This was definitely a dark story about a girl, Jenna who at 15 sees the disappearance of her mother and then 15 years later she is still not over her traumatic experience. I have to say there was parts of this story I definitely did not expect based on the synopsis, but it was still a good horror story. I did read this relatively fast only to see what was going to happen next. It was interesting and dark.

The Ravening had the potential to deliver a gripping horror narrative but, unfortunately, fell short of expectations. While the premise of supernatural elements mixed with Templar lore intrigued me, the execution felt tedious and uneven. The story quickly became repetitive, weighed down by excessive wordiness and infodumps that detracted from the tension and pacing.

The plot itself struggled to maintain plausibility, with key events and characters feeling unrealistic and unconvincing. This made it difficult to immerse myself in the story, and the suspension of disbelief required felt insurmountable. What should have been chilling or dramatic moments were often undercut by clumsy plotting and strained believability.

Furthermore, the novel touches on deeply sensitive themes such as miscarriage, rape, forced pregnancy, and child killings. These topics, which require careful handling, were approached too lightly, missing the nuance and gravity they deserved. The lack of thoughtful exploration of these issues diminished their emotional impact and left me feeling disconnected from the narrative.

While there were flashes of clever ideas and moments of tension, The Ravening ultimately failed to come together as a cohesive, engaging story. For those familiar with the author's previous works, this novel may be a disappointment.

I was unpleasantly surprised by "The Ravening". I loved the author's previous works, and though I did realize the comparison to Stephen Graham Jones was a bit of an hyperbole, I expected something equally well-written and riveting as Church's other books. It was not to be. I found the story repetitive, tediously wordy, with several unnecessary infodumps. The plot felt totally unrealistic and unconvincing, and the suspension of disbelief required proved too much for me. I did finish the book, but it took me a long while. The story also touched too glibly on such controversial themes as miscarriage, rape, forced pregnancy, baby and child killings, and abortion. Even a debut novel would have taken some time to write thoughfully about them, put them into perspective, and tighten everything up. I'm unsure what happened but I cannot recommend this book.

I want to start by saying I think I went into reading The Ravening with too high of expectations. I saw the comparison to Stephen Graham Jones (who is a horror god, in my humble opinion) and set the bar too high for how good this book should be. 

This is not to say that I hate the book. I don’t. I think Church had very clever and unique ideas with his story. I’m always a sucker for anything related to Templars and the supernatural and subverting the “damsel-in-distress” stereotype. Let me tell you, Jenna takes no shit from anyone and it is wonderful to see. 

The story begins, after a brief prologue about a Templar battle and one Templar who may have mysteriously disappeared, with Jenna and her mother being lost in the woods. The scene is dark, foreboding, and eerie. It’s everything you want in a horror novel. Needless to say, Jenna’s experience in the woods is traumatizing. So traumatizing in fact, that she carries it with her until we see her again as an adult. It’s what made her strive to never be defenseless again and she certainly succeeds at that. Jenna seems to have finally found happiness in her new girlfriend Holly, at least until her ex-boyfriend kidnaps her and all hell breaks loose. Jenna has to fight against horrible acts committed by humans but also the pursuit of the supernatural being that has haunted her since that fatal night in the woods from her childhood. All Jenna wants is a happy ending with Holly and just when it seems like it’s finally within her grasp, it’s taken away again. Church very kindly leaves readers with a neatly wrapped-up ending, which isn’t always something you get from a horror novel. It was certainly a pleasant surprise and was greatly appreciated. 

And now we get to my “okay so…” While I do think Church’s writing style is riveting and I think his characters in The Ravening are all unique and written well, I was not fond of Jenna. Now that’s not always a bad thing but with Jenna's particular plight, it made it hard for me to get into the story. Jenna had a very traumatic life, trauma that she never addressed nor tried to seek help for so it's understandable that she would be as angry and untrustworthy as she is. Even though her behavior and the reasons for it are understandable and logical, it still wasn't easy to like her. I did warm up to her a little at the end which she’d softened up a bit but I don’t think I can say that I ever liked her. 

I loved the Templars, I loved Jenna’s Bonewalker, and I loved the reason why everyone was after Jenna. But I don’t feel like they flowed together well. Church drew connections. He set up hints and plot points but when the time came for the big reveals, they felt…flat to me. Again, I admit this could be because I had gone in with such high expectations. I take full responsibility for that. 

