Even though I'm an adult now I've never lost my fascination for fairy tales and children's stories. I don't know if it's the way they take me to another world or their sheer beauty, but whenever I come across a book like Audrey Niffenegger's "Raven Girl" I have to read it. Illustrated by the author too, the simple story of a raven and a postman who fall in love and give birth to a Raven Girl had a modern gothic feel with a very significant message about growing up, that reminded me of my own awkward adolescence. The text, written in short, breezy passages that made it easy to read and enjoy, contained the components of fairy tales I love the most-interesting characters who live in their own world successfully and believably. If I were to recommend one book to a friend who had an equal love for beautiful illustrations and fantasy "Raven Girl" would be at the top of my list, because it has the richness of the best children's classics and the flair only an imaginative storyteller could give it. I picked this graphic novel up on the library purely based on the author’s name and the cover. I have owned one of Niffenegger’s other books, The Time Traveller’s Wife, for over a year now and really need to get around to it but I thought that this would be a good way to try out her writing style.This book was both written and illustrated by Niffenegger for Wayne McGregor, choreographer of the Royal Ballet in London, who wanted something new to adapt into a dance. I have never heard this kind of origin story for a book so I was intrigued to check it out and also the first sentence of the book is strange and really drew me in;Once there was a Postman who fell in love with a Raven.The production of the book itself is absolutely beautiful and I adore the illustration style (I will probably do a separate post about the illustrations and art style!). The pages are glossy and the story itself is set up differently to the usual graphic novel, as the text is separate from the images in most cases.I won’t say much about the plot itself as this is a very short piece and I don’t want to give anything away but I really liked the way that it felt like an old fairytale, but set now, if not a slightly strange version of the present. I have to say that this story was pretty odd and although it is quite flawed in some ways, overall I really enjoyed it. It made me think a lot and the illustrations really grabbed me. This is only 80 pages long so I would definitely recommend that you read it in one sitting.
What do You think about Raven Girl (2013)?
didn't like this book at all. disappointed as I loved some of her others
—Yen
A sweet fairytale with beautiful illustrations.
—whitney
An interesting modern fairytale about identity.
—jollierancher
