A review by effy
The Ravening by Daniel Church

4.25

 
I definitely didn’t expect, based on the blurb, to get the story that I did with this book but I had a really good time with it. 

Jenna was 15-years-old when her mother went missing on a dark road. Her life fell to pieces after that but she has clawed her way to the life that she deserved and finally she is happy with her new girlfriend. But Jenna knows as well as anybody that there is evil in the world and she will have to fight like never before if she wants to protect what is important to her.

Based upon the blurb, I think I expected maybe a cult-y story but the majority of the plot revolves around Jenna’s right to choose whether she wants children and people attempting to manipulate that choice away from her. I thought the very real horrors of the world worked well alongside the folk horror elements and I found it very easy to suspend my disbelief as well as kinda empathise with Jenna because of those real-world aspects. I thought that the dynamic between Jenna and her girlfriend, Holly, felt pretty authentic; when Holly rescues Jenna and is awkward and agitated felt very real and I liked that Church leaned into a believability. I also just really appreciated that this book was queer just because.

The final twist to the story that the Bonewalker / Progenitor / Robert would be able to possess Jenna and thus was no longer dead was a really good way to add a final fight into the story. I feel as though I may be in the majority but I think the ending wasn’t my favourite. I think it could have been interesting if the book had ended after the reveal that Jenna could be possessed or even if Jenna had not survived. This being said, I believe that Jenna and Holly getting a happy ending was very deserved and I am not sure if it would have necessarily worked tonally for Jenna to go through all of the horror that she endured to just die or for Robert to win. 

Jenna and Holly were just brilliant characters and the Bonewalker was delightfully menacing.