Because Wolfsong got me out of a reading slump, I figured hey--why not? Let's jump right in to Ravensong. I am conflicted. I have feelings. This one definitely wasn't as good. Although, as a sidenote, it's really cool to view a writer at different points in their career and seen how they've grown. This is definitely one of Klune's earlier works. Where Wolfsong feels like a young gay teen's response to Twilight, Ravensong loses some of the nostalgic charm that I felt when reading Wolfsong. 

The first problem with this book is it's scope. It covers a lot of Gordo's childhood, which is very interesting except for when it mirrors Ox's childhood from the first book and it makes Thomas' motivations look insane. Then, we basically get to reread book 1 from a different perspective, which would have been cool, except it left out the bits I am most interested in: namely the aftermath of the first book and Gordo and Ox's reconciliation. I had to slog through all the boring details but then it somehow blasted through that important part again. Once can be written off as you needed to make cuts for word count (although I would have argued different sections deserved to get cut) but twice is just a sin. 

The reason this book feels like it was written by someone in high school is that it always chooses the option with the Most Possible Drama (except for when it doesn't--more on this later) but then when it tries to explain why this particular path was chosen there is no rational explanation so the rationale just falls off a cliff. Thomas goes from the gentle all-knowing patriarch to an unhinged egomaniac. In the first book, Ox gets left behind by the both the Bennetts and Gordo. When we go back in time to Gordo's childhood, we find out that Gordo was tattooed as a child by his father and Thomas' father (and nobody ad a problem with this) but they also left Gordo behind as a child and the intense psychological harm that did him. Which makes absolutely no sense as to why Gordo would turn around and do that same thing to the kid who he grew up with. 

The explanations for all of this behavior were so paltry. They left Gordo behind because humans had attacked wolves and Gordo was a human, albeit a witch. Why did that mean they had to cut all contact? Thomas' explanation: it was "easier." I'm sorry, that's just psychopathic and turns Thomas into a villain. Gordo was like 12 and his mother was just murdered and his father imprisoned. He had no one except these people and they left abruptly and cut all contact. It's unhinged. 

The other thing that made me knock off a star is Gordo losing his hand. Losing a hand adding an amputation and disability isn't the problem, in fact I think it could add a lot of interesting conflict to the story. My problem is Gordo's hand gets cut off and not only is it magically healed but 2 pages later, people are making jokes about it. Asking if he'll "need a hand" at the garage. He just had a major life-altering disability, and it wasn't given the gravitas it deserved. I wanted to witness Gordo's feelings, as someone whose career as a mechanic depends on his hands. I wanted to watch him adjust to life using his non-dominant hand. He lost the hand in the most dramatic fashion, but Klune didn't deal with any of the aftermath, and instead wrote it off. 

With the lack of depth in the story, and the weird scope of the book, retelling the entire events of the first book, and the nonsensical motivations of the characters, I don't believe I will be able to continue the series. While I enjoyed the first book and it helped get me out of my slump, I feel that both the writing style and the plot are just too juvenile for me at this time. 

 

★★½ WHAT IS WITH THE NONCONSENSUAL TATTOOING?! STARS