged because of how every chapter there was something to look forward to. That said, I was looking for some kind of rhyme or reason to how the events flowed. It's hard to believe that everything happened within the span of a few days in the novel (but well, night carries on for much longer in the book anyways). Although I couldn't find my feet in where the story was going, I thought it was pretty interesting and new and bold. Very weird, not going to lie. But in that sense, it's a one of a kind.
• it was an okay read but I wasn't that into it and was really reading to get to the ending more than ever. Still a good read though for how different it is from anything I've read before!

Babsi Kro

Crazy, absolutely insane but kinda cool- in a weird way

Samantha Bass

Even though this book was super short (less than 300 pages) it was hard to get through. I felt like the book was taking its time, building up action only to speed through the ending! Most scenes were at a slower pace and were very descriptive, at times too much, and it made it hard to get through. I liked a lot of the characters, especially Erg, but at times they were so frustrating! Overall, I enjoyed the read but the story line was somewhat confusing for me. At times I had to reread a passage several times to understand what was going on. Definitely not a favorite, but I didn’t hate it.

Amanda 

Very weird book. I don't mind weird books but this one was kind of hard to follow and dragged on way longer than it needed to. My mind kept wandering and I had to read a lot of paragraphs over again. So it was boring and weird.

Jessie G

This book was so very weird but so very beautiful.

Stefie 

Lisa Beasley

This was a little too weird for me. The writing style was okay and it was a quick read but really really odd. A lot of it didn't make sense to me and I felt things weren't explained enough. The mix of fantasy elements and our world didn't work for me like it has done in other books I've read. The drawings at each chapter heading were great but when that's the best part of the book I think it says a lot. Sadly let down.

Vassa in the Night A Novel

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