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A review by betharanova
In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland
3.0
Another middle of the road read, less from indifference than from the vast chasm between potential and execution.
In the Ravenous Dark follows Rovan, an irreverent young woman in one of the only habitable places left in the world: fantasy Greece. She's been drinking, dallying, and hiding her inherited ability as a blood mage. When the secret comes out one day, she's hauled off to the palace, assigned a ghostly guardian, and betrothed to a prince. This is where the summary waggles its fingers, promising a romance both with the unwanted guardian and with a feisty princess.
All of these characters were intriguing but remained shallow over the course of the book. Whatever impression you form of a character at their first appearance will be correct. All the antagonists are simply evil for the sake of it, so you needn't have any moral dilemmas. Someone's a jerk to Rovan? Look no further: it's because they're evil, so feel free to hate them immediately. Rovan's companions are brimming with potential but offer little besides beauty (which we're reminded of constantly) and unquestionable loyalty to Rovan that I'm not sure how she earned.
Even Rovan was a doozy to pin down, and she narrated 98% of the book in first person. Part of the trouble was that for a good portion of the book, none of her thoughts lined up with her actions. She would think about the situation, arrive at a plan, and then do the complete opposite. Constantly. I didn't like her very much. Later, she got the hang of making decisions and acting on them. It made her vaguely more likeable, but I still couldn't really tell you who she was by the end of the book.
The worldbuilding was very enticing. However, the pieces didn't fit together into a coherent whole. There was misogyny, but not when it was inconvenient. Blood mages were powerful, except they didn't do anything the whole time. Death magic got vaguely hand-waved a lot. The internal rules for society and magic simply didn't line up if you tried to think about them all at once. And you had to swim through a considerable amount of exposition in the first half. That said, it all made for an interesting world to play around in.
Side note on that: the world is set up as very sex-positive and open to different proclivities. So the scene where Rovan and her friends have a conversation about gender and orientation, especially when they explain these concepts in baby-step detail, felt... inorganic? It wasn't bad, but we could have learned it along the way, as we got to know these characters. Instead they sat around and listed their pronouns and sexual orientation like they were in the introduction channel of a Discord server. Also, it's fantasy Greece. I doubt you'd have to gently explain bisexuality in this world.
And the romance, ah. It used such good tropes, and I felt nothing about it. A couple of the characters grew on me, but the chemistry didn't come through. There were 400 pages in this novel, by the way, and Rovan spent a lot of time with each of the characters in question. I should have felt something about the make-out scenes, but I didn't. Perhaps because, like I said above, the characters stayed shallow; perhaps because their tenderest early moments were interrupted by pages of exposition; or perhaps because I couldn't figure out why anyone else liked Rovan. Because all the romance hinged on her. This book promised polyamory, which I guess is what happened. It was more like everyone fell in love with Rovan. Technically polyamory, but I prefer my poly ships with all-around mutual love. Or at least ships where everyone involved has said more than two things to everyone else. A couple of the people involved meet each other at the end of the book, even as they're all declaring their love. Your polycule sucks.
I know I've done nothing but complain about this book. But I love the concept of the guardians from beyond the veil. I like the Skylleans. I love Japha. (Even if they weren't allowed to contribute much of anything beyond, somehow, in a very gay book, being the gay best friend.) I enjoy Ivrilos. I thought the revenant stuff was fun! It just wasn't delivered in a way that had nuance or chemistry. It didn't work for me. But I sense this will be a big hit with a lot of people, and I wish them the best with this one.
In the Ravenous Dark follows Rovan, an irreverent young woman in one of the only habitable places left in the world: fantasy Greece. She's been drinking, dallying, and hiding her inherited ability as a blood mage. When the secret comes out one day, she's hauled off to the palace, assigned a ghostly guardian, and betrothed to a prince. This is where the summary waggles its fingers, promising a romance both with the unwanted guardian and with a feisty princess.
All of these characters were intriguing but remained shallow over the course of the book. Whatever impression you form of a character at their first appearance will be correct. All the antagonists are simply evil for the sake of it, so you needn't have any moral dilemmas. Someone's a jerk to Rovan? Look no further: it's because they're evil, so feel free to hate them immediately. Rovan's companions are brimming with potential but offer little besides beauty (which we're reminded of constantly) and unquestionable loyalty to Rovan that I'm not sure how she earned.
Spoiler
Seriously, she becomes a blood-drinking monster and no one bats an eye. Not that anyone cares Ivrilos literally eats souls. Existential crimes are fine if a good character does them.Even Rovan was a doozy to pin down, and she narrated 98% of the book in first person. Part of the trouble was that for a good portion of the book, none of her thoughts lined up with her actions. She would think about the situation, arrive at a plan, and then do the complete opposite. Constantly. I didn't like her very much. Later, she got the hang of making decisions and acting on them. It made her vaguely more likeable, but I still couldn't really tell you who she was by the end of the book.
The worldbuilding was very enticing. However, the pieces didn't fit together into a coherent whole. There was misogyny, but not when it was inconvenient. Blood mages were powerful, except they didn't do anything the whole time. Death magic got vaguely hand-waved a lot. The internal rules for society and magic simply didn't line up if you tried to think about them all at once. And you had to swim through a considerable amount of exposition in the first half. That said, it all made for an interesting world to play around in.
Side note on that: the world is set up as very sex-positive and open to different proclivities. So the scene where Rovan and her friends have a conversation about gender and orientation, especially when they explain these concepts in baby-step detail, felt... inorganic? It wasn't bad, but we could have learned it along the way, as we got to know these characters. Instead they sat around and listed their pronouns and sexual orientation like they were in the introduction channel of a Discord server. Also, it's fantasy Greece. I doubt you'd have to gently explain bisexuality in this world.
And the romance, ah. It used such good tropes, and I felt nothing about it. A couple of the characters grew on me, but the chemistry didn't come through. There were 400 pages in this novel, by the way, and Rovan spent a lot of time with each of the characters in question. I should have felt something about the make-out scenes, but I didn't. Perhaps because, like I said above, the characters stayed shallow; perhaps because their tenderest early moments were interrupted by pages of exposition; or perhaps because I couldn't figure out why anyone else liked Rovan. Because all the romance hinged on her. This book promised polyamory, which I guess is what happened. It was more like everyone fell in love with Rovan. Technically polyamory, but I prefer my poly ships with all-around mutual love. Or at least ships where everyone involved has said more than two things to everyone else. A couple of the people involved meet each other at the end of the book, even as they're all declaring their love. Your polycule sucks.
I know I've done nothing but complain about this book. But I love the concept of the guardians from beyond the veil. I like the Skylleans. I love Japha. (Even if they weren't allowed to contribute much of anything beyond, somehow, in a very gay book, being the gay best friend.) I enjoy Ivrilos. I thought the revenant stuff was fun! It just wasn't delivered in a way that had nuance or chemistry. It didn't work for me. But I sense this will be a big hit with a lot of people, and I wish them the best with this one.