The Tower of Ravens

by Kate Forsyth

Reviewed by Ruby

No Horn is in fear for her life. Being born into the satyricons without horns is a death sentence. So after taming a flying horse she escapes into a new world. Over the mountains she meets Lewen, an apprentice witch about to head back to the capitol to continue his studies after a break with his family. Seeing she has Talent, No Horn, now calling herself Rhiannon, accompanies Lewen and the other small troupe of wannabe apprentices, along with Nina, a powerful witch, and her family of jongleurs.

Coming across the murdered body of the monarch’s friend, the group travels as quickly as possible. The only problem is that they head right into a land where the dead have started to rise and ghosts are haunting the living. Not fearing the stories and desperate to reach the capitol, Nina pushes them on. Too late they realize their mistake and the group find themselves in a dangerous land filled with death and necromancy.

I did not enjoy this book. I shouldn’t have picked it up after the author’s last series was such a disappointment to me, but I did anyways and I regret it. Every single character was just a walking stereotype, it was almost unbearable. Rhiannon, whose deformities made her an outcast to her people but make her beautiful and desirable in the human world, is basically a Mary Sue character. All the others are just flat and cliché; you have your rich pampered girl, your rich mean girl, your poor simple nice girl, your jocks, your male weak poet that is made fun of by the other guys…blah, blah, blah. Even Rhiannon being right all the time, is annoying.

To make matters worse there is no character growth and there isn’t even an acceptable ending that made the aggravation of reading this book worth it. They didn’t even have to band together or learn to work together or anything.

Grade: D