Category: ARC

I am just not impressed. It is a decent novel, the pace works, the characters are passable if not memorable (other than Scarlet), but the college setting/sorority as a witch coven thing was not used to its fullest potential. It brings nothing new/exciting to the table. We get so hung up on the background mystery of “what did Scarlett DO?” or “Who is going after the witches?!” that the journey from the new witches is barely explored. From one chapter to the next the new witches are able to do ridiculous amounts of things just from memorizing a book of spells in 24 hours. It is a bummer.

The magic system reminded me so much of Charmed. Witches make things happen by making funky rhymes and sometimes (for the major arcana) getting ingredients for spells. I just, wanted a more subversive experience. I wanted an exploration and melding of college life and the sorority lifestyle-I wanted a 20 somethings read and I feel like The Ravens reads very YA, which makes sense because of the author’s backgrounds but college is about forging into adult territory. The Ravens could have easily been set in an prep school to keep the kids away from their parents with minimal adult supervision and then it would have read a little truer.

There is romance–it is not great. Vivi (the new recruit/witch) is instantly attracted to Mason, who happens to be Scarlett’s boyfriend (shocker). The relationship between Scarlett and Mason is on the rocks after one summer apart though, so you know that ain’t gonna last. My biggest problem was Mason, why in the seven hells are either of these girls into this guy? He is the worst. He was flirting with Vivi while still in a relationship with Scarlett, but has no issue in kissing Scarlett and doing other things. But Scarlett is his issue because he is going through a phase and Scarlett is really confused as to where this sudden change came from (girl, so was I and I barely knew the guy). He is also so BLAND, which I guess it would make sense for him to be into VIVI.

CHARACTERS! Vivi is a bland piece of toast. I’m sorry, but her character is so not interesting. I kept wanting to skip her parts just so I can read from Scarlett’s POV. On the other hand Scarlett is the f ing best–she tries to work on her relationship but understands that there are things more important than this less than stellar guy, like her standing in the sorority and her sisters. Kick Mason to the nearest moon please. Is she a bit self centered and cares too much about pedigree? YES, but those are flaws that the character can overcome/work around. She has issues with her family putting too much pressure on her; she is a product of her upbringing. It makes her interesting to read! While Vivi’s most interesting story line is her “forbidden” romance with Mason, which as I already stated is not great.

I was just disappointed. The Ravens makes for a quick read, if not a memorable one. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table and doesn’t go too deep into developing the college life setting (other than parties and a VERY short and kind of kiddie “Hell Week”). Maybe I’ll pick up the sequel, but probably not.

PS; I was provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review. Thanks go to the publisher!

What starts out as a kind of dystopian novel about a decease then turns into a novel about reality altering magic, with a search for a magical book at the end of it all. My main issue with Hush is it tries to do a lot without fully explaining anything. Where did the ink decease start? When? How? Why is the land that Shea lives in doing so badly? Why is the higher government obsessed with taking away all mentioning, figures, etc., of a supposed “magical” place?

While I thought HUSH was fairly predictable, it still had original aspects. The “Telling” magic was interesting, if not well explained. Nobody that is supposed to be training Shea about Telling is actually explaining to her what it is, origin, what different kind of Tellings you can do. I mean the MC does Telling by way of embroidery (sometimes) which is kind of fascinating, but then it kind of gets forgotten and not discussed until she has an “Eureka!” moment by the very end. From what I could gather a “Telling” is kind of the person’s way to bend reality to fit their purposes. Which is neat, but it has no rules, structure, or limitations, which felt like a way to use it to fit whatever the author needed it to do.

The characters are okay. Shea is a young girl who has spent her life thinking she was cursed by the Ink decease that killed her younger brother. In the beginning of the novel she tries to talk to the bards (those who are trained to do the Telling at will and who come to the towns collecting tithes in exchange for a Telling that might help said town…instead of just doing the Telling to help the town to begin with and help it prosper so they may collect actually good tithes… yeah this system makes no sense to me) about her “curse” but they of course ignore her or just plain tell her to stay away. Then things happen and Shea decides to go after the bards anyways because she needs answers. She is then thrown into a whole other world in which the leader is in search of a secret book that is supposed to solve all of Shea’s problems… but if Shea is only interested in her mother’s murder how does going after a book going to help her? Color me confused as to how easily this leader manipulated her.

The relationships in the novel were complex. Shea gets proposed to by this marshmallow of a guy and she turns him down cause she is not as into him as he is into her (which, neat!) and then Shea of course likes the “dark broody guy” who she makes hundreds of assumptions about before they even spend 20 full minutes together (like, he has been hurt, what lies before the stony exterior, etc.) Overall we don’t spend a great deal of time dealing with romance and I am grateful for that cause it would have been a bit too much. One of the things that seemed like a waste was Shea not forming bonds with the other 6 female guards in the ENTIRE CASTLE. Like she doesn’t seek them out, we don’t even get to know all of them. Kind of sad about the lack of female friendships throughout the book.

Hush was bizarre, but it did move at a good pace. The ideas it had were interesting, but they also weren’t fully explored. The ending left us on a promising note with a full cast of characters and interesting relationships to explore; some of the characters motivations are questionable, as in we got no real glimpse into their change of heart so it felt completely out of the blue, which is just not great character development all around. But if you ignore the glaring lack of character and world development then you may just get lost within the pages.

PS; I was provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review. Thanks go to the publisher!