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Book Review: The Raven by Dani Lamia with Gwendolyn Kress

The Raven by Dani Lamia

Level 4 Press, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-1933769707

Available: Preorder paperback, Kindle edition, MP3 ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

I received a .pdf ARC of this from the publisher.

Rebekah is bullied horrendously at school, mostly cruel jokes originating with popular Coralie Renner and her friends. Things get much worse when Beka accidentally spills a drink on her skirt at a party and Coralie nicknames her “piss bitch.” Not only does she face name calling and humiliation but someone pees in her locker, destroying her textbooks, clothes, and sketchbook.

As a young child Beka had a dream friend, the Raven, who eventually stopped visiting but left her with a special edition of the works of Poe. She starts dreaming of him and carrying the book again. This time her dreams are vengeful. The students who have been tormenting her begin to appear one at a time as she watches, waking up the next day with real physical damage- a broken tooth or arm, hair pulled out in a clump. They claim the damage is from accidents but all remember bad dreams.

This wouldn’t normally be concrete enough for a police investigation, but after parents insist, a cop is sent to investigate, who happens to be Beka’s neighbor, Mike Wilson. Mike is a couple years older than Beka and has a crush on her. Despite her being a potential suspect and it being completely inappropriate, they start dating.

Meanwhile things with the Raven are escalating inside Beka’s magical Poe-inspired dreams. She asks the Raven, who has stepped things up and is now killing, to stop, and he refuses. She realizes he is not merely a dream creature, but a person who can invade dreams who has taken a personal interest in her.

I liked the premise a lot, but I felt like the story started to go off the rails with the police investigation and other plot threads once we got closer to the end.

Contains: bullying, brief description of rape, scenes of torture and murder.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Kirsten, Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Masque of the Red Death: Fine Art Edition by Steven Archer

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, art by Steven Archer

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2020

ISBN-13: 9781946335319

Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org )

Prince Prospero, trying to avoid a deadly plague, the Red Death, ravaging the land, walls himself up inside his abbey along with a number of other wealthy nobles. To combat the boredom, the prince hosts a masquerade ball within seven rooms of the abbey, each one representing a different color. Near the end of the evening, a mysterious guest dressed as the Red Death reveals herself to the revelers and Prince Prospero.

The story is not a rewrite of the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, but the artwork provides a new context to the tale. Written in 1842, this story has a resonance with the current global situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven Archer, a multi-media visual artist, has moved the story from the plague-ridden countryside to the decadent American modern-day city. Archer also transformed the nebulous Red Death from the male incarnation in Poe’s original tale to a woman in his artwork. The images are visceral, energetic, and haunting. There are several pages that I would love to frame and hang on my walls.

At first, the price tag raised my eyebrows, but seeing the quality of Archer’s artwork and how much went into the pieces, it is definitely worth it. There are 71 pages in the book, most of which include a full page of color art. Highly recommended.

Contains: nudity, viscera

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s note: The Masque of the Red Death: Fine Art Edition is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Kirsten, Reply

Excerpt: “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, from Poems to See By illustrated by Julian Peters

I am so delighted to be able to share this with you, not ust because it ties in so well to National Poetry Month, which is right around the corner, but because I do love Edgar Allan Poe, not just for his short stories but for his poetry, which sends chills down my spine. My daughter points out that this is more the product of an obsessive and frankly disturbed mind than a romantic heart, and she’s 100% right, but I still love “Annabel Lee” and its doomed, fairytale quality.

Thus when this excerpt from the soon-to-be published Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry by Julian Peters was sent my way, I felt I had to share it. There are just too many people (and too many middle-schoolers and teens, for sure) who are ready to write off poetry entirely, and this is a wonderful way to draw them in. The book is a collection of 24 classic poems, not all (or even most) of them dark, but I was given permission to share with you all the pages illustrating “Annabel Lee”.

Annabel Lee page1