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Title: Ravnenes hvisken (The Whisper of Ravens)Author: Malene Sølvsten
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Rating: 3.5
# pages: 707
Date read: May, 2018
17-year-old Anne can see events from the past, and one night she relives a frightening old murder. A red-haired girl is murdered and has a rune carved into her back. But soon after, she discovers that a murder is at loose in the area - and all victims are red-haired girls who are all found with that same rune.
Suddenly the small town is full of strangers. They all have mystical powers, and they all flock to Anne, who isn't used to having people come close to her. Are they friends or enemies? Who can she trust?
Well-written and interesting concept. I really liked it and enjoyed that (most of) the characters were more nuanced than you often see in YA literature (the social worker, Grethe, especially. She actually wanted what was BEST for Anne, which made for a nice change). It was very readable, and the open ending didn't bother me too much.
So why the 3.5 star rating? First of all, it was too easy to put down. I just didn't care enough for it to ever become a real page-turner. I liked the characters, but never grew to love them. So while I never considered giving up on it, I didn't feel any urgency to finish it either. Which brings me to "secondly" - it was just too long! There was a LOT of downtime. Page upon page that filled in the characters' backstory, but did nothing to move the story along. It never got dull, but I did start to wonder if the book really needed to be 700+ pages long.
In the end, I found more things to like than not, so I'm glad I've read it. But despite the open ending, I doubt I'll read more books in the series. At least not anytime soon.
