Raven Girl

 

 

A friend on my Goodreads feed finished this book and gave it a great review, which piqued my interest enough to read it. The author, Audrey Niffenegger, actually wrote this short, illustrated novel per request of the Royal Ballet in London. They wanted a "modern fairytale" to choreograph. The fairytale is about a postman who discovers a letter with an address that he has never seen before. His supervisor seems to know of the address, tells him it is on his route, she says they don't receive much mail, and that he needed to deliver it. When he gets there he discovers the address leads to a raven's nest. There is a small raven on the ground, he picks her up, assumes she is hurt and sick, and takes her home with him. The postman spoils the baby raven with delicious food and all of his attention. She grows and eventually she learns to fly, despite having another raven to teach her. The postman is happily surprised when she flies back to him and stays. The postman and the raven fall in love and he proposes to her; she eagerly accepts. The raven becomes pregnant, lays a large egg, and hatches a human, baby girl. 

 

The Raven Girl has jet black hair and eyes and she doesn't cry, but squawks like a bird. She grows up happy, but believes that she should have been born a raven. She can't communicate with her father or other humans, but she can speak raven. She realizes that she is different once she starts school and is surrounded by other children her age.

 

"The games the children played did not make sense to her, and no one wanted to play at flying or nest building or road kill for very long."

 

She later attends University, where she meets a doctor who agrees to turn her into a raven; finally turning her dream into a reality.

 

I will be the first to admit that the plot is odd, but I think that's what makes people interested enough to read it. The illustrations are dark, but go great with the narration. Every page is full of symbolism, which is why I was so drawn in and taken by it. What I love about the symbols and issues that she uses, is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways by different readers. What teenage girl or boy has not felt uncomfortable in their own skin? Sure, I didn't grow up dreaming that I would or should become a raven, but I, as most others dreamt of a future. I think the only way I can describe this story is that it was beautifully strange. I think the author explains the book best in her "Acknowledgements" at the end,

 

"'Raven Girl,' like many much older tales, is about the education and transformation of a young girl. It also concerns unlikely lovers, metamorphoses, dark justice, and a prince, as well as the modern magic of technology and medicine."