Jenna’s life has always been a fight. From the traumatic and mysterious loss of her mother on a dark woodland road when she was fifteen, to the abusive and controlling boyfriend she’s recently escaped, she has learned that trust hurts you in the end.
Now Jenna’s found what she hopes is happiness with her new girlfriend, Holly. But the world is full of darkness – some of it ancient, some of it closer to home… Evil, and those who serve it, will not let Jenna go.
The Ravening is a gripping, claustrophobic horror novel that sets a timeless nightmare against one woman and her belief in herself, and the possibility that somewhere, somehow, there is love in the world.
Dark bleatings, my ravenous tribe! I recently read this novel and I LOVED it. As you probably know by now if you regularly read/watch my goaty content, I am a character driven reader more than anything else, but I do appreciate a great plot and this book has both. And upfront, I want to mention this because I hardly ever see this – this story has refreshingly great bisexual representation.
When Jenna was a kid, something scary took her mum. No one believes that, of course, and so she’s been carrying this trauma through life into adulthood alone. Things seem fairly normal (as normal as they get for her, anyway). Life is predictably boring and then Jenna meets someone new and likes her much more than she’s comfortable with. This new relationship reveals a flawed and very relatable character as she overreacts, regrets and questions her reactions, and second guesses every nice thing that’s done for her. Luckily, the new girlfriend is made of sturdy stuff and seems to see through the panic a bit. A wrench is thrown into the mix when Jenna discovers she’s pregnant, despite being careful in that area, but the new gf is supportive.
At this point, I was loving the character dynamics and was really engaged with the story and Jenna, and I was wondering how this could possibly go into horror territory. And then…Jenna is taken against her will. And I’ll stop giving story details there (this is all in the first act).
I was honestly impressed with this whole story. Jenna is everything I love to see but rarely get in a protagonist. She’s interesting, she’s not perfect at all – she’s refreshingly normal, emotionally speaking. She’s been toughened by what life has thrown at her and has made it her business to be as capable of defending herself as possible. She doesn’t always make the best decision under pressure, but she’s very active and even when her decisions don’t work out, you totally understand why she made them. It was so much fun to read a book where I, not even once, wondered why the protagonist “didn’t just do…” or “didn’t just tell…” The less pleasant parts of her personality balanced out her merits so that overall, though she could be a bit of a dick, it was endearing.
In terms of the actual story, it was great. When we’re plunged into the horror (after the prologue), it’s very human – and trust me, what’s going on is scary enough, especially if you’re someone that fears any element of being pregnant. To compound that, we also get flashes of historical fiction, supernatural savagery, and a monstrous primary antagonist. There’s also some medical science fiction afoot.
I won’t claim to have zero complaints here. In the interest of fairness, I should mention that there is a heavy dream/nightmare component to this story too.
…..I hate dreams and nightmares in stories. I really don’t know why – it doesn’t even matter to me if they’re there for spooky filler or if they serve an important purpose – I just can’t stand them for some reason. Despite my general love of the story, it was no exception here. I didn’t enjoy these sections very much simply because of what they were.
However, overall I loved this story so much that despite my inexplicable absolute hatred of this element, it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book. I still loved it, it was still almost perfect to me.
I’d recommend this to everyone. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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