The Raven Scholar BOOK REVIEW

Hi fellow book lovers!

Reviewing a book you neither adore nor despise is a delicate dance. The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hogdson falls into this tricky middle ground, weaving a spellbinding fantasy narrative that captivated me with its intricate plot and rich world-building, yet occasionally stumbled with inconsistent character behavior and an uneven romance. Below, I unpack what soared, what faltered, and why this book is still a must-read for fantasy lovers.

Synopsis

From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.

Things I Liked

The things did work for me really worked me.

The opening of The Raven Scholar is nothing short of electrifying. I haven’t read such a painful, twisted prologue and beginning in a long time. It sets the tone for the upcoming stakes and unpredictable nature of the setting. It tells you straightaway- the law is questionable, the sanity of the people who enforce them even more so, and their are no lengths the characters won’t go to to get what they want.

The slow unravelling of every plot, introduction of new clues, and twists and turns were exceptional. The political intrigue is intrinsically tied with the lore of the capricious gods of this world, prophesied to bring doom.

The story follows Neema, the Raven Scholar, whose choices ripple across time, intertwining with decisions made decades—even millennia—ago.

Things that were set in mention by her decisions, but also the choices of so many people before and after her, are responsible for the things happening now, and as you discover it all, you have to acknowledge the incredibly layered and seamless plot laid out by the author.

When I go through my annotations, I realise that I was equal parts entertained and annoyed by the humour. The author writes Neema’s narrative voice with such sardonic, self-aware humour, with pointed barbs and jabs at the superficiality of the court culture, their pretences and extravagance.

The world is rich with lore, history and culture. The reader is told all the information about the world in a very organic way. It felt like being swept away into the tales of ancient, vicious gods.

Things That Didn’t Work For Me

Despite the being quite well-loved among readers, one of the criticism that I agreed with was that often time the characters actions and tone was incongruent with the behaviour you would expect from them due to either their age or the circumstances.

It’s like the antithesis of Six of Crows, where the plot is high stakes, fast-moving, there’s action and magic, but the characters don’t act their age. In Six of Crows, the teenage characters would face horrific things and act like adults. While in the Raven Scholar, the very adult characters sometimes say such juvenile and immature things that it’s annoying.

I think that the writing leans more New Adult than Adult. It has that quintessential quality of giving the emotional angst a lot of prominence.

Even though I like characters like Cain, who hide a more sinister and menacing personality behind a mischievous and flirty exterior, sometimes his antics, his indifference, and attitude would go too far.

The romantic relationship that we are given is hard to digest. I do think Cain and Neema have good chemistry, but I felt that it was mostly their troubled past and intimate knowledge of each other that crated that tension. We do not get Cain’s perspective, and thus we come to conclusions about his personality through his very subtle gestures, but I felt that his character was made too reserved. Call me a sap, but the relationship didn’t feel convincing enough because in a lot of the key moments, Neema seemed a lot more concerned about Cain then he for her, despite Neema being the more vulnerable party in the trials they were facing. It felt more one-sided, which irks me a little.

In Conclusion

Overall, I would still highly recommend this book. It’s a fantasy story that carries a trial/competition as well as mystery plotline exceptionally well, with fascinating lore and world-building. I can’t wait to get to the second book!

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