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thikrayat's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book, even though it gave me nightmares the second day after I finished it, I kept dreaming of these otters replacing my family members, I wrote a full review on it in my blog: http://thatsmemories.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-review-raven-stole-moon-by-garth.html
awesome514's review against another edition
3.0
If this book was a movie, it would be filmed in hues of blue. It was really hard to get through because of the bleakness of the tone. The writing was filled with rich language and the main character was well-developed, but I felt depressed the whole way through. Also, several of the minor characters like Eddie and Joey seemed misplaced in this story. 2.5 stars? 3 stars? I'm not sure how I feel about it.
punipoli's review against another edition
2.0
me gusto tanto "el arte de conducir bajo la lluvia" que me esperaba algo parecido, sin embargo este libro parece escrito por alguien totalmente diferente, no esta escrito poeticamente, asusta un poco, y la verdad aunque estuvo interesante toda la parte sobre los nativos americanos, el folklore, que era algo de lo que nunca habia leido, el libro no me engancho,para mi estuvo bien pero solo eso..
desiree930's review against another edition
1.0
DNF at 50%
I have so many issues with this book. I went as long as I could but I got to the point where I wasn’t even having any fun hate-reading it anymore.
As someone who grew up in Southeast Alaska (on the same island this resort is supposedly located) I find it difficult to believe that this author had even been to Alaska at the time this book was written. He has absolutely no sense of the space and distance of these towns he’s referring to. He says that the resort is near Klawock. Btw, I grew up in a town 7 miles from Klawock, Alaska. Then he also says, over and over again, that the resort is close to Wrangell, AK. This makes no sense. Prince of Wales Island is the third largest island in the United States. Klawock is on the western coast of the island. Wrangell Island, where Wrangell is located, is to the east of prince of Wales island. It just can’t be close to both. Especially when you consider that when this book was written, most of the roads around Prince of Wales were logging roads, especially in the Northern part of the island, which would be the closest to Wrangell Island. It would take a fair chunk of time to get there from Klawock. It may seem very nitpicky to some, but as someone who literally grew up there, it seemed very obvious that he didn’t have a lot of first-hand knowledge of the geography.
Also, there were several instances of stereotyping in this book with reference to the Tlingit people. It’s really a shame, especially since the author himself touts his ‘verified blood quantum’, seemingly as an excuse to make stuff up. First, there is a character who is a shaman, and is brought in to cleanse the resort of spirits. I’ve never once met a Tlingit shaman in my life.
In doing a little research, I learned that while shamanism was a prevalent part of Tlingit religious history, it is just that: history. When Christian missionaries converted the Tlingit to Christianity in the late nineteenth century, shamanism dwindled until it pretty much disappeared by the 1930s. I got my information from a Duke University article titled: Shamanism and Christianity: modern-day Tlingit elders look to the past.
Now I’m not saying that an author isn’t allowed to take a little bit of artistic license, but in this case I feel like people reading this who know nothing of the Tlingit culture may end up with an inaccurate impression of it.
Some other stereotypes include:
-Every native character described in this book (as far as I read) was described as having waist-length, straight black hair.
-Most natives are described as having leathery faces.
-Everyone is obsessed with the Kushtaka. I, along with most of the Southeast AK population, know the story of the Kushtaka. I had friends whose parents used it in almost the same way the boogeyman is used for the rest of us- as a cautionary tale to get children to behave. But it wasn’t something that was talked about ad nauseum. I get that this is supposed to be kind of a horror book with the Kushtaka as its villain, but the number of conversations revolving around this creature became boring and repetitive.
Now that I’ve got my technical gripes out of the way, the story itself just isn’t good. Jenna is the worst. This is not a real woman. This is the author’s fantasy of a woman. When we first meet her she’s dancing around her husband naked trying to seduce him while they are supposed to be getting ready for a party. Later, after she runs off with her husband’s vehicle and is pulled over for speeding, she gets turned on by the cop...who pulled a freaking gun on her when she tried to step out of the vehicle instead of rolling the window down and staying put like any normal person. She actually tries to flirt with him while thinking that all women love a man in uniform and ‘good porn movies start out this way.’
...HE HAD A GUN PULLED ON HER AND ALL SHE CAN THINK ABOUT IS HOW FUN IT WOULD BE TO HAVE SEX WITH A COP.
