The Raven’s Eye Runaways

“Come, my unseen, my unknown, let us talk together.”
– Katherine Mansfield, Journal (1921)

When a YA novel begins with an epigraph alluding to Mansfield, then my expectations of a good read are set at a very high level. And I was not disappointed. Oftentimes, you read on the back of the novel an adjectival phrase that includes the word “gripping” (and there it was, “gripping”) and I find myself disappointed that the read is not. However, this fantasy novel did not disappoint.

I read it over a few hours and wanted to keep reading. The language flows smoothly and the images created are at times a little spooky and at other times, wondrous. The narrative is simple in itself: In a world where writing and reading are for a select few, the differences between those who serve and those who regale in life is unimaginable. There are scribes who have no idea what they are writing, and book binders who cannot read. But the elite cannot stop Getwin, a young bookbinder who can read; Lea, a scribe who finds herself through magic able to understand what she has written; and a one-eyed raven who together set on an adventure with the help of a friend ‘The Book of Green’.

This is the fantasy read of the year for students.