The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics

Published: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Introduction

The Cranes are a family of five sisters that look picture-perfect from the outside. What the world doesn’t know is that their home life is less than ideal. When tragedy strikes, it threatens to rip their world apart, but their mother steps in with a mysterious fix that has disastrous consequences. The dead don’t have to stay dead, for a price.

NB: If you don’t want spoilers, don’t read the book blurb! I know the jacket blurb isn’t up to the author, so she gets a pass. It’s a poor decision on the publisher’s part to spoil the entire plot if you read the dust jacket. I’m very glad I didn’t read the whole thing before I read the book.

Family Dynamics/Characters

The Cranes are so dysfunctional it’s hard to read at times. If you’re looking for a book to compare and/or contrast family life in literature, this is a good pick as there is lots of evidence. The mother is mentally ill and an addict, and not equipped to be a caregiver. The maternal responsibilities fall to the eldest daughter, Juliet, which causes resentment. Next in line is Taylor, who cannot separate herself from Juliet, and she really doesn’t have any other outstanding character traits. Anya uses...illicit substances, but is otherwise fine. Mona, the main character, has her own problems. The youngest, Rose, is too young to have any real problems, yet, and she is loved by the family. Their father is in the military and is deployed or otherwise engaged outside of the house.

What I did like about this family is how each of the characters has their own personalities. Have you ever read a book that has many characters but they are all flat? Where you could easily cut 50% of the characters because they don’t add anything? It is not the case for this book, as all of the characters add something and move the plot forward.

Writing

Just as with The Women in the Walls, the horror scenes were fantastic. They elicited a visceral reaction that you don’t always get with horror novels. Unlike The Women in the Walls, the other writing was mostly improved. When there wasn’t guts and gore being thrown around, the story was just as engaging. My only point of contention here is the swearing. Yes, young people swear. It’s true! But it’s inserted in here so much it’s awkward. It’s a part of speech that needs to flow, but it’s jarring here and disrupts the regular patterns of speech.

I do have to say, the inciting incident was poorly written. It is reminiscent of a main character’s death in Sever. I stopped and asked, what actually happened? I can’t envision it. It’s also unbelievable. I can think of a few ways to at least make it more believable, but we got what we got, and it’s disappointing.

Military Aspect

I had written A LOT on this, and ultimately, I took off a star from my review. I have chosen to remove the critical bits because the last thing we need is the military calling my husband because they don't like what I wrote on the internet. I'll only give my briefest comments, but it is something that really took the novel down a peg for me.

The Cranes live on a military base, but it is evident that the author doesn’t have substantial knowledge of the military. Maybe don’t rely on only one person to give you info for the setting of a book. There are many parts of this novel that I cringed so hard because it was wrong by varying degrees. Every gif is at least a paragraph that I removed.

The end. I rolled my eyes so hard it’s a miracle I can still see. The military police would have been involved MUCH more than the regular police. You live on base, that’s it. And in all probability, their dad wouldn't have his job anymore. That's all I say.

The dad being deployed/posted, considering their family situation. Unlikely. All this information is readily available on the internet, btw.

Yeah, there was more. This whole page would be gifs if I kept going. So, below are some spoilers. Feel free to go to the Final Thoughts.

Other Issues

I expected THEM to drive the convertible to their mom and Harlow to see what was keeping their mom/get the cure themselves. To me, this is the obvious course of action that just isn’t taken. I don’t recall it ever being suggested, either.

End of Spoilers

Final Thoughts

Despite all the gripes I have against the setting, and some of the holes I found, I really did like this book. Could it be better? Yes. (Instead of the military setting, he could travel internationally for business.) Aside from the compare and contrast with this dysfunctional family, I can’t think of other ways to utilize this for academic work. The military aspect should have been axed-Lukavics needs to stick with what she knows if she can’t be bothered to research properly. But for a horror story with a dysfunctional family, it was great. If your library is alright with horror for a YA audience, such as Lukavic's other book, Women in The Walls, I recommend this book.