My love for birds and a two-buck price tag prompted me to pick up a remaindered copy of An Enchantment of Ravens, author Margaret Rogerson's debut YA novel. I wasn't expecting much; I'm not a fan of fairy stories or YA, and it is the writer's first book. I see first books like first loves, always earnest but generally awkward.
Well, silly me.
The story is deceptively simple: in a Tolkienesque world where immortal Fae and humans exist together, a mortal portrait artist makes the mistake of painting a Fae prince with human emotion on his face. The results get her dragged off by him to the Fae world to stand trial (evidently making a fairy appear mortal is an unforgiveable sin.) Along the way the Fae prince falls in love with the artist, and both become targets of a hidden enemy.
Every writer who reads this novel will notice a few things: brilliant writing tops the list. The author has a naturally beautiful storytelling voice, and uses words like DaVinci used paint on canvas. Given the protagonist's occupation, this is just a lovely effect. I think the descriptive writing alone is the best thing I've seen in print for a long time.
There isn't a lot of plot to the story, but what there is also seriously impressed me. In first books I expect to be pummelled by too much plot (or bored by not nearly enough); this book has the perfect amount for the story the author wanted to tell. It's well thought out, restrained and super elegant.
My one criticism is that the romance between the main characters was lukewarm. Still, it's YA, and I'd be comfortable letting a young teen read this book, so it's appropriate to the genre. Despite not being entirely convinced that these two characters would actually fall in love, the writing made me happy to go along for the ride.
The author has written only two more books in the four years since this book was published, but based on the strength of this novel I'll be investing in them both. Highly recommended.
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