I confess. I got this one because it has the same title as the book Lucas writes on One Tree Hill. And you know what I realized when I was composing this review in my head while washing dishes? I realized that Lucas’s book title? Ravens is meant to refer to his basketball team, the Tree Hill Ravens. Which kind of makes me want to gouge out my eyes. Like, bad enough he’s written a pretentious book full of pretentious sentences and given it a pretentious title, and bad enough they’re pretending that this idiotic autobiographical book about Lucas and all his closest friends is such a masterpiece. But see, I actually felt better about the title when I thought it was an abstract title that was with the symbols and everything – pretentious, yes, because it had nothing to do with anything, but I could deal with it. Now I have realized that it is meant to be clever, I indeed wish centuries of stupid hair on Chad Michael Murray. (Pointless wish that I know will be granted.) Plus I feel resentful that I didn’t notice before, because my sister and I watched One Tree Hill all this past season, and I feel like we really missed out on some excellent mockery opportunities with that title.
Well, regardless. Ruth Rendell’s book is completely unrelated to that. It’s a totally acceptable title for this book. Inspector Wexford gets asked by his neighbor to investigate what has happened to her husband Rodney Williams. At first he thinks Rodney’s up and left her, but then there are all these mysterious circumstances that induce him to change his mind, like a bag of Rodney’s stuff turning up all abandoned, and them finding his body all drugged and stabbed. And other people are getting stabbed by crazy feminists. With ravens.
(Plot summary is one of my best skills.)
This book was more engaging than Vanity Dies Hard, less than Anna’s Book. The plot went along nicely, but some things were a little weirdly resolved, and there weren’t any clever little linguistic tricks going around either. (Like, oo, when Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranged to spell I am Lord Voldemort – that was my favorite bit of Chamber of Secrets which otherwise I don’t like a bit and I haven’t even bothered to replace my copy now that the spine’s all broken.) I wasn’t as interested in the characters, and I was displeased and surprised that Wexford – all perceptive with the incest thing – didn’t figure out a hundred pages earlier that when the girl said “those two women” she wasn’t talking about the mothers. Because I knew straight away that she meant the daughters. And I know that may be not a fair criticism since I’m of a different generation, but still it was frustrating.
I will say this for An Unkindness of Ravens. I was thinking about the crazy feminists, trying to decide what I thought about her portrayal of them, and it got me thinking about many things regarding women and oppression, and I had a Total Epiphany about the story I’m writing. It was one of those times when you’re writing a story and you realize something that’s happened in the story without your noticing, and all the indications for it are already there. Because I had this epiphany, and I went back and reexamined my story, and I was thinking, Oh stupid Jenny, this element is already there, and it seems impossible that you didn’t notice this plot thread that was happening right under your nose. I seriously only had to add about four paragraphs to the whole story to make the change. So hurrah for An Unkindness of Ravens. I am in its debt.