Title: The Ravens
Authors: Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Date published: November 3, 2020

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

Kappa Rho Nu isn’t your average sorority. Their parties are notorious. Their fundraisers are known for being Westerly College’s most elaborate affairs. But beneath the veil of Greek life and prestige, the sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. For Vivi Deveraux, being one of Kappa Rho Nu’s Ravens means getting a chance to redefine herself. For Scarlett Winters, a bonafide Raven and daughter of a legacy Raven, pledge this year means living up to her mother’s impossible expectations of becoming Kappa Rho Nu’s next president. Scarlett knows she’d be the perfect candidate — that is, if she didn’t have one human-sized skeleton in her closet….When Vivi and Scarlett are paired as big and little for initiation, they find themselves sinking into the sinister world of blood oaths and betrayals.

⤖ My Review ⬻

When I first heard about Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige’s The Ravens, I thought that I had heard wrong…because it sounded like it was written for me! I love college settings, especially if you add in some paranormal elements. Make it witches, and that’s even better! Add in some murder, and you have the recipe for a book that Flavia will make grabby hands for, haha. (In case it wasn’t obvious…I love witches!)

And Morgan and Paige certainly did deliver on the college setting, paranormal elements, and mystery + murder themes! I also always find it interesting when authors co-write books because if there are two character perspectives, like in The Ravens, I’ll wonder whether they each wrote one of the characters and then combined the chapters together into a book, or whether they wrote all of the parts together, or whether they alternated between who writes which character.

In the case of The Ravens, I found that the atmosphere was a little bit unclear to me, which made it easy for me to step out of the story and get carried away with thoughts such as the above. Additionally, even though the alternating perspectives between Scarlett and Vivi were written in the first person, I didn’t quite grasp their characters as much as I would have liked to. I mean, I have a sense of what they’re like, but maybe I needed to spend more time with them (i.e. have the book be longer). I’m not too sure.

I will note, though, that this book might make a good movie, TV show, or graphic novel, as the visuals will help pull everything together, in my opinion.

All that aside, I did enjoy the plot and all of the constantly missing pieces. I also wasn’t able to guess correctly regarding the mystery aspect, which is always a win in my books as I don’t like mysteries that are too easy to solve. I had fun reading The Ravens and will definitely be picking up the sequel and final book in the series, The Monarchs, coming out next January!

⤖ About the Authors ⬻

Kass Morgan studied literature at Brown and Oxford, and now resides in Brooklyn, where she lives in constant fear of her Ikea bookcase collapsing and burying her under a mound of science fiction and Victorian novels.

Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, Stealing Snow series, Mera: Tidebreaker, and the upcoming book The Ravens co-written with Kass Morgan. In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominate d for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.

⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let’s Chat ⬻

Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it, do you want to? How come? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!