For this particular book, I can't say I wouldn't recommend it, because I do know people who would genuinely enjoy it. I don't think you should steer clear of The Ravening. It has really interesting ideas and not the generic route you usually see when you think of when you mix Templars and the supernatural. Truthfully, I'm considering giving it another chance to see if my opinion changes.

This sadly was a DNF for me at about 25% in. In the beginning it grabs your attention and has eerie vibes to it but that quickly fades and the story becomes a little too drawn out and boring. I lost interest and I couldn’t stand the main character. Sadly this wasn’t for me…

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

I really wanted to like this book bet it fell a bit flat for me. I DNFed it. I will try again another time to read it.

The Ravening is a little bit The Ritual, and little bit of Handmaid's Tale.

At times very horrific and visceral, The Ravening is Jenna's story of losing her mother to something in the woods and the repercussions of it years later. The plot was so full of surprises I had no idea what would happen next. As soon as I thought "oh I've got this book figured out", woosh another twist.

I just had a bit of an issue with repetitive writing, so much "babe" and "lovey" that became tedious to read. Other than that, the writing style itself was very easy to read and especially for the first 50%, I was SEATED and ready.

I didn’t love this one quite as much as I did Daniel Church’s previous book (or indeed some of the books published under the author’s real name). The ensemble horror of The Hollows is replaced by a much tighter focus on just one character, and Church does a good job of getting into her head and explicating her past trauma, her fearfulness and resilience, and the walls she needs to break down. She’s a compelling character, and her supernatural antagonist is a memorable creation, one that you can almost smell off the page. It’s the human bad guys that let me down a little bit, as I just didn’t believe that their schemes, especially the first one, could ever work - when it was outlined, my reaction was, oh come on, and what about..... The suspension of disbelief was wobbling. Yes, I was completely on board with an ancient evil that’s twenty feet high and made of bones, but a villainous toff was just pushing it too far for me. Go figure.

Daniel Church BLEW ME AWAY with the RAVENING!

The Ravening is the latest thrilling horror adventure from Daniel Church and it is truly phenomenal. Not only is this book action-packed right from the opening chapters, but it doesn't relent until the last page. When I say that I devoured this story, I truly did. I found myself unable to put it down and it's just fantastic. Daniel Church does an amazing job (which is a reminder to read The Hollows if you haven't yet) of building suspense and building toward a magnificent conclusion that pulls all of the loose strings together.

The Ravening gives a summary description that does not EXACTLY tell what to expect in this book. However, in this case, it works WELL! The starting part of this story is full of twists and turns, which many readers are going to LOVE. There is action, heartbreak, desperation, and gore. Then it builds from there. There is no slowing of the pace for this story. It is a mad dash race to the end with everything building with generations of secrets being revealed to give some great answers to some hard-hitting questions.

All in all, this is a true masterpiece and I loved it. It has so much to offer to readers of any genre. It is character-driven, with an ending that I was desperate to know. (Seriously this ending is truly worth everything. I loved every single minute of it)!

Check this out! You won't be disappointed!

The inclusion of trigger warnings for sensitive topics such as pregnancy, kidnapping, and trauma in literature is a crucial consideration. If these themes had been clearly indicated, I would have refrained from requesting the Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC). Due to the absence of such warnings and my personal aversion to these subjects, I chose not to finish the book.

The Ravening is so good. I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good and the characters are fantastic and the story is a perfect example of originality.

I really wanted to like this book but I just didn't. I felt mislead by the synopsis and that is not a feeling I enjoy. It started off strong, however things quickly fell apart and I ultimately had to make the decision to DNF for my own peace of mind. This is not a decision I make often or lightly.

I will not be leaving reviews outside of netgalley.

One of the things I usually enjoy is thriller combined with woods and a great back story of some ancient creature. And this book has it all. But sadly it didn't work for me.
The first half of the book had me hooked and the traumatic back story that happened to Jenna had a payoff making her character at the beginning a bit "insufferable" but I get it. It's hard to get through trauma and of course it affects the way people behave.
It is a very atmospheric reading, creating a dark ambiance but I felt it dragged too much, even at the beginning, almost three chapters with her mother until her disappearance and that continues throughout the whole book. I believe it could have been condensed a bit.
I feel the book needed trigger warnings about pregnancy, kidnapping and trauma over all. I feel that that's not for me and if I had known about that being on the book, I wouldn't have requested it.
It is over all, very entertaining and easy to read. But it wasn't quite for me.

