Raven's Gate

3,5 stars As a rule, I will most likely hate any popular YA book. Sure, there are some exceptions, especially ones that became famous and well-loved a long time ago, but things published in the last few years generating mass hysteria usually just piss me off with how crappy they are. So this... well, I guess it's not nearly fitting enough for the teen fangirls, so I kind of enjoyed it. It was fine. An orphaned teenage petty criminal gets caught up in a break-in that ends with someone being stabbed, so of course he needs some punishment, right? Oh, well, he is lucky, as a new government program just got started, involving young offenders being sent to the countryside to somehow learn to behave and get a second chance at leading a healthy life. Sounds fine. Up until our hero, Matt, realises that the old lady having him is probably... part of a crazy black magic cult, trying to do something insane as shit to the world. Also, they have plans for him. Everyone who tries to help him get mislead or even worse, dies. So what now? I can't say I was 100% sold on this just yet. I had a bit of a hard time getting really into it, even though it was not very difficult and not even long. Something about the writing was just... not really brilliant. It was simple, I would even say fitting for a middle grade reader if ready for some murder and scary stuff. No issue with that, I have read about a million Darren Shan books, recently gushed here about Kevin Sands' [b:Mark of the Plague 28954112 Mark of the Plague (The Blackthorn Key, #2) Kevin Sands https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462176791s/28954112.jpg 49179172], am a huge fan of Kate Milford's [b:Greenglass House 18222716 Greenglass House (Greenglass House, #1) Kate Milford https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379952488s/18222716.jpg 25656381]... Still, somehow the language and the sentence strutures could have been a bit more challenging. Authors, please, don't be afraid of pushing the kids a bit! It's okay, that is how hey develop their language skills and intellect. They need it! This one... didn't really push that much. It's okay, I can live with that. Another thing was the length. I'm trying to read some shorter books, as it's a bit harder for me. Somehow I think I'm more used to long ones, even when it's fantasy. This one was... well, I think a bit hindered by the fact that you couldn't really develop on the characters too much in a story this short. That is important to me, seeing the characters come to life and developing an emotional connection to care more about them. Here it started to happen at the very end to me. I mean I have multiple books ahead of me, so it should be fine (I actually started to enjoy the Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron much more reading the second book, [b:The Spirit Rebellion 8098146 The Spirit Rebellion (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #2) Rachel Aaron https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388474230s/8098146.jpg 12863050] for this very reason). It was fun, though. Because of the length, I didn't feel like there were any boring moments when nothing was happening, so I guess it could totally work as a nice read for younger readers, especially ones who are maybe less patient with reading. The fun comes fast, things happen, there are no real slow parts where someone is just laying on the floor, thinking about super deep (but usually extremely cheesy and preachy, thank you very much) angsty teenage feelsies. So if anyone has kids in the around-13 age range who needs the instant gratification in entertainment, this could be a really good choice. Can't say much about the rest of the series, maybe shit goes insane, but so far so good. Another thing I love is how the villains combine modern technology (nuclear power) with black magic to do their thing. It did not work with Middle Ages chanting and weird animal parts and all? Keep trying, include atoms and all the new stuff and maybe you will be successful this time. This is something I love in urban fantasy; how some authors really understand that if forests and springs can have spirits and you can put salamander eyeballs in a potion to make it work, then maybe we can just get the new “ingredients” and make magic with the emotional charges of malls and smart phones and all the new tech. Magic can be change with the changes of human life and our conditions, it doesn't need o be some static, cobwebby thing. MORE! One minor thing with the whole atomic reactor thing. A scientist working in the field would never ever ever say Chernobyl happened in Russia. The correct place is Ukraine, formerly part of the USSR. NOT Russia. All in all, this was a good read, worth my time and absolutely relaxing. I am hoping for the next ones connecting to me a bit more and if that happens, I will be extremely happy. Would recommend it it people and I am looking forward to continuing with the sequels. Have a nice day and see you at the next murderous cult meeting!