Later she gets all twitterpated for Eddie after knowing him for about five minutes. Seriously, less than half a day and she’s talking about how she knows they both want it and blah, blah, blah. Then she tries to make her husband feel bad to justify her cheating behavior. I hated this main character. So, so much. I was rooting for the Kushtaka.
Even though I could go on and on about the things I hated about this book, I’m just going to talk about one more thing, and that is how this book was marketed. Now, I don’t know about the original version. I’m only talking about the reprint that was done a few years back. From the cover and the synopsis, this is presented as a literary fiction/ chick lit type of book. I was very surprised to learn that it is turned into basically a fantasy-horror novel. I didn’t like that. Now that has more to do with the publishers than the author, but still. It added to my dislike.
If you want to read a great book about Alaska, pick up The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Also The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock. And if you’re truly interested in Tlingit culture and storytelling, I suggest you pick up a mythology book or a non-fiction title. They will be a hell of a lot more accurate than this mess.
I have so many issues with this book. I went as long as I could but I got to the point where I wasn’t even having any fun hate-reading it anymore.
As someone who grew up in Southeast Alaska (on the same island this resort is supposedly located) I find it difficult to believe that this author had even been to Alaska at the time this book was written. He has absolutely no sense of the space and distance of these towns he’s referring to. He says that the resort is near Klawock. Btw, I grew up in a town 7 miles from Klawock, Alaska. Then he also says, over and over again, that the resort is close to Wrangell, AK. This makes no sense. Prince of Wales Island is the third largest island in the United States. Klawock is on the western coast of the island. Wrangell Island, where Wrangell is located, is to the east of prince of Wales island. It just can’t be close to both. Especially when you consider that when this book was written, most of the roads around Prince of Wales were logging roads, especially in the Northern part of the island, which would be the closest to Wrangell Island. It would take a fair chunk of time to get there from Klawock. It may seem very nitpicky to some, but as someone who literally grew up there, it seemed very obvious that he didn’t have a lot of first-hand knowledge of the geography.
Also, there were several instances of stereotyping in this book with reference to the Tlingit people. It’s really a shame, especially since the author himself touts his ‘verified blood quantum’, seemingly as an excuse to make stuff up. First, there is a character who is a shaman, and is brought in to cleanse the resort of spirits. I’ve never once met a Tlingit shaman in my life.
In doing a little research, I learned that while shamanism was a prevalent part of Tlingit religious history, it is just that: history. When Christian missionaries converted the Tlingit to Christianity in the late nineteenth century, shamanism dwindled until it pretty much disappeared by the 1930s. I got my information from a Duke University article titled: Shamanism and Christianity: modern-day Tlingit elders look to the past.
Now I’m not saying that an author isn’t allowed to take a little bit of artistic license, but in this case I feel like people reading this who know nothing of the Tlingit culture may end up with an inaccurate impression of it.
Some other stereotypes include:
-Every native character described in this book (as far as I read) was described as having waist-length, straight black hair.
-Most natives are described as having leathery faces.
-Everyone is obsessed with the Kushtaka. I, along with most of the Southeast AK population, know the story of the Kushtaka. I had friends whose parents used it in almost the same way the boogeyman is used for the rest of us- as a cautionary tale to get children to behave. But it wasn’t something that was talked about ad nauseum. I get that this is supposed to be kind of a horror book with the Kushtaka as its villain, but the number of conversations revolving around this creature became boring and repetitive.
Now that I’ve got my technical gripes out of the way, the story itself just isn’t good. Jenna is the worst. This is not a real woman. This is the author’s fantasy of a woman. When we first meet her she’s dancing around her husband naked trying to seduce him while they are supposed to be getting ready for a party. Later, after she runs off with her husband’s vehicle and is pulled over for speeding, she gets turned on by the cop...who pulled a freaking gun on her when she tried to step out of the vehicle instead of rolling the window down and staying put like any normal person. She actually tries to flirt with him while thinking that all women love a man in uniform and ‘good porn movies start out this way.’
...HE HAD A GUN PULLED ON HER AND ALL SHE CAN THINK ABOUT IS HOW FUN IT WOULD BE TO HAVE SEX WITH A COP.
