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telly_in_town's review against another edition
3.0
Generally I think this was a good book. It lost me a bit near the end middle but I gained it back in the last few chapters. I do think it was a tad drumming over the same subjects and notions throughout I didn’t sense any building up in this Novell.
sk_206064's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
cosmically_jaded's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cosmically_jaded's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
billerdakotah's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
lisawreading's review against another edition
4.0
In The Raven's Tale, muses are considered dangerous to the soul, yet at the same time, they're acknowledged to exist. The Sunday sermon exhorts the congregation to "Silence your muses!" lest they lead you into temptation and keep you from pursuing an honest, hardworking, upright life. Such is the world in which we meet young Edgar Allan Poe, a 17-year-old devoted to poetry whose foster father wants to see him settled in the family business as a clerk. It's all about respectability!
Poor Eddy! He's consumed by thoughts of a deadly Richmond theater fire from eleven years earlier, and from his obsession with the fire, his muse emerges into life. His attention makes her more and more real, a girl of smoke and ashes who assumes human form and accompanies Edgar through the streets and in his home, leading him to greater and greater devotion to his writing. Edgar's goal is to escape his awful father and begin his university studies, where he hopes to achieve greatness through his poetry -- but the dream is on the verge of slipping away as his financial situation becomes dire and he's forced into debt and out of control gambling in a futile attempt to pay for his fees.
The idea of personification of muses is an interesting one (and there's also a secondary muse, who represents Poe's forays into satire). We see how Edgar becomes consumed by his obsessions with his art, and if we didn't know that his friends and family are all able to see his muses as well, we might think he'd tumbled into madness.
The concept is unique and inventive. The author weaves together her extensive research into Poe's youth with her flights of fancy in his interactions with the muse. Sprinkled throughout are both lines from what will become his published work and other rhymes and verses that are written by Cat Winters in the style of Edgar Allan Poe. It's fun to see the use of his style, and seems credible that his great works could have started in bits and pieces, with all sorts of variations, as they do here.
Overall, I thought The Raven's Tale mostly (but not totally) successful. It's an interesting and engaging read, but the reality of the muses was not entirely believable. I'm not sure that the balance between established history and invented fantasy really works well, but as someone not previously familiar with Poe's early years, I found the parts based on real-life events especially interesting.
The writing takes on all sorts of rhythms and moods that feel true to the Poe of popular imagination, and that makes reading The Raven's Tale a treat (despite some of the plot bumps).
Don't you just love that line?
Poor Eddy! He's consumed by thoughts of a deadly Richmond theater fire from eleven years earlier, and from his obsession with the fire, his muse emerges into life. His attention makes her more and more real, a girl of smoke and ashes who assumes human form and accompanies Edgar through the streets and in his home, leading him to greater and greater devotion to his writing. Edgar's goal is to escape his awful father and begin his university studies, where he hopes to achieve greatness through his poetry -- but the dream is on the verge of slipping away as his financial situation becomes dire and he's forced into debt and out of control gambling in a futile attempt to pay for his fees.
The idea of personification of muses is an interesting one (and there's also a secondary muse, who represents Poe's forays into satire). We see how Edgar becomes consumed by his obsessions with his art, and if we didn't know that his friends and family are all able to see his muses as well, we might think he'd tumbled into madness.
The concept is unique and inventive. The author weaves together her extensive research into Poe's youth with her flights of fancy in his interactions with the muse. Sprinkled throughout are both lines from what will become his published work and other rhymes and verses that are written by Cat Winters in the style of Edgar Allan Poe. It's fun to see the use of his style, and seems credible that his great works could have started in bits and pieces, with all sorts of variations, as they do here.
Overall, I thought The Raven's Tale mostly (but not totally) successful. It's an interesting and engaging read, but the reality of the muses was not entirely believable. I'm not sure that the balance between established history and invented fantasy really works well, but as someone not previously familiar with Poe's early years, I found the parts based on real-life events especially interesting.
The writing takes on all sorts of rhythms and moods that feel true to the Poe of popular imagination, and that makes reading The Raven's Tale a treat (despite some of the plot bumps).
Whenever I'm not writing, time trudges forward with the maddening, mortifying, miserable, morose, moribund pace of a funeral procession.
Don't you just love that line?
betwixt_the_pages's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 5/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: gothic atmosphere, haunting prose, grisly tale; Cat Winters has impressed me once again!; this is a beautiful blend of "historical" and "fiction"; dark, gritty; something you can really sink your teeth into and tear apart; love the inclusion of Poe's poetry
HUGE thanks to Cat Winters, Amulet Books Publishing, and Netgalley for sending a free galley of this title my way in exchange for a review! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this book.
And WHAT a tremendous read this was! I was transported in time to a world where muses were substantial, where muses were often feared--and where Edgar Allan Poe struggled to "find" himself. It is a struggle that I find particularly touching, given how often I found myself "daydreaming" and "writing frivolously" during my middle and high school careers. While I have not accomplished a fame akin to Poe...I can understand his dilemma with having a gothic muse. With writing verses that most found morbid and haunting and unacceptable. This made me feel for Poe. But this also made me feel for LENORE.
