This book is a retelling of Grimm’s “The Seven Ravens” as a novel in verse. I am not a poetry person so it took a little bit of way in to get into the story and the formatting in the ARC made it a bit harder to understand. I did like the different POV’s as how each had its own type of verse. I think the added artwork will be a bonus and I also liked having the author tell about each character and type of poetry used for each. Overall I think it is hard to get across all the details in a poem and much is left to the readers imagination as you read through the adventure but for a novel in verse I think it did a fine job.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Although Elliot's poetry is beautiful and obviously worked hard on, the lack of prose context makes the story seem irrelevant. The book seems like a children's nursery rhyme instead of YA, at best it could be middle grade.
Thankfully I read Goodreads reviews so I was prepared for the structure.

Thanks for the ARC.

This was an interesting read, as it was a retelling of the Grimm's fairytale of The Seven Ravens told through verse. I did not expect it to be in verse but did not mind it as much as I do enjoy poetry. There was also beautiful artwork in the story that was such a nice touch. I rather enjoyed this story and liked the way the various perspectives of characters played into it. It was a very simple read and I would even recommend it for younger readers as it was short and easy to digest. I wish there was a bit more or something, but all in all it was an okay read.
* Thank you Netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

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.