Book Review

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

One of our readers pointed me towards An Enchantment of Ravens. In this book, a human painter uses the power of human creativity to save her Fey lover (who can shapeshift into a horse or a raven) and fight the Alder King.

With art.

Dear Bitches, it’s like you know me.

The heroine, Isobel, lives in the town of Whimsy, where it is always summer and the Fair folk come into town to trade for Craft. Only humans can create a new thing (as opposed to an illusion, which the Fey can create) and this skill is known as Craft. Baking, cooking, sewing, and writing are examples of Craft.

Isobel, a painter, paints portraits of Fair Folk in exchange for very, very carefully worded enchantment. For example: “Each of [her hens] will lay six good eggs per week for the rest of their lives, and they must not die early for any reason.” The Fey delight in twisting wishes into things that cause suffering for the wisher, so caution is vital.

Isobel’s life becomes more complicated when Rook, the autumn prince, comes to sit for a portrait. When Rook’s portrait reveals an expression of human sorrow in his eyes, the other Fair Folk see him as weak. He kidnaps Isobel with the intent of taking her to court for her crime (The Fair Folk seem capable of inventing new crimes on the spot) but they become targets of the Wild Hunt and become allies instead of captor and prisoner. Naturally they also begin to fall in love, but to fall in love would be to break the Good Law, which is, of course, the law that forbids love between a Fair Folk and a human, and is punishable by death. If that sounds confusing, it boils down to: everybody wants Isobel and Rook to die and they must not fall in love so of course they do, and there’s a lot of Fairy politics and violence about it.

Technically, this book is a fantasy, not a romance novel, but romance is so centric to the story that it works fine as a fantasy romance. Readers should be warned that this is a story in which a woman does a ridiculously huge amount of emotional labor on behalf of a man who is both semi-immortal and very immature. In the fairy tale context of this book, I didn’t mind this. It’s a well-established fact that the Fey make for super high maintenance romantic partners when it comes to emotional labor, and I thought this book honored the more troubling aspects of the Fey even as it developed a romance between a Fey prince and a human woman. However, I know for some of our readers the imbalance of emotional labor is a no-go, even within the subgenre context.

Because the entire story is told from Isobel’s point of view, Rook is somewhat enigmatic. However, fantasy readers will recognize his type immediately – physically perfect (because of glamour – an important development comes when Isobel gets used to his non-glamoured appearance and likes it), glamourous in both the mundane and magical sense, powerful, protective, arrogant, and romantic in the “big tortured gesture” type of way. Isobel is much more down-to-earth and notable for her caution, creativity, and pragmatism.

Where this book excels is in plot twists, which alas I cannot divulge, and atmosphere, which I can. It explores the human ability to create in more depth than I’ve seen before, but for the most part, it’s not so much that this book brings anything new to the Fairy story as that it uses classic tropes very well, mingling fabulousness (the clothes that the Fey dress Isobel in) and horror (the reveal that the garments are actually rotting and their beauty is an illusion) in the same paragraph with great skill. It’s a luscious novel in terms of visuals. Here are some observations Isobel makes about a dress she wears in the Fairy Court, which is embroidered with roses:

When I moved, the lace bodice remained stiff and fitted, but the skirt rippled around me in almost impossible swirls, shapes that reminded me of a famous painting of a maiden drowning in a lake at dusk, sinking into shadow as her dress billowed weightlessly after her…The gown’s rich scarlet accentuated my fair complexion and emphasized my dark eyes to a startling degree. I appeared less frightened than I expected. My eyes just stared, and stared, and stared, like pits swallowing up the light, out of a face as blank as the mannequin that had worn the gown before me…

…A rose petal tumbled down the step next to my feet, followed by another, barely suppressing a flinch, I looked over my shoulder to see where they were coming from. Rose petals were strewn in a path behind me all the way up the steps, scarlet against the white woven birch, but I saw no one responsible for their presence.

“The dress is enchanted,” Aster whispered, leaning in. “Petals will appear wherever you step. But they aren’t real – watch.”

A breeze blew, scattering the petals, which vanished like shadows as they stirred. The sight was captivating, and awful. My path through the masquerade would be marked like a wounded animal leaving bloodstains on the snow.

I’m torn about a grade for this book. The kind of imagery quoted above, not to mention the fact that Isobel is fantastic when it comes to cutting through crap and finding third options, is excellent stuff. On the other hand, there’s not much to this book aside from the imagery and the ever-fantastic Isabel. But while I’m rooting for those crazy kids, and while this book is a fine standalone, I’m dying to read more about them. Even after reading the novel, I can’t picture their daily lives together. At present there’s no sequel planned for this book and I feel like it could benefit from one. The world-building is sublime, the dramatic quality perfect for a book about the Fey, and Isobel is a lovely character, but just a smidge more between Isobel and Rook would have easily made this book perfection. I’d say this book is a B+ that could have used just a little more development between Isobel and Rook.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon
  • Order this book from apple books

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo
  • Order this book from Google Play

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. Jennifer says:

    I really liked it, particularly the whole Craft thing and as you pointed out, the whole “Faerie is secretly a bunch of rotted food and sadness and you don’t really want to become one if you get the option” thing. Very well done for me there.

  2. Lara says:

    I adored this book, it was a “don’t bother me, I’m reading!” experience for me (which rather confused my husband and the cats). Ms. Rogerson’s next book is going to involve an ancient magical library, so I’m already 100% invested.

  3. Lexica says:

    Ooh, this sounds wonderful. I love the “trying to strike a decent bargain despite Fairy logic” trope so much…

  4. Qualisign says:

    The cover is fabulous!

    I really appreciated the review, especially the excellent observation: “It’s a well-established fact that the Fey make for super high maintenance romantic partners when it comes to emotional labor…” So do narcissists, who are human Fey without the glamour. That’s precisely why I usually don’t read anything with a Fey H or h, although you make a very compelling case here.

  5. BellaInAus says:

    I don’t know if I could read this. I’d be all “it’s all very well to shower me with Rose petals everywhere I go, but could you please put the bins out? “

  6. Critterbee says:

    I fell in love with this one and could not put it down. IT really blew me away, especially as a first novel. Loved the descriptions, even the decaying and disintegrating, totally felt like I was being absorbed into the forest floor when reading it!

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top