I really ADORE how beautifully Cat Winters wove the historical aspects of Poe's every day, real world life...with that of the shambling, arguing muses warring in his head (and, in this book, in his bedroom). The ways that Lenore shifts and changes throughout, depending upon Poe's acceptance or his disillusionment of her, only made her breathe more fully in my mind. Having read many of Poe's pieces throughout my schooling, I found it superbly interesting to dive into this book and try to get a better "glimpse" into his head. Cat Winters took on quite a large task, here...and she wove this story GORGEOUSLY.
This was a compelling, compulsory read for me--as soon as I knew who the main characters were, I KNEW I needed to read it. The inclusion of Poe's actual poetry lent credence to the gothic atmosphere that followed Lenore's transformations. I also really enjoyed the Author's Note at the end, that helped to fill in some blanks and show where the historical met the fiction. Cat Winters is a QUEEN at crafting worlds that will suck you in and refuse to release you; if you haven't picked her up before, you should definitely do so now! Be wary of the muses, Penguins; sometimes, to accept them is to hurt.
Quick Reasons: gothic atmosphere, haunting prose, grisly tale; Cat Winters has impressed me once again!; this is a beautiful blend of "historical" and "fiction"; dark, gritty; something you can really sink your teeth into and tear apart; love the inclusion of Poe's poetry
HUGE thanks to Cat Winters, Amulet Books Publishing, and Netgalley for sending a free galley of this title my way in exchange for a review! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this book.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! I imagine myself saying from the pulpit in the pink sanctuary of our church. My name is Edgar Poe, and today, for reasons I don't fully comprehend, I am obsessed with the seventy-two bodies buried beneath us.
And WHAT a tremendous read this was! I was transported in time to a world where muses were substantial, where muses were often feared--and where Edgar Allan Poe struggled to "find" himself. It is a struggle that I find particularly touching, given how often I found myself "daydreaming" and "writing frivolously" during my middle and high school careers. While I have not accomplished a fame akin to Poe...I can understand his dilemma with having a gothic muse. With writing verses that most found morbid and haunting and unacceptable. This made me feel for Poe. But this also made me feel for LENORE.
I really ADORE how beautifully Cat Winters wove the historical aspects of Poe's every day, real world life...with that of the shambling, arguing muses warring in his head (and, in this book, in his bedroom). The ways that Lenore shifts and changes throughout, depending upon Poe's acceptance or his disillusionment of her, only made her breathe more fully in my mind. Having read many of Poe's pieces throughout my schooling, I found it superbly interesting to dive into this book and try to get a better "glimpse" into his head. Cat Winters took on quite a large task, here...and she wove this story GORGEOUSLY.
Morella's yellow eyes peer at me from beneath her white lashes. "Do not forget, Lenore, you look like a girl to these lady spirits--and an odd, winged raven one at that."
I lower the hat to my head with a smile. "And yet I woo like a handsome Southern gentleman poet, and that's what matters most."
"Don't risk your life chasing after his darlings. You'll get yourself killed."
This was a compelling, compulsory read for me--as soon as I knew who the main characters were, I KNEW I needed to read it. The inclusion of Poe's actual poetry lent credence to the gothic atmosphere that followed Lenore's transformations. I also really enjoyed the Author's Note at the end, that helped to fill in some blanks and show where the historical met the fiction. Cat Winters is a QUEEN at crafting worlds that will suck you in and refuse to release you; if you haven't picked her up before, you should definitely do so now! Be wary of the muses, Penguins; sometimes, to accept them is to hurt.
jenlovesbooks's review
3.0
Thanks to #partner @netgalley for an egalley of The Raven’s Tale in exchange for an honest review.
Cat Winters’s The Raven’s Tale is a sort of origin story focusing on a seventeen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe struggling to find self-acceptance. Poe has an early conflict in nearly every facet of his life. His adoptive father, John, expects young Edgar to give up his art for a “more serious” career in something like business, holding hostage funding for Poe’s education in exchange for his compliance. Edgar also fights against his own poverty-stricken beginnings, in the disparity between the luxurious lives of his current peers and his childhood with impoverished actors. His society as a whole is set against him. His church criticizes his parents’ lifestyle and is literally built on the ashes of their theater. His friends and romantic interests can not definitively move past his low parentage. And there is, again, Pa, who does not hesitate to remind him of every area in which he falls short.
Enter: Edgar’s muse. Yes, his muse, Lenore, comes into his life as the physical embodiment of a grotesque drawing, there to provoke and bully Poe into accepting his affinity for death and all things Gothic. Lenore can be seen not only by Eddy, but by everyone, and as she moves through his world, she unsettles everyone because of her ghastly appearance and her disturbing behavior. The novel moves through the alternating perspectives of Poe and Lenore, and her presence is a definite reminder of the place of women (and, particularly, dead women) in Poe’s stories, of women’s morbid hold on his imagination and of “the beauty in horror” (loc. 376).
