Positivity Read for THE RAVEN'S GAME; June 28 2020

It was my kid’s second birthday, this past Friday! Happy birthday to my wonderful, sassy, clever little girl!

I’ve been sick the past couple of weeks and missed my blog posts twice in a row. The plus side is, I get to spread some positivity this week! Earlier this week, I had the privilege of reading the first chapter of THE RAVEN’S GAME, an as-of-yet unpublished novel by Danniela Ricci!

Danniela and I have been recently matched up into a writer’s support group via The Write Cohort, a site dedicated to uniting writers of similar skill and in similar stages of their career. I’ve already made some friends and can’t possibly recommend it enough, so give their site a look!

However, do that after, because I have some thoughts I want to share about THE RAVEN’S GAME!

First off, the concept of THE RAVEN’S GAME had me hooked from the get-go. With comparative titles such as THE HUNGER GAMES and THE CRUEL PRINCE, the gist is as follows:

‘When Cerys' home is ravaged by a plague of ravens, curing it is all that matters. The answer? Compete in a tournament against fairies with a wily magician who isn't what he appears. The Otherworld will never be the same.’

... And I was like, a fairy tournament? With a trickster magician? How fast can I sign up?

There’s a lot to love in Danniela’s first chapter alone. We’re introduced to Cerys (I name, incidentally, that I love) and her twin brother, Tristan, and when I say introduced do I ever mean it. In those first pages, I instantly got to know and appreciate these characters, both written with strong and defined voices. What they have in common is a devotion to family, but practical-minded Tristan just wants to do right by the family he has left, while Cerys honours their deceased mother with the only thing they have left of her: a mysterious cameo of dubious origin. While Cerys is open to the idea of magic if it means getting an explanation for her mother’s mysterious ways, she’s also sensible and determined.

Just as powerful is Danniela’s ability to set the scene. Through context clues, I was able to form a vivid picture of this ravaged countryside on the cusp of the industrial age, where superstition is widespread and hope is dwindling.

One of the best ways I can describe the world of THE RAVEN’S GAME is tied to my synysthesia: the overall tone was this consistent murky green, and the ability to capture such distinct colour and keep it is something I admire in an author. Now, if you don’t have synysthesia and that made no sense to you, let me try phrasing it another way – the setting, plot, and characters all feel intrinsically tied together, and the more I learn about one, the more I simultaneously find out about the rest. It takes a skilled writer to do that.

Another way Danniela’s skill demonstrates itself is through her ability to keep the tension roiling and rolling! Every piece of the narrative flows into another question I’m compelled to know the answer to. Something I learned in Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass on writing is that the best writers always have the reader questioning, “What’s going to happen next?”, and Danniela pulls this off with ease.

In short, THE RAVEN’S GAME has me hooked already, and I have full confidence that it’ll find a place in a publisher’s heart. You can be certain that I’ll be picking up a copy once it hits bookshelves!