Gravenye Review

Ilsa lives alone in a large mansion deep in the woods. Ilsa has always lived here, though not always alone. Ilsa has a hunger, she likes to hunt, she likes to skin, and carve, and clean. Now Ilsa has hired the young Marie to help her keep the big house tidy. But Marie brings demons of her own into Ilsa's domain. And watching these two strange birds locked in a cage is the house itself, cursed with sentience, destined to watch the horror of the human drama unfold again and again.

General Impressions

I became a fan of Sloane Leong's work with her wonderful A Map to the Sun with its diverse cast of young girls finding themselves in the 1980's so I jumped at the chance to review Graveneye.

If you are unsure about this story and need one reason for giving it a try: this is told through the point of view of a HOUSE!! A freaking mansion! Do you want two more reasons: female-centred and the perfect Halloween read.

Okay, first things first. I went into this expecting a cute wlw story with some supernatural elements with an ultimately happy ending. I should really start to read the synopsis before diving in... If that's what you are looking for, look elsewhere because this is going to get bloody. You can get back to Gravenye when you are in the mood to be emotionally eviscerated.

Before I even realized who the narrator was, I was immersed in the art. While I requested this book because I was expecting Sloane's art, Anna Bowle's was equally wonderful: the style lent itself to the scary atmosphere, I loved the red across every frame, the animal drawings were beautifully, horrifically detailed and I particularly loved the unique way she drew the female characters: the curved noses, long faces, silky hair that told us so much about them. These women look strong and real.

The writing itself was also really beautiful, with the house waxing poetic about everything from her owner to her history and her feelings about the things around her.

Conclusions

My god, this went everywhere I didn't expect. I was not expecting the genre, the art style, the narrator and I certainly wasn't expecting that ending!

The action scenes were incredibly drawn, the characters made me root for them and the plot is original and unexpected.

I look forward to whatever Sloane gifts us next.

Rating: 4/5