In The Raven’s Tale, Winters takes the historical facts of Poe’s life and embeds them into a world reflective of the fantasy he embraces in his writing, one where ghosts and spirits are real, where his muse torments him (and competes with a second, more conventional, male muse), and where Poe’s sporadic use of alcohol makes him unable to write . . . because it makes his muse sleep. Through the novel, Poe fights his inclination toward darkness because he does not think he will find acceptance if he follows that path.
The strength of this book lies in its enthusiasm for its subject matter. Winters clearly loves Poe, his life, and his poetry, and she immerses the reader in his style. This immersion happens most clearly in Lenore’s chapters, where Winters writes in mimicry of Poe: “I awaken in the shadows, ravenous for words, hungering for delicacies dripping with dread” (loc. 155). As Lenore strengthens, the style intensifies, demonstrating the increasing bond between artist and muse. Winters’s describes her research in an extensive Author’s Note, which is fascinating in its consideration of the connections between this novel and Poe’s life.
Though I found many elements of The Raven’s Tale appealing--including the grounding in historical detail and the incorporation of Poe’s early writing process--the novel didn’t completely work for me. The characters fell short: though I love fantasy (the more complex and strange the world, the better), I never felt as if I had my footing in this realm of embodied muses, and Poe himself felt more like a collection of character traits and information than a fully realized character.
The Raven’s Tale, which will be published on April 16, 2019, is a solid choice for those readers interesting in learning more about Poe or beginning to imagine how he embraced the darkness that came to dominate his art. It did not, however, succeed in capturing my imagination or the spirit that makes Poe’s works so captivating for readers.
Cat Winters’s The Raven’s Tale is a sort of origin story focusing on a seventeen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe struggling to find self-acceptance. Poe has an early conflict in nearly every facet of his life. His adoptive father, John, expects young Edgar to give up his art for a “more serious” career in something like business, holding hostage funding for Poe’s education in exchange for his compliance. Edgar also fights against his own poverty-stricken beginnings, in the disparity between the luxurious lives of his current peers and his childhood with impoverished actors. His society as a whole is set against him. His church criticizes his parents’ lifestyle and is literally built on the ashes of their theater. His friends and romantic interests can not definitively move past his low parentage. And there is, again, Pa, who does not hesitate to remind him of every area in which he falls short.
Enter: Edgar’s muse. Yes, his muse, Lenore, comes into his life as the physical embodiment of a grotesque drawing, there to provoke and bully Poe into accepting his affinity for death and all things Gothic. Lenore can be seen not only by Eddy, but by everyone, and as she moves through his world, she unsettles everyone because of her ghastly appearance and her disturbing behavior. The novel moves through the alternating perspectives of Poe and Lenore, and her presence is a definite reminder of the place of women (and, particularly, dead women) in Poe’s stories, of women’s morbid hold on his imagination and of “the beauty in horror” (loc. 376).
In The Raven’s Tale, Winters takes the historical facts of Poe’s life and embeds them into a world reflective of the fantasy he embraces in his writing, one where ghosts and spirits are real, where his muse torments him (and competes with a second, more conventional, male muse), and where Poe’s sporadic use of alcohol makes him unable to write . . . because it makes his muse sleep. Through the novel, Poe fights his inclination toward darkness because he does not think he will find acceptance if he follows that path.
The strength of this book lies in its enthusiasm for its subject matter. Winters clearly loves Poe, his life, and his poetry, and she immerses the reader in his style. This immersion happens most clearly in Lenore’s chapters, where Winters writes in mimicry of Poe: “I awaken in the shadows, ravenous for words, hungering for delicacies dripping with dread” (loc. 155). As Lenore strengthens, the style intensifies, demonstrating the increasing bond between artist and muse. Winters’s describes her research in an extensive Author’s Note, which is fascinating in its consideration of the connections between this novel and Poe’s life.
Though I found many elements of The Raven’s Tale appealing--including the grounding in historical detail and the incorporation of Poe’s early writing process--the novel didn’t completely work for me. The characters fell short: though I love fantasy (the more complex and strange the world, the better), I never felt as if I had my footing in this realm of embodied muses, and Poe himself felt more like a collection of character traits and information than a fully realized character.
The Raven’s Tale, which will be published on April 16, 2019, is a solid choice for those readers interesting in learning more about Poe or beginning to imagine how he embraced the darkness that came to dominate his art. It did not, however, succeed in capturing my imagination or the spirit that makes Poe’s works so captivating for readers.
mysticdreamer's review against another edition
3.0
I had a hard time reading through this book. At the beginning I really liked the premise of artists having their muse's come to life to assist in their craft. I liked Lenore a lot and thought the way she was described was a perfect way to personify Poe's work. Then the middle just got strange. It was difficult for me to follow the story and enjoy it. The ending was alright, I don't really have much to say about it.
mpalmisano08's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty good book. Would read again during Halloween time.