3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Raven’s Peak is the first book in the World on Fire series by Lincoln Cole. This books falls squarely into the realm of supernatural and we find our main characters, Abigail Dressler and Haatim Arison facing increasingly dangerous demons that threaten to destroy not only them and their families, but also the world. While the book is framed as a supernatural mystery in which Abigail and Haatim must work together to figure out who and what is causing the people of a small town called Raven’s Peak to suddenly turn evil, what this story is really about is two young adults trying to figure out who they are in a dangerous world.
Abigail was seemingly born into this life. She currently works for a group called the Council which is supposedly tasked with keeping a lid on all means of supernatural bad guys, including a group called the Ninth Circle. She has suffered several traumas in her life and she is slow to trust and quick to jump into action. Cole does a great job slowly rolling out Abigail’s past, peeling away layers of her history until you finally have a relatively complete picture of who she is and why she acts the way she does.
Haatim on the other hand is living a seemingly normal life, just trying to figure out who he wants to be and what, exactly, he wants to do with his life. His faith has been shaken and on a whim he accepts an odd job that throws him into Abigail’s path and into a world that he never knew existed, but for which he was born to be a part of. Again, Cole does a great job weaving in pieces of Haatim’s past and slowly pulls all the pieces together until we have a clear picture of Haatim, his family and his motivations.
The story itself is slightly disjointed, sometimes jumping from different locations and timelines quickly without much in the way of transition. A few times I found myself having to flip back and forth to figure out where things were occurring. For instance, I struggled with the idea that the church at the center of the mystery was located in Raven’s Peak (deep in Appalachian Coal Mining Country) when I was certain from earlier chapters that it was in the Rocky Mountains. Things like that which were not fully clear or fleshed out crushed the momentum of the book for me as I skimmed back trying to figure out who was where and when.
Overall, this was a strong first book in a series. I fully enjoyed the main characters and how they had to get past their own issues in order to trust each other and try to save the world. I also found that while the story of Raven’s Peak itself didn’t arrive until half way through the book, I didn’t actually mind, because the first half spent a lot of time building up the characters and back story, so that when we did arrive in Raven’s Peak, the action made sense and flowed fairly smoothly. Lastly, at the outset of the story, a character called the Reverend appears to be crucial, his story is the one that starts the books off, and then he’s gone, relegated to an off screen motivation for Abigail and the Council. At first this switch from the Reverend's storyline to Abigail and Haatim was slightly off putting, but the deeper I got into the story, the more it worked and I found myself really hoping for a resolution to the Reverend’s fate by the end of the book. I was left wanting in that department, but given that there is a sequel, Raven’s Fall, I’m willing to hold off my indignation in exchange for diving into the next book and more of Abigail and Haatim’s adventures.
As noted, this is a solid first book in the World on Fire Series. I’m giving it a 3 out of 4 stars based on some of the clunky transitions and having to double back to get clarification on where certain things took place. However, the character development and world building is strong and I found myself really getting drawn into the story despite the issues noted. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in supernatural mysteries.
******
Raven's Peak
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like KateElstad's review? Post a comment saying so!