“The Ravening,” by Daniel Church

I thought this was a good book but there’s somethings that prevented me from really liking it a lot. I didn’t love the characters too much; I just didn’t feel like they were written in a way that I felt emotionally attached to them. The story plot also kind of dragged on longer than I wanted, it could’ve been cut down a bit. The F/F relationship at the beginning was beyond toxic and felt so flat, even though the FMC kept saying in her head how much she loved and wanted to be with her again when she was about to cut and run. I liked the spooky concept of the book and forced pregnancy being a horror topic is fitting. 3 out of 5 stars.

-F/F, Bisexual
-Pregnancy

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

Creepy and intruiging, The Ravening is more action-thriller at times than horror.

This book … hmm. I thought it was good, but, in comparison, I thought The Hollows was excellent. I enjoyed this and was intrigued by the mystery aspect of it, but it felt a little longer than it needed to be as some parts dragged, and I’m also not fond of a certain plot point related to human evil (vs the supernatural). And by “not fond” I mean I find it frustrating more than scary or exciting.

Ok, I’ll just tell you as it happens pretty early in the story. There’s a forced pregnancy/kidnapping element to the novel. There’s no sexualized violence (aside from stealthing, told in passing), but if you find forced pregnancy icky, you might want to avoid it.

The thing about this book that kept it at a solid 3.5 stars for me is that it’s just not that memorable. I think this ties back to it being too long. There are parts to it that just feel like they could have been trimmed. The story essentially repeats itself plotwise at one point, which I think we could have done without, and there is a sort of Silent Hill alternate reality land that I just wasn’t into. I’m never fond of when movies or books have someone going into some sort of liminal space or dream realm or whatever to deal with the issues. It happens so often that I’m just a little tired of that trope. I think that might also be my issue with the book - there are a lot of tropes that I’m just not into. I’m trying to explain that this is a subjective thing, not so much a writing or narrative thing - it's more just my preferences (aside from the needed trimming)

The book starts off very very strong, the monster in it is intriguing and creepy, and the parts that are horror are actually scary. There’s just a bit too much action/thriller for me. His last book was a horror with a few scenes of shoot-out action, which cool, but this was mainly action/thriller with some scenes of horror. I think I got thrown off as the book starts as a straight-up horror but doesn’t keep that momentum.

I also wasn’t as drawn to the characters as I could have been. I understood and did like Jenna, the main character, as she was resolute and never stopped fighting back - I wanted a happy ending for her - but Holly wasn’t fleshed out enough for me to understand why she cared so much for Jenna, who is, by her own admission, quite abrasive. The villains are far too many and don’t get enough page time, so I could have used more time with them to make them more threatening than they were. The monster thing - the Bone Walker - was interesting up until the climax - I didn’t find the reveal overly surprising, perhaps because there are mini-chapters here and there basically explaining the premise as you go. Perhaps had the story been half the Bone Walker's story and half Jenna’s, I might have worked a bit better.

What I did appreciate was the book’s approach to bodily autonomy. As someone who is very pro-choice, these aspects of the story I thought were approached in a realistic and thoughtful way that I very much appreciated. I’m very happy to see these male authors writing about women’s issues and clearly doing their research, so that was great.

It is, as I said, a solid, entertaining book, but I can’t say that I loved it. But will I read another of Church’s in the future? Absolutely.

The Ravening is often lurking in the woods, and I mean that literally. If you like novels about stumbling through the Woods, Daniel Church’s The Ravening is the book for you.

Described as a “gripping, claustrophobic horror novel”, the story centers around one
Jenna McKnight, who is not a lucky person. Her mom vanishes down an abandoned road in the forest in the middle of the night when their car breaks down when Jenna is 15. Her dad drinks himself to death before she turns 18. She has failed relationships as an adult. Add all that to her latest misadventure: she’s been kidnapped.

Will fortune ever smile on House McKnight? Can Jenna find true happiness, maybe even love along the way? And what’s this supernatural Bonewalker creature doing up in her biz throughout her life?

Church uses descriptive imagery throughout the book to draw the reader into his story. While I felt the writing was more thriller than horror I enjoyed the flawed main character. My biggest complaint about the book was entirely too much use of the word “Babe” in the second half (I started calling it out every time I read it and put off my fiancé within five minutes). Overall, this was not a book for me, but I do think it has an audience with people who enjoy thrillers involving kidnapping and being lost in the woods.