Later she gets all twitterpated for Eddie after knowing him for about five minutes. Seriously, less than half a day and she’s talking about how she knows they both want it and blah, blah, blah. Then she tries to make her husband feel bad to justify her cheating behavior. I hated this main character. So, so much. I was rooting for the Kushtaka.
Even though I could go on and on about the things I hated about this book, I’m just going to talk about one more thing, and that is how this book was marketed. Now, I don’t know about the original version. I’m only talking about the reprint that was done a few years back. From the cover and the synopsis, this is presented as a literary fiction/ chick lit type of book. I was very surprised to learn that it is turned into basically a fantasy-horror novel. I didn’t like that. Now that has more to do with the publishers than the author, but still. It added to my dislike.
If you want to read a great book about Alaska, pick up The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Also The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock. And if you’re truly interested in Tlingit culture and storytelling, I suggest you pick up a mythology book or a non-fiction title. They will be a hell of a lot more accurate than this mess.
lisa_rwrmusings's review against another edition
3.0
I love Garth Stein's style more with every book, but I will admit this was not my favorite book of his. I did enjoy it, and I would recommend it, but I would recommend his other books first. Garth Stein is definitely one of my favorite authors, and I will read anything that he writes!!
thereadingoutlaw's review
3.0
Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein was sent to me as an ARC by Terra Communications, and I couldn’t be more grateful for just how wonderful the book was! One of my biggest issues with accepting ARCs is the pull between being honest about the review and still doing service to the group asking for the review. With this book, however, that won’t at all be a problem!
The story takes place in Wrangell, Alaska, primarily, amongst the Tlingit Native American population. Now, this is completely serendipitious because, as of late, a friend of mine, Gingerboy, has begun telling me more and more about his own Native American roots, setting me on a little bit of an obsessive path – I’ve been reading all the Native American short stories and legends I can get my hands on lately. This story focuses primarily on the myth of the kushtaka, spirits that are half-otter, half-human and exist to “save” the drowning (or other wayward souls) by taking them into their spirit world and converting them into kushtaka. However, once a kushtaka, the person’s soul can never cross into the Land of Dead Souls, which is the worst possible fate for the Tlingit, who believe in reincarnation of the soul, but only from the Land of Dead Souls.
The book tells the story of Jenna and Robert, whose son drowns at a resort that’s about to be opened on Tlingit ground. Two years later, Jenna returns to Wrangell (for the first time since her son Bobby’s death) to confront this loss and, along the way finds a spirit guide a dog named Oscar, a love in a man named Eddie, and an adventure between the spirit worlds facilitated by a brave and crafty shaman David Livingstone (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume…” for all those African history buffs out there!) The novel tackles head-on the line between a culture’s local legends and it’s realities, and just how hard it can be to overcome our own human cynicism and believe something that may be unbelievable but is right in front of us, none the less.
The novel had absolutely wonderful moments – Stein’s writing style is absolutely wonderful to get lost in – and, surprisingly enough, the book does a remarkable job at staying grounded in as much reality as possible. When you have a book that features an old shaman burrowing underground to the home of soul-stealing otter-people, it can become very easily for that book to become completely removed from reality. But Stein’s emotions and slow evolution of the story keeps that from happening.
However, there were a few small issues I had with the book (although these really are more matters of taste than any kind of concrete issues with the book). The first of which is that, by the end of the book, Jenna doesn’t end up with the person I would’ve liked her to. Stein did such a great job of pushing other narrative boundaries (his writing, at times, borders on stream-of-consciousness and the twists he gives his metaphors are almost always unexpected) that it would’ve been nice to seem him try and branch out of this one last expected plot device.
I also had a few issues with the intelligence of some of the characters, especially in relation to being able to recognize a kushtaka. Part of the charm of the kushtaka is that they can take on the shape of people that you know and love. Everyone seems to know this about them. And yet, all the time, the characters of the novel are randomly and blindly following people they “know” out into dark moonlit nights along creepy paths. Because that’s not weird at all? Just one of those things that by about the fifteenth time gets to be a bit too much.
All in all, the book was a wonderful read and did a great job of taking me to small-town Alaska, where life is governed by a different set of beliefs and societal rules. Stein’s writing will wrap you up and, while the book didn’t fly by, it’s middling pace wasn’t at all a problem!
