Daniel Church: "The Ravening" (ARC Review)

Title: The Ravening [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Daniel Church [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Intriguing premise. Badass and resourceful heroine. Tight action. Fascinating dreamworld.
Cons: The supernatural aspect is a lot less prominent than one would expect, until late in the story. The main character can be abrasive and goes from mistrust to love in a jiffy. The "historical" interpolations are a bit tedious and not really necessary. There's a questionable sex scene, and a string of repetitions ("babe", "girl" "stupid cow") that get old fast.
WARNING! Blood, gore, violence, murder, dismemberment, near-drowning, fire. Familial trauma, kidnapping, imprisonment, forced pregnancy, attempted suicide, homophobia, bullying, copious swearing. Contains a detailed F/F sex scene.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a mixture of thriller and supernatural with plenty of action. Those who can get behind a tough female character without a maternal bone in her body.

Blurb: Jenna's life has always been a fight. From the traumatic and mysterious loss of her mother on a dark woodland road when she was fifteen, to the abusive and controlling boyfriend she's recently escaped, she has learned that trust hurts you in the end. Now Jenna's found what she hopes is happiness with her new girlfriend, Holly. But the world is full of darkness - some of it ancient, some of it closer to home... Evil, and those who serve it, will not let Jenna go. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Watkins Publishing LTD/Angry Robot for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MAGICAL CRESCENDO

I'll be honest: I expected The Ravening to be less of an action-y thriller and more of a "classic" supernatural haunting. But though I would have liked to spend more time in the dreamworld Church created because it was super-cool (and because that's how I roll 😉), I appreciated how he slowly introduced more and more supernatural cues into a seemingly average (well, in a manner of speaking) abduction-and-escape story, only to finally give the fantastical elements center stage and reveal the mythological foundations of his narrative (I'm not going to be more specific in order to avoid spoilers, but basically, Church put a wild and creative spin on a well-known classical myth). It's a testament to the author's ability to weave a tale that never lets up - and to come up with a flawed, yet relatable and strong heroine - if I was able to enjoy a story employing one of my less favourite narrative devices (the aforementioned abduction-and-escape), so chances are that those of you who aren't fond of this kind of stories will be entertained enough to read on, and get to the supernatural bits in all their glory 🙂. [...]

STRENGTH OF CHARACTER

I know the phrase "strong heroine" is sometimes thrown around carelessly and has become a cliché, but Jenna is, indeed, a force of nature. Of course she has to make some questionable choices in order to flee her prison and regain control of her body and her life, once she finds herself pregnant against her will and destined to become a human incubator. Personally, I didn't have a problem with her not caring about the baby growing in her womb even after the acceptable terms for pregnancy terminations, though it might bother even some people who genuinely believe in pro-choice - it makes complete sense, especially given the situation, and it's sort of refreshing to realise that Jenna doesn't have a hypocritical bone in her body (along with a maternal one). She's resourceful, brave and relentless, and I very much enjoyed her mouthing off to her captors even in the most desperate moments. On the other hand, if her abrasive and mistrusting personality can be forgiven for a number of reasons, I found her relationship with her girlfriend to be unbalanced at best (at least until halfway through), and the alternation between love and paranoia a bit tiresome (along with her calling poor Holly "stupid cow" from time to time). And don't get me started on the random, super-detailed sex scene...apart from my stance about graphic sex in books where it doesn't belong (and my personal dislike of sex scenes in general), I have strong objections to a male author writing a lesbian sexual encounter. Regardless, the rest of the story more than made up for that, and the unexpected, intense epilogue had me on the edge of my seat. All in all, I found The Ravening to be a frantic, cinematic specimen of eldritch horror with lots of cool ideas and a protagonist (and sidekick) you can get behind, and anyone willing to embrace the marriage between thriller and supernatural shouldn't miss it.

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