The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Gist
I absolutely love Winters’ works. I have read all of her novels without fail. Heck, I even went out in a snowstorm while on a romantic Valentine’s Day weekend retreat to Montreal so that I could purchase one of her books for the train ride home.
It’s rare for me to read, or even want to read a book twice, because I can remember most stories quite well, generally speaking. Something strange happened with The Raven’s Tale. Starting in August of this year I kept thinking about it. It was haunting. I had the indescribable urge to read it again.
After I had finished the book, I read the review I wrote in June 2019 and I’m wondering what made me write such a lackluster, yet semi-positive review.
The only thing I can come up with is the fact that during the summer of 2019 I was ridiculously stressed out writing my thesis. I remember borrowing the book from the library and having to extend the loan multiple times, because I kept running out of time, which really flustered me.
It stressed me out even more. Plus, my delicate state of being didn’t really mesh with the atmosphere of The Raven’s Tale.
Now, a year and a lifetime worth of experiences later I have to recant my rating. I am also writing a new review to do this story justice.
The Details
I have to start out by saying that I loved the atmosphere the entire story had. I was in desperate need for a story that included steel grey skies in the middle of winter, with snow falling and cold temperature, but without the holiday cheer.
Winters was able to hold on to this atmosphere even as the seasons changed in the story. That’s not a small thing to achieve and it did so much for the overall feel of it.
I appreciated reading a story that brought Poe to life. I have known of him ever since my first semester at an English-speaking school back in February 2000. We were assigned to read “The Cask of Amontillado”. My English teacher did a great job explaining the story and encouraged discussions about it.
Since it was my very first experience with English literature, I did very poorly on the reading test, but the story stuck with me for 20 years.
Even though Winters’ story is a fictionalized version of Poe’s younger years, it was great to have this great author of the macabre come to life. To become a person with feelings and struggles and the desire to achieve something.
Not only did the main character come to life, but also the secondary characters. The particular details that gave the characters personalities, albeit not the greatest ones morally speaking, brought them closer to home than I’m willing to admit.
The characters came alive on the page with depth and dimension.
I loved the sections that included Lenore. I felt for her. And even wanted to know more about her. She was so peculiar.
As I have mentioned before, the atmosphere was just what I was looking for. It was bleak, cold, dreary and just hopeless enough to inspire a creatively starved writer into producing her own story.
I don’t want to comment too much on the plot of The Raven’s Tale, except that it is centred around a young Edgar Allen Poe and his muses.
The Verdict
Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed this story tremendously. I think I’m kind of eating my own words I wrote a little over a year ago with my first review of The Raven’s Tale.
It wasn’t a negative review, but it lacked enthusiasm, to say the least. With this new review I hope to do justice to another great story written by Winters.
