The Ravenhood Series - Kate Stewart
The hate read that started it all...
⭐️
Pros: hate reads are always fun, brought me and Hannah closer as trauma tends to do
Cons: hatable characters who tried too hard, Fast and Furious meets Twilight in the most bizarre way, mediocre writing, racist/problematic author, dumb smut
TW: Murder, Blood, Sexual content, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Drug abuse
You may have read my initial review of the first book of the series, Flock, back in January 2022. Maybe you didn't but a lot has changed since then. I still do not like these books - hate reads through and through- but now, I no longer support the buying or supporting of these books or their author.
Long story short, the author has been in the spotlight recently for some racist and harmful things she included in one of her books, not to mention the way she reacted to the criticism when people started pointing it out and talking about it. It was all a big mess. Color me disappointed but not surprised.
Here are a few links to folks who have talked about this whole thing more thoroughly. I recommend watching them so we can all be on the same page.
Mildren is another Latinx creator and the first creator I saw talking about this on her Tiktok.
Jessie is a Latinx booktoker who offers a great perspective on Kate Stewart via her Tiktok.
Rachel does a good job of discussing this on her authors behaving badly video.
Alright, now that we've all arrived at the same destination... let's discuss the books so I can cross this off my list and be done with it. Again, I did not like these books when I initially read them a year ago. I found them all to be very medium low quality with a try hard flair about them. If Fast and Furious and Twilight had an ugly child together, that child would be named Ravenhood.
Over the span of the 3 books, we have a main character (Cecelia) who is annoying, useless and hatable. She is freshly 18/19 (I don't remember exactly because I don't want to) She loves her dad, but hates her dad, but moves in with her dad and after getting a job at his company, suddenly finds herself falling in love with not one, not two but three different morally gray men with secrets and guns and cars and insatiable sex drives and horrible communication skills. Swoon level zero for me but go off, I guess. These men are all members of the Ravenhood, a brotherhood and a ~family~.
She starts out being shared by two of the men in the family. Fun times for her I'm sure, but me, I was just annoyed, bored and uncomfortable.
The first guy she meets is Sean who is a literal dog in human form. Unpredictable, dumb, excitable but annoying. I would also imagine that he smells. However, I think that comparison is insulting to dogs because what have dogs done besides be the best boys/girls? Nothing. Plus dogs are smart; I read an article once about how Black Labs are technically smart enough to babysit a human infant. Sean on the other hand -_- He also nicknames Cecelia "pup" which made me want to collapse into myself like a dying star every time I read it which was - thank you for asking - 25 times total. He is also toxic. How cute!
The second guy Dom - yes his name is Dom, I wish I was kidding - I liked him a medium/low amount. He was a burly, stoic dude who was intimidating on the outside, teddy bear on the inside. He liked rainy days and reading and he was problematic only in the sense that he was friends with Sean and the rest of the family. He could have saved us all. He didn't though... because he dies in book 1. Or was it book 2? I have no idea, my mind has begun a system reset. Anyway, he dies.
We don't meet the third man until the end of book one and it was still too soon. His name is Tobias aka The Frenchman aka the reason I had a migraine on January 10, 2022. He is like the "leader" of the Ravenhood, the "crew" the family? I don't know. I imagined him as Elijah from TVD but with a French accent and a love of grooming/abusing teen girls and bullying his friends/family. Their relationship blooms from literally nothing. She meets him, he's awful to her which is hot. She had just lost both of the first boys, one from a break up and one from the grim reaper and she's just instantly into Tobias. Gag. Also, on the first few pages of Exodus, Tobias says "I don't fuck little girls" and then proceeds to cross her boundaries, break into her house, drug her, tattoo her against her will and bang her endlessly. He also reveals later on in book 2 that he has been watching her since she was 11 so... Is anything true? Is there any good in the world? Am I ok? No, the answer is no.
The entire series is poorly constructed, nothing makes any damn sense, none of the relationships are properly developed but hey, why write believable, organic relationship dynamics into a story when you could just write in a threesome on a pool float and get the job done?
I don't recommend these books, I don't support this author and I don't remember what it feels like to be happy.