{"id":10203,"date":"2024-04-29T22:45:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T02:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10203"},"modified":"2024-04-29T22:45:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T02:45:21","slug":"book-review-the-ravens-crux-by-julie-boglisch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-ravens-crux-by-julie-boglisch\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Raven’s Crux by Julie Boglisch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

The Raven\u2019s Crux<\/em>\u00a0by Julie Boglisch<\/p>\n

Black Rose Writing, 2024<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781685133672<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy:\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> | Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The only drawback to The Raven\u2019s Crux<\/em> is the cartoonish, completely uninspiring cover of the book.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t do justice to the thrilling ghost story contained inside, a story that manages the “crossover” between young adult and adult fiction perfectly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book provides an exciting story, and at the same time does a good job exploring the nature of friendship among kids–\u00a0 in this case, middle schoolers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Noah and Aiden Raven are forced to relocate their lives constantly due to their dad\u2019s job as a private investigator, and the small town of Herisdell is just another stop in their nomadic lives.\u00a0 Dad isn\u2019t a normal PI however: some of his cases involve the paranormal.\u00a0 He unexpectedly disappears early in the story, and Noah and Aiden are essentially on their own.\u00a0 Somehow, they have to take care of themselves, while at the same time they are desperate to solve the mystery of dad\u2019s disappearance, since the cops seem to be making no headway.\u00a0 They have the advantage of having the ability to see and speak to ghosts, which helps, but at times puts them in some pretty terrifying situations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the brothers make decent detectives, the author did a good job of making it realistic for the age group. The two of them are pretty bright and can make deductions, but they aren\u2019t infallible, like the Three Investigators were back in the 80\u2019s.\u00a0 (if you remember that far back)\u00a0 Plus, they do get some help, in the form of their one friend, Stephen (called Phen), his mother, who provides the boys a place to stay, \u00a0and young girl ghost, Mia, who accompanies them throughout the story, alternating between being helpful, protective, \u00a0and madly cryptic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the dynamics between the four new friends that really holds the reader\u2019s interest.\u00a0 Noah befriends Mia, while Aiden distrusts her, and the supernatural.\u00a0 Phen has a crush on Aiden, complicating their friendship, since Aiden doesn’t feel the same.\u00a0 Truth be told, as good as the brothers are for lead characters, Mia is the scene-stealer and the best part of the book.\u00a0 She\u2019s perfectly drawn, as a young spirit in form who has existed for many years and feels the weight of time and her unhappy afterlife weighing down on her.\u00a0 It\u2019s a real heartwarmer as she slowly gets accepted by the others and finds herself remembering some of what it was like to be human.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, and did I mention the scare factor?\u00a0 No mistake, the author knows how to put terror into the pages: the scares in this would easily hold up in any adult horror novel. While there is no real blood needed, and implied violence only, a number of scenes are good for some real mental screams.\u00a0 One of the early scenes in the Raven home is quite creepy, and the scene in the deserted home full of ghosts is a real fear factory. It might actually be enough to dish out some nightmares to young readers!\u00a0 Based on this book, the author could certainly write an adult horror thriller, if she chose.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time to ghost into the bottom line: this is a good one.\u00a0 It holds up as well or better than most of the ghost stories I have read over the past few years, and I read a lot of them.\u00a0 Give it a chance, it won\u2019t disappoint.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raven\u2019s Crux\u00a0by Julie Boglisch Black Rose Writing, 2024 ISBN: 9781685133672 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org | Amazon.com   The only drawback to The Raven\u2019s Crux is the cartoonish, completely uninspiring cover of the book.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t do justice to the thrilling ghost story contained inside, a story that manages the “crossover” between young adult<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[182,698,645,749,5650,5629,5649,5259],"class_list":["post-10203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crossover-titles","tag-ghosts","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-julie-boglisch","tag-paranormal-investigators","tag-the-ravens-crux","tag-ya-horror-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10240,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203\/revisions\/10240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}