Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Ravens

The Ravens is another urban fantasy novel where I had the feeling that the story and setting had so much potential but sadly, both was not utilised enough. I was first sure that I only would give two stars, but the last third was so much better than the first two that I can give three stars.

There are two main characters: Vivi and Scarlett. Vivi goes to a new college where she discovers that she’s a witch and has to learn about her new powers. Scarlett, on the other hand, is from a famous witch family and is thus longer involved in the magical world. Her goal is it to become the president of her sorority. When strange things happen, both of them have to work together and overcome their differences to stop a greater evil.

Like I’ve said, the beginning of the book was just not that great. One of the main reasons for this is that the relationship drama/the love square(?) is so much in the focus which was just annoying. Another reason is that seemingly dramatic things happen, but they barely have consequences, showing us not why they’re dramatic in the first place. The magic system wasn’t the most creative as well; it includes both elemental magic and tarot cards which is something I’ve both seen before. What I liked though was the focus on sisterhood and how the female characters mostly work together.

Only after two-thirds, the book got interesting, leading to an amazing last third. Magic is now more in the focus and

it’s revealed that Tiffany is evil, killed Dahlia and then pretended to be her

. I loved this but I found it a bit cliché

that it was her goal to heal her mother from cancer

. Just in general, it got much creepier and more atmospheric.

I furthermore liked the college setting but it didn’t feel too authentic since our characters barely go to lectures or something. Another problem I had was with the writing style; some phrases used sounded a bit weird and especially towards the beginning, many interesting plot points are only told and not shown.

This is honestly rare for me, but I have quite a lot to say about the characters. Firstly, I appreciated generally how diverse the cast was but especially at the beginning, there was not really one character that I liked. I couldn’t understand Scarlett’s behaviour at all and that made her unlikable for me; she doesn’t even try to understand the feelings of her boyfriend Mason and is so unnecessary cruel towards Vivi. Mason was also a bit too much for me and it was annoying how offensively he flirted with Vivi. Vivi was okay; her insta love with Mason annoyed me and her character development came a bit too fast, was not very realistic, and told rather than shown. With the love interests, it was so clear from the beginning who would end up with whom. I wished we got a romance between Vivi and Scarlett since there was so much potential for it. What also bothered me were the many characters introduced at the beginning, making it hard to remember their roles.

I’m quite curious what the sequel of The Ravens will be about since it didn’t end with a cliff-hanger, and I don’t have the feeling that there are so many unsolved mysteries. Still, I’m interested in discovering more of the world of this series.

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