It takes a very masterful writter to mislead the reader so deftly and pull such a huge twist that is completely surprising but totally seamless with the rest of the story. The ending totally caught me by surprise, but then when I stopped to think about it I realized that there were a lot of carefully hidden hints throughout the story that supported the surprise ending. There are a lot of twists and turns and by the end of the story no one is who you thought they would be and everyone is different from what you initially expected. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time trying to figure out and predict what was going on. The suspense behind who/what the witch of Duva is and around the strange case of the disappearing girls is absolutely engrossing.

They are so well developed and really came alive for me even though this was a very short story. I was surprised at how engaging and entertaining all of the characters in this story were. She is forced into a desperate situation where she must flee into the forest and confront the very thing that has always haunted her. She’s a young girl with an okay life, but then as circumstances change and her father marries another woman and things get worse and worse for her. Nadya is an excellent heroine, she is so easy to sympathize with. She gets to test the tale when her evil stepmom forces her out of the house at night and she finds herself at the door of the Witch of Duva herself.īardugo has said that Hansel and Gretel influenced this folktale, and you can definitely see the influences here.although this tale kind of turns Hansel and Gretel on its head. The woods outside of Duva are said to eat girls, at least that has what Nadya has been raised believing. The characters were absolutely engaging and the story just sucked me right in. I was amazed at what a great story Bardugo wove in such a small space.

The witch of duva