Ravenous by MarcyKate Connolly (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Ravenous by MarcyKate Connolly
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-227274-4 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-227276-8 $9.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7
Greta, first appearing as a supporting character in Monstrous (BCCB 4/15), loves her brother Hans, so when he’s captured by a witch, she makes a deal to save him. She must use whatever allies she can to find a long-lost cornucopia that the witch (whose chicken-leg house suggests Baba Yaga and whose eating of children, along with the characters’ names, points to “Hansel and Gretel”) desires so that Greta’s brother will remain uneaten. It’s nice that Greta’s sort of a mess—she flares up at the wrong times, she alienates would-be allies on occasion, and she’s just plain grumpy. Even with her flaws, her fierce dedication to her brother is admirable, and her slow transformation into a more accepting, open person is all the more satisfying given her earlier closed views. Readers who missed the previous novel may lack some emotional backstory, but all of the key events are revisited in seamless ways in this sequel. The finished copy will include a novella, Precious, a prequel to both novels.
