By Kaylie Seed
The Witch and the Tsar is a reimagining of the infamous Baba Yaga. For those unfamiliar with Baba Yaga, she is a supernatural being found in Slavic folklore. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, carries a pestle, and lives deep in the forest in a hut that stands on chicken legs. Our main character in The Witch and the Tsar is Yaga, who is loosely based on Baba Yaga. Yaga is a half-goddess healer who keeps to herself in the forest. But when her long-time friend Anastasia—the wife of the tsar—arrives at Yaga’s door suffering from a mysterious illness, Yaga quickly figures out that the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s fate, and Yaga has to protect them both. Yaga witnesses sixteenth century Russia on its way to chaos and Tsar Ivan (based on Ivan the Terrible) is at the centre of all of it.
I really wanted to love this novel, and I enjoyed the historical content, but it ended up falling flat for me. I was looking forward to a strong female lead yet found Yaga to be lacking, missing the power, knowledge, and decision-making that a reader might expect from someone who has lived for centuries; it was disappointing to not see a powerful healer that I was expecting. Ivan the Terrible was very well done and will likely leave readers feeling chilled and spooked. Readers will also notice that there is a lot of telling the reader what is going on rather than showing them, and this can make for an uneventful read.
The pacing for The Witch and the Tsar is extremely slow and the plot is very one-note with few twists and turns along the way. Gilmore still included a number of different themes, including women’s roles and expectations, violence, family both in blood and by choice, manipulation, history, and mental health. Something that I found helpful was the glossary that is found at the end of the novel that covers historical, fairy tale, and mythological key figures as well as places found throughout the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the historical content and felt that it was well researched; it was nice to delve into Slavic history. Anyone who enjoys reimagined folk tales or wants to find out more about Slavic history should take a look at this one.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.