The Raven’s Tale
By: Cat Winters
Grade: A
Well my finishing an Arc (thanks Netgalley for providing) and getting a review up the day before it comes out is a nice change of pace. So I may have patted myself on the back a little bit.
Even better… I really enjoyed the book! Even if I thought Edgar Allen Poe’s Gothic muse should have been called Penny.
The Raven’s Tale is about young Edgar Allen Poe’s struggle with his place and his art’s place in a world that isn’t exactly friendly to it. This is embodied in an actual physical form of his creepy ass muse that everyone can see. (And quiet enjoys letting people see her.) Also there’s like no reason for her to be called Penny. You can probably guess what she’s called even if you’ve never read Poe. I just thought of Penny and then couldn’t get it out of my head.
She hangs out in graveyards, enjoys scaring people and has no tolerance for the alcohol he so readily downs. Also she’s slowly turning into an actual raven the more she gets Eddy to accept and use his gift.
Overall she was the more interesting character. She’s not the only muse either and the touched upon world of them becoming real and then moving on into true forms and immortality the more there used was also something I enjoyed reading about.
Those moments when they are actually writing together instead of fighting each other are were the book truly excels. Those scenes are bold, fun and cinematic and full of life that does somewhat stilt the other half of this book- Edgar’s relationship with an heiress and his horrid stepfather who would basically like him to go starve. I have a soft spot for anything involving writing and the creative process so I was not surprised this book appealed to me.
I must admit though I haven’t read any of Poe since high school (though The Raven’s Tale makes me want to rectify that) but I thought the writing and those scenes particularly sounded good. There was a beat and rhythm to them that struck me as very Poe like- and a lot of the descriptions even otherwise of things like Eddy’s Helen hit the mark in my opinion.
I also loved Winters book Odd & True so it’s nice that carried over here despite it not being about monster hunting sisters.