Trigger Warnings I wish the book blurb contained:



kidnapping and forced pregnancy trope

This was an interesting read, there definitely was lots of action. Jenna sure was a tough girl! I'm not sure if the author/publisher wants you knowing much about the story before going in because the description is kind of vague as to what actually happens. Without giving away too much, the whole needing your descendants part was a little weird but made sense & went with the "monster" on his creation and what he needed to survive. 3/ 3.5 stars.
Thank you to #NetGalley and Angry Robot for the ARC copy of #TheRavening.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Sept. 24, 2024
As a teenager, Jenna’s mom is killed by a monster that only Jenna has seen. Soon after, her now-alcoholic father dies and Jenna’s life unravels even more. Now, on her own, Jenna fights against love and letting anyone in. But she soon finds out, that the monster who killed her mother is very, very real and he wants Jenna for himself. It is up to Jenna to rely on the one thing she has sworn off forever, real love, to save her from the monsters, supernatural and human alike.
Daniel Church’s new novel, “The Ravening” is a horror novel, with an LGBTQ romance flair. It starts with a terrifying monster in the woods, that leads to Jenna’s captivity and her right to choose (how/when/if she wishes to be a mother) and then wraps up with Jenna’s ability to let her lover in and start a life together. Church’s novel is complex, with many emotionally fraught themes, but Church manages to combine all of the plot lines into something dark and sinister, and thoroughly enjoyable.
The novel is told from Jenna’s perspective, on the day her mother is killed in front of her. The mysterious monster exists only in shadow and speculation, so even Jenna doubts its’ existence, until she can’t anymore. Church’s descriptions of the “Bonewalker” (Jenna’s term for the terrifying creature) are chilling and downright frightening. The backstory of who or what the Bonewalker is is creative and mythical, and this was, by far, the most engaging part of the novel itself.
“The Ravening” is non-stop action, right from the first page. Jenna is a relatable character and I immediately built a rapport with the tough-as-nails, independent protagonist. The chapters are short, making the story easy to read, and I was desperate to find out how it ended. Church delivers a satisfying ending that provided comfort after pages of spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat horror, and I loved it.
“The Ravening” is not a feminist novel, but it has strong female themes focusing on a woman’s right to choose, but, even with the controversial theme, it is not preachy and there is no pedestal that Church preaches from. It is also mythical and theological, in relation to the monster itself, but again, Church has written the novel so it is not divisive and can be enjoyed by anyone looking for a new horror story to explore.
I was unsure of what to expect, as Church is new to me, and the reviews on this novel are mixed. But I found “The Ravening” to be creative and spooky, and I definitely will be looking forward to more horror novels from Church.

The ravening is a well thought out book, that manages to balance the themes of horror and suspense wonderfully.
What the author has done here, is keep the cast of characters low, which I feel has then helped in providing each one with their own personality and depth. The author has been able to pursue the character development and world building thoroughly and what has been produced as a result of this, is a strong, eerie, atmospheric and immersive book.
I’d highly recommend this one to everyone.

**Book Review: The Ravening by Daniel Church**

*The Ravening* is a compelling fusion of horror and suspense, skillfully crafted by Daniel Church, who uses the eerie setting of the woodlands to create a tense and foreboding atmosphere. From the outset, the reader is thrust into a world of chaos and dread, with the vivid descriptions making it easy to empathize with Jenna’s increasingly claustrophobic experience.

During the first half of the novel, I found myself completely absorbed, eagerly turning pages late into the night to uncover the fate of the main character’s mother. The story's initial pace and the unraveling mysteries keep you hooked, evoking a sense of urgency that is difficult to resist. However, as the narrative progresses, the momentum begins to wane. The latter half of the book drags somewhat, with the pacing becoming slower and less engaging, leading me to skim through certain sections in an effort to reach the conclusion.

One of the standout aspects of *The Ravening* is its well-developed characters. While the cast is not extensive, each character is given a distinct background and motivation, adding depth to their actions and making Jenna’s personal struggles all the more poignant. Jenna herself undergoes significant growth throughout the story. Initially portrayed as closed-off and, at times, difficult to connect with due to her traumatic past, she gradually evolves into a more open and trusting individual, thanks in part to her relationship with her partner, Holly.

Daniel Church's writing style is both thrilling and engaging, making *The Ravening* a memorable read despite its slower sections. His ability to build suspense and create an immersive atmosphere suggests that his future works will be well worth exploring.

For fans of horror and mystery-thriller novels who appreciate suspenseful and atmospheric storytelling, *The Ravening* is certainly a novel to consider.