Review and Giveaway: Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

This book was first published in 1996 and I hadn’t heard of it. Well, Garth Stein wasn’t yet famous for his The Art of Racing in the Rain (the book in which a dog tells the heart breaking story of the family he lives with) so I guess it sort of missed my radar. The book has now been reprinted and I was very keen when asked to review it.

So here’s my review of the book. Courtesy of Sarah from Terra Communications, I’m also running a giveaway of the book and an umbrella and it’s international. See below on how to enter.

What is the book about?
This is the story of Jenna who lost her young son two years ago and has not really connected with her husband since. One night, when she sees her husband enjoying himself at a party while she is not feeling at all happy there, she has enough. She takes the car and keeps driving, on and on. She lives in Seattle, but she drives a long way North, and ends up near the ferry terminal for Alaska.

On a whim, she buys a ticket and takes the ferry to her late grandmother’s old town, Wrangell, Alaska. This is close to where her son drowned. While walking in the woods, she is spooked by a strange man that tries to get her to come with him.

Later, she hears native Indian stories about kushtaka. These are otters that take the spirits of humans and can transform into humans, otters, and other animals at will. She believes that the man in the woods was a kushtaka although other people tell her it’s nonsense.

We follow Jenna as she tries to find out more about the old Indian beliefs. She also attempts to deal with her son’s death and with her relationship problems.

What I thought
I very much enjoyed this book! I found the setting, Alaska, very interesting. The woods, the sea, the people. The book was sometimes spookily scary which I actually enjoyed a lot. The traveling by boat and plane added a sense of distance and isolation which made the place mysterious and interesting.

While in Wrangell Jenna rents a room from a man called Eddie, and there is instant attraction between the two. I enjoyed reading about their feelings for each other. The way they hovered around each other seemed quite realistic.

I was a bit put off when reading about the kushtaka at first. I could not believe there might be shape shifters in the book, as it looked more serious than that! Whether there really are any, I will not reveal, but there certainly is an element of the supernatural in the book. That didn’t bother me. In the situation, the Alaskan wilderness and the Indian heritage of the place, the supernatural element felt quite right.

I liked Jenna but I didn’t feel very close to her. I couldn’t identify with her very well, especially after she started believing in supernatural beings. Luckily, her friend Eddie was more of an alter ego for me. He didn’t believe it either, and tried to help her sort out her problems.

In all, a very good book. I enjoyed it a lot and it really made me want to visit Alaska!

Rating: 4.5/5

I got this book: from Sarah of Terra Communications, for review

I read this in: the original language, English.

Interview with Garth Stein

Garth discusses Raven Stole the Moon with Author Magazine. Did you know it was first marketed as a horror story? Hear all about it in the interview about the re-release of this book. Note that it’s not actually a horror story at all, although there are some creepy moments!

In the interview, you can also learn more about Alaskan Indian myths and legends and how Garth Stein has used them in his book.

If you’d like to own this book and a lovely Moon umbrella, leave a comment below with your email address. The giveaway runs until Friday October 15th.

Anyone can enter as the giveaway is international and you do not have to be a follower of my blog (although I strongly recommend it if you like my blog and want to follow it more regularly!).

If you’d like to twitter about this giveaway, that would be so nice! You’ll get one extra entry if you do. Add the tweet link to your comment and I’ll count your entry twice. (To get the tweet link, click on X minutes ago under the tweet and copy the link from the address bar).