I ended up DNFing it at around 15 percent. It sounds really interesting but I found myself zoning out a bit. When it comes out, I'll try it again.

The Raven's Tale is a wonderful blend of historical and fantasy fiction. Winters does a great job of bringing in Poe's youth with historical facts and the dark Gothic feel of his books. I would recommend highly to anyone who loves Poe, fantasy, or Cat Winters.

Thank you to Netgalley, Cat Winters and Abrams Kids for my arc of The Raven's Tale.
This book really intrigued me, a retelling of the life of Edgar Allen Poe, how could I resist? The Raven is my favourite ever poem!

Edgar Allen Poe is desperate for the moment he can escape to university and out from under the thumb of his overbearing foster father John Allen. Once at university he can finally make his way in the world of writing and get enough money together to marry his sweetheart Elmira.
But when his dark, gothic muse appears things start to go badly for Edgar.

I really liked this novel. I'm ashamed as a literature student to say that I knew next to nothing about Poe's life so it was really interesting to learn about it in the context of such a wonderfully dark and enthralling story.

This was a very interesting retelling. I liked it and thought Ms. Winters did a great job. I think the character of Lenora untested me the most.

I wanted to love this one so badly as I absolutely adore Poe. However, this just didn't seem developed enough for me. The world building didn't immerse me and I spent most of the novel confused on how his muse could just come to life and everyone was okay with it. I am an absolute lover of magical realism, but this didn't feel right as either magical realism or fantasy.

I didn't get enough personality from the characters, either. Poe seemed to spend all of his time hiding his muse/his poems or pining after his lover. I wasn't moved by the attempt to humanize the adopted father either. The mother was absolutely helpless and her only devotion seemed to be her adopted son. I know that all of these characters were modeled after real people, yet I felt like they were very dull and two-dimensional.

I love the recent resurgence in love for Poe and all of the new books an anthologies we are seeing about him. This one, unfortunately, was a pass for me.

The Raven's Tale is a historical fiction story about everyone's favorite Master of the Macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar (or, as everyone in the book calls him, Eddy) can't wait to escape his oppresive adoptive father and go the newly established University of Virginia. Edgar wants to become a full-time writer, even if the entire city of Richmond is against that idea. However, Edgar and his muse Lenore are going to escape and find freedom together - that is if Edgar can commit his life to his muse without being distracted by other things.

This book is a bit of an odd ducky. On one hand, I enjoyed it and read it in a single sitting. On the other hand, a day after finishing the book, I'm still not 100% sure what happened.

I will say that the book is meticulously researched. I really enjoyed the opportunity to read about Poe's early life and from what I could tell from a quick Google search, Winters got a lot of the facts/details right. Winters even went so far as to include a list of additional sources should a reader be curious about Poe's life. Additionally, Winters works in some beautiful poetry in the work; harkening back wonderfully to Poe's work.

The downside for the book for me was the whole "muse" aspect of it. Evidently, muses are things that can be seen? They change form? Unfortunately, this whole (huge, giant) aspect of the plot was never fully explained to the point where I comfortably understood what was going on. I just kind of eventually gave up understanding and went on with the book.

If you've read previous works of Winters', then you'll probably enjoy this one as well. Just be ready to be a wee bit confused over everything that's going on.

Thank you for the early copy.

I recommend this unique novel to fans of Gothic fiction. I don't read historical fiction but this was one that was mixed with fantasy/paranormal elements and it worked so well. I've been a fan of Cat Winters for a while now and this is by far her best novel!

There was an authors note in the beginning which I liked as it mentions that the author wanted to offer readers a historically accurate portrayal of Poes teenage years with woven in scenes of gothic fantasy to pay tribute to his poems and stories. I have to say that it worked really well, I was hooked from the beginning.
I'll start off by saying that i don't know much about Poe but I have read and love some of his stories and poems. I really liked that the Sections for Part 1, 2 and 3 all had a different Poe quote and that the quote reflected the overall chapters. The writing is dark and lyrical which was wonderful and I really felt that the author channeled Poe really well. The book follows Poe during the year of 1926. It alternates between his POV and his Muses POV which meant we saw certain events twice but I really liked how it worked. The writing uses both poems written by Poe and the authors own poems in the style of Poe.
I liked that the author added in fantastic gothic elements in the book, it made it feel more like the world of Poe.
I really like Poe, he is melancholic and is exactly what you'd expect but I found that I wanted him to succeed. I loved Lenore and I did feel sorry for her in parts. She was wonderful and was my favourite character. I'd say John Allan was the main antagonist and I did end up wanting Edgar to succeed more because of him.
Overall it's fair to say that I loved this book! I would read it again! It was darkly lyrical and it was such an easy read for me. If you like Poe's stories then you have to at least try this book.

The Raven’s Tale was everything the Poe nerd in me wanted. I cannot wait for this book to come out - hopefully it will inspire more people, especially young people, to study Poe.

Hopefully today's young people won’t have to threaten to complain to the department head to get their American Lit professor to include Poe in the curriculum the way I did. It worked and I have no regrets.

Thank you, and bravo, Ms. Winters, fellow Oregonian and Poe Nerd (Poevian? Poe-head? The Poe museum never responded to my tweet). This book made the lit geek in me very, very happy.

So much work went into creating this novel that it makes you wonder if Winters borrowed a raven haired muse herself.

“The Raven’s Tale” follows a young Edgar Allan Poe as he struggles with his writing and the pressures of his father when his muse comes to life and wants nothing more than to feast upon his writing and to be seen by the world only she is not a creature of beauty but rather the darkness and melancholy of his soul and she will not rest until her poet recognizes his worth.

I am a huge fan of anything regarding the infamous writer since there’s so much about his life that remains a mystery given the conflicting accounts after his death and the subject matter of some of his more famous works set him apart from your average writer and Cat Winters tapped into that mindset so perfectly I had to double check to see which lines belonged to each writer.

This story is the personification of adolescence and the constraints of society when your family wants you to go in one direction but your heart or in some cases your very soul pushes you into another and that became very real as Lenora refused to lurk in the shadows and pulled on the hand of Poe encouraging him to continue to write and explore his passions regardless of what others may think.

The blending of fantasy and reality through actual quotes, critiques and reviews blend this story together into something that gives us a glimpse into the past while subtly granting us whispers of what the future held for Poe and I loved every second.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**