Review by Placid Distortion -- Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole

[Placid Distortion]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Raven's Peak" by Lincoln Cole.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Raven's Peak, by Lincoln Cole, a short and to the point horror/thriller with just enough mystery and fantasy to keep things captivating. Raven's Peak is the first book in the World on Fire trilogy, among Cole's many other books. Dealing with themes of faith and fear, at a little over 200 pages of continual action from the intense beginning to the cliffhanger ending, this book leaves no sense but curiosity wanting as it immediately launches into gory detail. Although short, this pace is mostly kept up throughout the book, with only occasional stops to catch one's breath; don't get too comfortable though, as even these are riddled with twists and turns. However, all is not grim, as a sense of humor permeates the horror.

The narrative shifts between various viewpoints of a diverse cast, primarily following a pair of protagonists – Abigail and Haatim – as they follow a trail of conspiracy and curiosity into mountains of madness and mayhem. Opening with a gripping prologue through the eye's of Abigail's mentor, the reader is introduced to the world in which Abigail lives and fights, and which Haatim has stumbled upon seemingly haphazardly. Quickly, their paths collide in a chaotic frenzy of destruction, deceit, and discovery as they set off in search of information only to find so much more than they bargained for. The tension escalates as the pair closes in on their objective: to find out just what is going on in the town of Raven's Peak and attempt to put a stop to it.

Generally, I liked it, but had some issues with it. Very descriptive in general, there were some descriptions that served quite well for contrast using some interesting juxtapositions and turns, in addition to engaging many senses at once for as immersive an experience as possible. The intensity of the prologue can be a bit of a double-edged sword though, as getting straight into the action and only giving setting details as necessary can be confusing because it makes it hard to know the overall feel of the story. However, it's done just well enough to incite curiosity to learn more about the setting one piece at a time instead of getting a full backdrop all at once, making it best to just roll with it.

The characters provide great contrast for each other and display clear points for development and growth, although not as much growth as I might have liked was observed for this particular book but hopefully there will be more of that later in the trilogy. Being fast-paced due to brevity, in addition to the few bigger twists there are a number of turns and surprises, and those can be fairly entertaining in and of themselves, but depending on how perceptive the reader is, may be fairly obvious enough in advance to somewhat reduce the effectiveness of the reveal. Foreshadowing and building up to a reveal is all well and good, and feeling like you guessed it right can be entertaining in its own right, but too much so makes it feel predictable which can reduce the thrill factor.

Thankfully, any potential for boredom is quelled with the use of humor – ranging from just teasing to fairly dark – as a delightful and almost clever contrast to the thrills and chills; what better way to temper fear than with pure, unbridled laughter? It's also nice to have an author that finds the sweet spot between taking oneself too seriously and not able to be taken seriously at all.

There were some issues with style choices as well, some of which are a matter of mere preference but could still be a bit of a distraction. For instance, although the use of triple asterisks to indicate a change in viewpoint is useful, it tended to feel unnecessary when they occurred within the same perspective and only seemed to indicate a brief time gap where a transition phrase would've sufficed to retain the flow of the narrative. Instead, this made it feel a bit choppy in places, or like scene transitions that would be more befitting of a visual media, which lent to the vague feeling of the whole thing being similar to a couple of episodes of Supernatural. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I felt it somewhat detracted from the unique literary narrative being presented. There was also a matter of having an “After” chapter after the epilogue and author notes, which seemed counter-intuitive since the whole point of an epilogue is literally that it comes AFTER the main narrative to tie up any remaining loose ends. Having two different kinds of this only served to reinforce the “TV episode” feel to it; giving the epilogue a feel akin to the last five minutes wrapping up the episode, whereas the “After” chapter would've been the “Next time” ad immediately after the credits that shows what's supposed to be happening in the next episode. This isn't illogical as a setup for the next book in the series, so I can see what Cole may have been trying to do with that as well as where some people might be into that, but personally think it was in poor taste for being in novel format without it being a novelization of existing visual media.

Overall, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I found it enjoyable but also found faults with it and also recognize that it may not be for everyone. I'd probably read the other books in the series given the opportunity, if only in hopes of getting more out of the character development, but wouldn't go out of my way to acquire them. Liked it, and there were bits and pieces that I did love, but the writing style issues made it hard to love as a whole. Good entertainment value if you're looking for an evening read (or otherwise as close to one sitting as possible), as a substitute for TV and can appreciate the humor.

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Raven's Peak
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Like Placid Distortion's review? Post a comment saying so!

[kdstrack]

Thanks for this review. I thought your comments about the humor were interesting. When you are all tensed up from the suspense and horror of the story, the humor makes you let down your guard and then, BAM, you get hit with more horror. This is a great literary mechanism. Nice review. Thanks.

[BookishCreature]

Hey, I'm not the only one who picked up on the similarities to Supernatural! It's one of my favorite shows, so I certainly didn't mind. Very nice, thorough review!

[Darakhshan Nazir]

I started reading this novel but lost interest. Your review makes me think I should have given it more time.
Great review though!!

[HouseOfAtticus]

BEautiful and extensive review. I found it to be a delightful read.