[Book Review] An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this gorgeous debut novel.

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

1 STAR

This was a major disappointment for me. I was really excited for a fun stand alone fantasy novel. You don't get a lot of stand alone fantasy novels, especially in young adult. But this unfortunately, didn't seem ready to be published. It had a great synopsis, but it was poorly executed. 

The characters are not at all fleshed out. I didn't care about what happened to them because we are thrown into the story without any world or character building. I am such a sucker for a good character driven story, and this is definitely not a good one. But not much happens plot wise either. So without a good cast of characters and/or a good plot it's hard to care about the characters or the events in the story. It made reading the story boring. If I wasn't bored, I was annoyed. It was a bit of an unbearable read. 

I think the story has potential, it's such a unique fantasy world and I would have liked to see the world more. Despite a big chunk of the book being a journey story,  I don't have a clear picture of the world. I think this book needed at least 100-200 more pages of world building and fleshing out the characters. The romance between the two main characters is the textbook definition of insta-love and it's not even a good romance. It happened too quick and it was way too unbelievable. Sometimes if the romance is written well, I can disregard insta-love but there was no chemistry between the two love interests. It was cringe-y and uncomfortable to read. There is a time jump from when they meet to when she's in love with him, so you don't even get to see the romance develop. Because of that, it's hard to believe it. They don't even act like two people who have interacted multiple times over a course of the amount of time it takes to paint a portrait. They're just as formal and stiff with each other throughout the entire story as they were when they first meet.

I don't feel like I can fairly say if I like the writing of this author or not because this book feels unedited and like an early draft. I think if we got a story that was edited and rewritten a few more times the writing could have really shined. I expected a lyrical prose and it was this clunky first person perspective that people who hate reading YA assume this is how all YA books are written. It's juvenile and underwhelming. But there are also moments between the two main character where I see what the writer was trying to do, and it's so close. Their romance felt non-existent, but at the same time I saw a sliver of what Rogerson wanted their friendship to be. And there were moments where the main character, Isobel, describes what painting and making art means to her and how she feels when she creates. I thought those moments were really well written and believable. So there is good parts mixed in with all the parts I didn't like when it comes to the writing.

Overall like I said, this book reads like an early draft of a really cool idea. I don't think I could recommend it based off my read of the book. However, if you read the synopsis and you're still interested, as always I say give it a shot. I have read a lot of reviews saying that An Enchantment of Ravens is trying really hard to be A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, and although I see their point, the idea of fae and courts was not created by Maas. But there are some similarities beyond the obvious fae/court plot point. So like I said, I get it, and if you are going to choose between the two I would say read ACOMAF even if Maas's stories come with their problems also. I have to say that the cover is absolutely gorgeous and it was done by an artist I love, Charlie Bowater.

Thanks for reading!