Title: The Raven’s Tale
Author: Cat Winters
Genre: historical fiction, gothic, young adult
Pages: 368
Publication date: April 16th 2019
Goodreads rating: 3.66
My Rating: 4
Trigger warning: death, blood, ghosts, violence
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”
Review:
“Give me a name that means “light”, not shadow, and we may be able to show them there’s beauty in horror.”
I’m very emotional because this is the first ARC that I got approved on Edelweiss! And it’s from one of my favourite authors!
The cover is amazing, and shows perfectly the character of Lenore, Edgar’s muse.
Let me say this: Cat Winters is fantastic writing gothic and horror books. She has a talent to let you fall into the story.
In The Raven’s tale, I completely fell in love with Lenore from the very first time she appears on the page.
However, this is not the best Winter’s book, and that’s why: we understand that it’s made for a younger audience, so the writing style is lighter and easier to read; we read of the conflict of young Edgar, who want to be a student in a prestigious university but it’s attracted to this dark and frightening Muse; we also participate in his success and his failures, but in the end we know that he has indulged in the horror tales that Lenore inspires him.
I comprehend that with this story we know more about the young Poe, about his family and what in the world inspires him to write, but in the end I was like: well, he’s known to everyone for his horror tales, so I already know that he will follow Lenore, no matter what.
“There’s nothing wrong with tales of fright and horror told late at night. They make your listeners appreciate waking up in the morning, discovering they’re still alive.”
But the most disappointing thing in this book is the ending: I honestly thought it will be another chapter but no, it finishes like this, with a scene that seems to lead to a great revelation and a great scene of Lenore and in fact it ends with nothing.
I was also disappointed because in the ending that’s not a reference or a connection to the most famous poem of Poe, The Raven. With a horror muse that resembles a raven, and with this title, I was eager to read a scene when Edgar writes the poem with Lenore on his shoulder.
To conclude this review: the setting and the characters are all well done, we know better about Poe, but this is really far away from the first and still best book of Cat Winters “In the shadow of blackbirds”.
All the quotes are from my ARC copy, that I received in exchange for an honest review.
Fortunately, the book 