Book Review: The Raven

Raven Wood spends her days at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery restoring fine works of Renaissance art. But an innocent walk home after an evening with friends changes her life forever. When she intervenes in the senseless beating of a homeless man, his attackers turn on her, dragging her into an alley. Raven is only semi-conscious when their assault is interrupted by a cacophony of growls followed by her attacker’s screams. Mercifully, she blacks out, but not before catching a glimpse of a shadowy figure who whispers to her…

Cassita vulneratus.

When Raven awakes, she is inexplicably changed. She returns to the Uffizi, but no one recognizes her and more disturbingly, she discovers that she’s been absent an entire week. With no recollection of the events leading up to her disappearance, Raven also learns that her absence coincides with one of the largest robberies in Uffizi history – the theft of a set of priceless Botticelli illustrations. When the baffled police force identifies her as its prime suspect, Raven is desperate to clear her name. She seeks out one of Florence’s wealthiest and elusive men in an attempt to uncover the truth about her disappearance. Their encounter leads Raven to a dark underworld whose inhabitants kill to keep their secrets…

Series: The Florentine #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 393 pages
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Content Warnings

Chapter one gave us a disabled and fat lead character in Raven… who is walking home alone at 1:30 AM. But she’s not bothered by this fact like some women. She’s practically invisible in every-day life due to her disability, looks, and weight.

Raven comes across three drunkards who physically assault (and subsequently murder) one of the intellectually disabled homeless folks she’s friendly with. Unable to watch it happen, Raven calls on them to stop. They obviously turn their attention to her instead.

The drunkards mock Raven’s physical disability and her appearance as she tries to get away from them. They catch up with no issue, toss Raven’s cane in the street and play keep-away with her backpack. She once again attempts to get away, but the drunkards grab her, and drag her into an alley.

Raven tries to fight back and get away, but is physically assaulted by the three men, then sexually assaulted. It is unclear whether Raven is actually raped or not, but it’s such a close call that it doesn’t particularly matter.

She is rescued by a vampire, and in chapter two awakes in her apartment not remembering anything after leaving a work party at the start of the weekend. It surprisingly takes Raven some time to realize that her disability is miraculously cured, her eyesight is no longer a problem, and she is now of a skinny body type. Thinking she’s experiencing head trauma that is making her see things, Raven runs off to work for the support of her coworkers.

It was at about this time, 5% through by my math, that I turned off the audio book and raged. My first thought after Raven is introduced as a fat and disabled character was, “If she is turned into a vampire and “magically cured” I’m going to DNF this so fast”. So by the end of chapter two, this book was swiftly DNF’d.

Paranormal romance is probably my favorite genre. There’s just something about the fantastical in our everyday world that I love. And that leading characters love… if you catch my drift. But when a book is so riddled with inconceivable character actions (Why didn’t Raven just go to the hospital instead of running to her coworkers? Why was she walking home alone at night?), as well as brutal violence, graphic sexual assault, ableism, and fatphobia all within the first two chapters… Well, I don’t hold high hopes for any of your other books, either.