Title: Vassa in the Night

Author: Sarah Porter

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Tor Teen

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 296

Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

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 away 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…

Review:

This book was strange. It is based off of the Russian folklore tale, Vassilisa. But this is a modern retelling set in Brooklyn. I’ve never read the story of Vassilisa, but I’ve heard a couple stories about Baba Yagga, who is the antagonist in this story.

Vassa lives with her two sisters and step mother. Her father has disappeared and her mother is dead, and all she has is a doll her mother left her to keep her company. One night, she goes into the frightful store called BY’s. when she goes in, she learns a lot more than she expected, about the crazy owner of the store, as well as about her own self!

I’m not sure if it was the weirdness of the story, but it took me a long time to get into this book. The beginning was very slow, and it also took me a while to get connected to Vassa. But near the end I started to get connected to her and wanted to know what happened. So if you are interested in reading retellings of folktales, then I would recommend you read this and form an opinion for yourself!

Happy reading!