[BOOK REVIEW] The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Title:  The Raven

Author:  Edgar Allan Poe

Artist:  Ryan Price 

Genre:  Classics / Poetry / Horror / Animals

Year Published: 2006

Year Read:  2014

Publisher:  KCP Poetry     

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 10+ (Some Scary Imagery)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

 

Now, I have been dying to read some of Edgar Allan Poe’s works for a long time and now I finally got the chance to reread Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem called “The Raven” in graphic novel format!  The eerie atmosphere and haunting artwork by Ryan Price really made this story enjoyable to read!

Basically, this story is about a scholar who starts remembering many things from his past, including losing his lover, Lenore.  Suddenly, a knock is heard at the door and a mysterious raven flies into his home.  When the scholar keeps asking the Raven questions about his life, the Raven would only reply:

“NEVERMORE!”

This constant response from the Raven then causes the scholar to go a bit insane as the Raven constantly reminds him of the horrors and deep layers of humanity.

Now, I will admit that when I first read this book, I was a bit confused about what was really going on because of how the language of the poem tend to be pretty old fashioned (just like how you try to read William Shakespeare’s works, but have a hard time understanding the work due to the language being written from a much older era).  But, once I read the summary at the back of this book that detailed what this poem was really all about, I started to understand this poem and its much deeper meaning of madness and grief.  Edgar Allan Poe had done a beautiful job at detailing the scholar’s descent into madness after the death of his lover Lenore and when the Raven comes in and starts driving him insane by constantly telling him “NEVERMORE!”  It really brought in so much fear to the story and I was seriously sitting on the edge of my seat in seeing the scholar go insane from the Raven’s constant “NEVERMORE” statements. Ryan Price’s artwork complements well with this poem as they are dark and spooky and I really loved the images of the raven looking menacingly at the scholar as it keeps yelling out “NEVERMORE!”  I also loved the black and white colorings of the artwork as they really bring out the spookiness of this poem and the madness that the scholar is going through.

This book might be a bit too creepy for some readers, especially whenever it delved into the madness of the main character and the Raven constantly bothering the main character through its endless usage of “NEVERMORE!”  Also, Ryan Price’s artwork might be a bit too scary for some readers, especially the images of the Raven taking up most of the pages and looking pretty menacing towards both the readers and the scholar.  Also, since this book was written during the 1800s, the language of the poem might be a bit hard to understand for modern audiences.

Overall, “The Raven” is truly one classic poem from Edgar Allan Poe that fans need to read over and over again! I would recommend this book to children ages ten and up since the language might be hard to understand and some of the imagery is pretty scary.