Book Review: A Raven's Touch
I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again in case any authors are reading this review, The Rebel Christian is always on the hunt for exciting Christian fiction—I think I found what I’ve been looking for with Linda Bloodworth’s YA fantasy, A Raven’s Touch.
Bloodworth approached me for a review a little while back and I’m glad I agreed; one of the things I always do before I sit down to write my own review is take the time to read what others are saying. Sometimes I’m the only one with a negative review, other times I’m the only one with a positive review! Usually, I’m somewhere in between—maybe with a few points of my own. I was pleased to see so many positive reviews for this book as I enjoyed it just as much as the next reader, but one thing I noticed that seemed to confuse me was that the negative reviews tended to complain about the same thing over and over: religion.
I’m not sure if readers are just blindly grabbing books without reading their descriptions but I’ll try to clear things up as much as I can for any potential reader who might be wondering what’s up. A Raven’s Touch is a CHRISTIAN book. It is listed under Teen & YA Christian fantasy—as a top 150 bestseller on Amazon, mind you. This means there WILL be elements of faith, prayer, and mention of God from a POSITIVE perspective. So, if you “aren’t into that” I would kindly suggest moving on to some other fluff. I’m not sure how anyone could be surprised that a book about a demon slayer would ever mention God but if you’re that Bible-phobic and you truly cannot handle reading about beliefs you don’t agree with (something Christians do every day without complaint, ahem) you probably shouldn’t pick up books that are clearly labeled as religious fiction.
Moving on…
As a Christian, I loved the faith elements in this book—that goes without saying. The prayer, the mention of God and trying to figure out/follow His will, I understand and appreciate the spiritual backbone of this book on a personal level. But I also found other aspects quite entertaining. The fact that our protagonist was bullied offered deep emotional insight to who she was on a psychological level; I didn’t enjoy everything about her and sometimes I felt like she was being a bit of a drama mama—but I thought she was an honest representation of a teenager struggling to survive high school, faith, and even awkward love.
The romance in the book was alright for me. I liked that it didn’t overtake the story, but it felt a little stereotypical that some random, stalker-ish hottie would be inexplicably attracted to the protagonist of all people. Then again, this is YA fantasy—you can only expect so much out of the romance.
There was a good amount of violence in this book, but I feel like its unfair to complain about that. Bloodworth issued a very clear warning about the graphic details of her book, its even in the description. So, to point it out in my review in a negative way isn’t fair—but I will say that Bloodworth does not sugarcoat the action or the violence. This book is as graphic as a demon slaying book should be—and that’s not exactly a bad thing!
I liked reading through this story and I’m happy I gave it a try; if you’re a Christian reader who enjoys fantasy, action, and faith this is definitely for you. Secular readers can enjoy this as well, as long as you can be open-minded about the inclusion of faith.
*The Rebel Christian received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*