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Ravens
by George Dawes Green

Release Date: 6th Aug 2009
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 978 1 8474 4288 8
RRP: £12.99

Average Customer Rating: 
(0.0 based on 0 ratings)

Long-awaited but a bit of a let-down in the end...

Suffering as it does with a deficiency of both thrills and spills; one would be forgiven for feeling that Dawes Green has lost his knack. The premise of Ravens is hardly original: the surprisingly rapid unravelling of emotions and events when two nobodies (Shaw and Romeo) discover the identities of a local Georgian family (the Boatwrights) that has just made a lottery win of $318 million. There’s nothing like good old fashioned greed to inspire lowlifes into undertaking an absurdly insane plan to extort half the winnings from the family using only fear as in incentive to cooperate.

The Boatwrights themselves are strange fish; although perhaps more ordinary than one might suppose for a fervently god-centric family living in the bible belt of America. Religion runs wide and deep in Ravens and those predisposed toward religion of any description may find its use of the paranoia and mob-like control a tad overbearing and unfair. Shaw’s ascension to God’s earthly messenger is certainly both ironic and disturbing.

Stockholm syndrome is self evident with each member of the family succumbing to the circumstances of emotional captives in their own way: Mrs Boatwright becoming infatuated with Shaw and her subsequent irrational fear for his safety; Tara’s internal struggles with the perversity of her increasingly sexual feelings for him; Mr Boatwright finding solace in his belated conviction of Shaw’s godliness and Jase’s bizarre hero-worshiping all builds up an alarming feeling of speciousness.

The relationship between Shaw and Romeo is interesting, perhaps because it stems from Romeo’s intrinsic need to be accepted by Shaw overshadows his ability to discern right from wrong. Romeo’s need to care for others is also intriguing – both incongruous and in keeping with his personality.

So, whilst Ravens holds some interesting psychological concepts and explores intensely wrong inter-personal relationships; it just fails to thrill: less of a rollercoaster as a minor bump in the road. If we didn’t have such high expectations it might not be so bad, but as it is, we’re left with the sourness of disappointment and the resultant frustration of a book that is an anti-climax.

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