An Enchantment of Ravens

By Margaret Rogerson

Synopsis

Isobel is an artistic prodigy with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious, Rook spirits her away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime. But something is seriously wrong in his world, and they are attacked from every side. With Isobel and Rook depending on each other for survival, their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

First Thoughts

When I first saw the cover art on this novel, I fell in love. It reminded me of this old, Egyptian Cinderella story I read as a child and upon picking up the book, I was caught by the description. The art, itself, was brilliant in that it looks like a painting the likes of which our main character, Isobel, may have herself created. The idea of a truly dangerous, perhaps unlikeable male hero (Rook) also held a certain appeal, as well as the idea of "craft" and this writer's take on the fair folk being disturbing, woodsy, thoroughly inhuman creatures. Thankfully, I was not at all disappointed. 

Review

One of my favorite components of this novel is the fact that Rogerson stays thoroughly true to each of her characters in every situation, and that their personalities, virtues, and faults don't magically disappear because they fall in love or enter into a new environment. Isobel continues to be practical in her dealings with all the fair folk no matter how charming they may be, and she guards her humanity with a vengeance. She is sharp-tongued at times and even has a small capacity for cruelty, but this is tempered with a deep thread of compassion and understanding of human emotion and the inhuman mind. My very favorite element of her character is her devotion to her craft (art) and the fact that, even when faced with certain death and losing her newfound love, she digs her heels in and refuses to let it go. She is not a reactionary character; she keeps iron on her as a weapon against the fair ones' power, and she's learned to word her requests carefully lest they trick her. 

Rook, on the other hand, is the proverbial very-old, very-powerful non-human male that appears so often in various popular young adult stories...or at least he is on the surface. In her first dealings with him, she is charmed by his good looks and elegant demeanor, but this takes a sharp turnaround the moment he kidnaps her and I couldn't be happier about that fact. Though Rook is physically and magically more than capable, he is severely crippled by his complete and total lack of understanding of human needs and behaviors. The first time this properly comes into evidence is when Isobel needs to stop for a bathroom break, and he just stands there watching her, completely baffled. This occurs again when she gets hungry and he becomes convinced she'll die within seconds if he doesn't find her food. Rook is arrogant and terribly vain (we learn later that his good looks are a glamour, the likes of which all fair folk wear around humans to appear more like them), somewhat naive, far more reactionary than disciplined Isobel, and yet he also has a fair sense of humor she often lacks. His character is wild as fits a Prince of the forest, and I love the unpredictability of his character. 

The central conflict around fair folk and humans is the most compelling, and one that Rogerson maintains throughout the book in a subtle fashion from beginning to end. The relationship between humanity and the fair folk is one that on the outset looks much like that of the little fish who cling to a shark's skin and clean its teeth out, but the reality is vastly more level. The fair folk are powerful, unpredictable, dangerous, tricky. They love to take advantage of the humans and adore their "craft," but there is a certain jealousy inherit in that; they themselves are incapable of creating or of experiencing true emotions, something that comes naturally to humanity. They posture and preen and set themselves up as the supreme being, yet even cooking paralyzes and weakens them as it goes against their nature. Humanity, in this story, is a collection of resilient beings equally charmed and repulsed by the fair folk and their ways. They are creators—creators of clothing, food, artwork, writing, science, everything that involves taking more than one natural element and turning it into something new. Many of them desire to become fair folk (a possibility thanks to a mystical well which the fair folk occasionally allow one or two to drink from), but just as many wish they'd leave them well enough alone. It is a fascinating contradiction at work between the races, and it underlies everything between Isobel and Rook, between Isobel and the faerie courts and this world she reluctantly steps into, and it is this reluctancy that makes it truly stand apart from other fantasy novels of similar premises. 

The only places I think Rogerson could improve would be in that a few of her more action-oriented scenes are so fast and sensory, one must read over them a few times to comprehend and I think she would have been better to slow down somewhat and make it clear what was happening when rather than a jumble of action and description. That said, the action and description did serve the purpose of making a reader feel incredibly present and even in danger themselves. 

All things considered, this is a book I absolutely loved, and one I will definitely be revisiting and lending to my friends in hopes they'll read along and experience the same wonder and curiosity the novel has to offer.