I’ve had a copy of Cat Winter‘s The Raven’s Tale on the shelf for several years now. I suspect I won it, but it’s also possible I picked it up second-hand.
Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”
I enjoyed this in the end. But it took me a long time to get into. I was bored for a lot of it. I kept waiting for the story I expected to begin, but eventually realized it wasn’t going to happen. This is a smaller, quieter telling. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea; I’m not even sure it is mine. Or that I liked Poe much or his muse(s) much. But I did appreciate Winter’s take on Poe’s early life. It’s just that this seems to ring a single note over and over again, or maybe it’s that only a single bell tolls. All in all, I don’t regret having read it, but I’m glad to be finished and moving on.
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