Raven Roth doesn’t know how she got here. She wakes up from a car accident to discover that her only family, her soon-to-be adopted mother has passed. Worse, she doesn’t remember anything about her life before. To add another layer to this horror, strange things keep happening. Why can she hear everyone’s thoughts? Why do the things she thinks about keep happening? And what’s with the bird shadow following her around?
Raven wrestles with these questions, supported by her foster mother’s sister and niece. Bonus: there’s a cute boy hanging around (and, because it’s Kami Garcia, it’s complicated).
Kami Garcia’s experience writing teenage Gothic horror is a great fit for this origin story that kicks off DC’s new young adult line, DC Ink. Raven’s teenage turmoil and search for self-discovery work well in parallel with her emerging superpowers. It’s not a new device, but it is still effective here.
Gabriel Picolo’s clear, bold lines stand out and work well with Garcia’s prose.
No advanced knowledge of Raven or the Teen Titans is needed to enjoy the story, so it should work well for any audience.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley in order to facilitate this review.