Elliott’s book in verse takes a fresh look at the classic Grimms’ fairytale “The Seven Ravens.” Told from multiple perspectives, this exploration of family bonds and wishes gone wrong is paired with lovely artwork from Rovina Cai. This book is for fans of poetry and fairytale retellings.

The cover of this book and it’s brief description intrigued me, but I wish I had known it was in verse. I’m surprised that the publisher did not include this key information in the description. Poetry is not always my thing, and while a novel in verse is impressive in its ambition, this book didn’t work for me.

The characters, for the most part, were flat and stereotypical and the verse too often repetitive. This book is classified as a teen/YA read, but it seems better suited to a younger age group based on the language and illustrations. The formatting of the ebook copy I had was very poor, but this could be because it was an eARC. Nevertheless, it negatively impacted my reading experience, making it a more difficult and confusing read.

The high points were the character of Robyn (although I was disappointed by his fate) and Elliott’s explanation of the poetic forms he used at the end of the book. I wish I could have seen a print copy of the book and maybe read it with a younger reader – I think that would have improved my opinion and experience of the book.

This is a gorgeous cover and premise, but I was not prepared for a novel in verse. I love poetry & majored in writing it in college. I also love YA. But I’m not a fan of this genre mashup/novels in verse from multiple POVs. Probably 70% of the lines begin with the word “and.” I guess I just expected more dynamic poetry from people who write in this style vs. what’s here.

I was really interested in this plot because I have never read a book like this before! It was full of twists and turns which is something I really enjoy in a book. I will be purchasing it for my library because I know my teens will love this.