The story takes place in Wrangell, Alaska, primarily, amongst the Tlingit Native American population. Now, this is completely serendipitious because, as of late, a friend of mine, Gingerboy, has begun telling me more and more about his own Native American roots, setting me on a little bit of an obsessive path – I’ve been reading all the Native American short stories and legends I can get my hands on lately. This story focuses primarily on the myth of the kushtaka, spirits that are half-otter, half-human and exist to “save” the drowning (or other wayward souls) by taking them into their spirit world and converting them into kushtaka. However, once a kushtaka, the person’s soul can never cross into the Land of Dead Souls, which is the worst possible fate for the Tlingit, who believe in reincarnation of the soul, but only from the Land of Dead Souls.
The book tells the story of Jenna and Robert, whose son drowns at a resort that’s about to be opened on Tlingit ground. Two years later, Jenna returns to Wrangell (for the first time since her son Bobby’s death) to confront this loss and, along the way finds a spirit guide a dog named Oscar, a love in a man named Eddie, and an adventure between the spirit worlds facilitated by a brave and crafty shaman David Livingstone (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume…” for all those African history buffs out there!) The novel tackles head-on the line between a culture’s local legends and it’s realities, and just how hard it can be to overcome our own human cynicism and believe something that may be unbelievable but is right in front of us, none the less.
The novel had absolutely wonderful moments – Stein’s writing style is absolutely wonderful to get lost in – and, surprisingly enough, the book does a remarkable job at staying grounded in as much reality as possible. When you have a book that features an old shaman burrowing underground to the home of soul-stealing otter-people, it can become very easily for that book to become completely removed from reality. But Stein’s emotions and slow evolution of the story keeps that from happening.
However, there were a few small issues I had with the book (although these really are more matters of taste than any kind of concrete issues with the book). The first of which is that, by the end of the book, Jenna doesn’t end up with the person I would’ve liked her to. Stein did such a great job of pushing other narrative boundaries (his writing, at times, borders on stream-of-consciousness and the twists he gives his metaphors are almost always unexpected) that it would’ve been nice to seem him try and branch out of this one last expected plot device.
I also had a few issues with the intelligence of some of the characters, especially in relation to being able to recognize a kushtaka. Part of the charm of the kushtaka is that they can take on the shape of people that you know and love. Everyone seems to know this about them. And yet, all the time, the characters of the novel are randomly and blindly following people they “know” out into dark moonlit nights along creepy paths. Because that’s not weird at all? Just one of those things that by about the fifteenth time gets to be a bit too much.
All in all, the book was a wonderful read and did a great job of taking me to small-town Alaska, where life is governed by a different set of beliefs and societal rules. Stein’s writing will wrap you up and, while the book didn’t fly by, it’s middling pace wasn’t at all a problem!
keenanmaree's review against another edition
3.0
I have really mixed feeling about this book. It was way creepier than I was expecting, and I LOVED that aspect of it. I wanted even more of it. All of the supernatural, mythological stuff was fascinating and a lot of fun to read. I even got caught up a tiny bit in the romance side of the story, though I got tired of that very quickly. I just have very little patience for love triangles.
There were also a few things I had issues with, most of which I tried to shrug off as the result of this book having been written in the 90s, and thus certain ways of thinking/behaving on the part of the characters are a bit outdated. The most glaring example of this is the character Joey. Dude is a certifiable psychopath, and he faces ZERO consequences for his actions. He breaks into an old man's house, tortures said old man, and shoots a dog, and the worst that he gets is a stern "don't ever come back here" from the sheriff, because arresting him is more paperwork than the sheriff wants to deal with.
Overall I really enjoyed most of this book. If there had been just a bit less romance fluff, and if someone had shot Joey in the face, I probably would have love the book.
There were also a few things I had issues with, most of which I tried to shrug off as the result of this book having been written in the 90s, and thus certain ways of thinking/behaving on the part of the characters are a bit outdated. The most glaring example of this is the character Joey. Dude is a certifiable psychopath, and he faces ZERO consequences for his actions. He breaks into an old man's house, tortures said old man, and shoots a dog, and the worst that he gets is a stern "don't ever come back here" from the sheriff, because arresting him is more paperwork than the sheriff wants to deal with.
Overall I really enjoyed most of this book. If there had been just a bit less romance fluff, and if someone had shot Joey in the face, I probably would have love the book.
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