Ravenfall, Hollowthorn, & Witchwood
Kalyn Josephson
Delacorte Press, Sept 6, 2022, Oct. 17 2023, Oct. 1 2024
256, 256, 272 pages
There’s this awkward space between finishing one book and starting a new one. Even for a dedicated reader like me, the task of choosing what to invest my time in feels monumental. It’s not just that I’ll have to work through the beginning pages before feeling immersed. It’s a question of what book suits who I am in that moment. Even more important – who will I be when I finish? Just as characters shift and change over the course of a book, ideally the reader does too.
When I began reading Kalyn Josephson’s Ravenfall series I was a baby blogger. BookishlyJewish had only recently launched and Kalyn was kind enough to be one of the very first authors interviewed on the blog. I was so scared of getting it wrong in the review that I pushed it off. When Hollowthorn came out, I was an overloaded blogger. I’d found my footing in terms writing posts but was overwhelmed by trying to figure out which content to prioritize. Authors and publishers were sending me books, plus I had a TBR of my own making, and I wanted to tackle this equitably while best serving my readership. (Still working on that one folks. I don’t think it ever stops, nor should it). I totally missed the release deadline and then burrowed myself under a sea of regret. Which means when Witchwood was slated for release I saw an opportunity to redeem myself by reviewing all three at once. And I’ve only missed the release deadline by a tiny bit. Which is a miracle given how many high holidays share Witchwood’s release month.
As much as I’ve changed over the course of the books, so have the characters. In Ravenfall, Anna Ballinkay is unsure of her both her psychic powers and her place in the magical, sentient, inn that she loves. She worries that without the psychic abilities of her sisters, she doesn’t belong. When a stranger named Colin shows up and discovers that his parents were murdered because of the secret magical powers they poses that have now passed on to him, Anna obviously wants to help him solve their murders. But she also has to deal with watching Colin easily inherit a large amount of power while she still struggles in comparison with her siblings and their strong abilities. By the end, they’ve confronted the Irish kind of the dead together and each transformed. Anna’s powers aren’t so useless after all, but she realizes that psychic ability isn’t what makes her belong at the Ravenfall Inn. It’s her love for the place that does that. Meanwhile Colin begins to deals with the family legacy that is left to him, a process that will span the series.
In Hollowthorn we see Anna mature into her psychic power, but struggle with a whole new side of herself – her Jewish side. As she and Colin journey into the Otherworld to try and protect a magical staff from ashmedai king of Sheidim they are greeted by a menagerie of Jewish magical creatures. Anna wonders why her father has taught her so little about being a Jew. While she actively seeks out her family history, Colin is wholeheartedly rejecting his. He finds that protecting non magical beings from magical ones isn’t as simple as it initially sounded. Surely all magical creatures are not bad. How does one determine when to act? By the end Anna makes peace with her father and Colin embraces both sides of his power, but those questions are still unanswered.
Witchwood, where Anna and Colin meet Anna’s Aunt and help search for missing witches, allows the questions about when and how to use magic come full circle. Anna is now in possession of so much power that her prior Ravenfall self would probably not recognize her at all, but she still feels out of place. She is constantly wondering if she is Jewish enough, and regretting that she hasn’t spent more time with her fathers side of the family. Colin too has grown in power, but for the first time he meets a magical community that is hostile and prejudiced against him. He begins to doubt himself and his own mission. Having found their power, Colin and Anna must now find their confidence. Their growing maturity allows them to accept that sometimes there is no right or wrong answer, just the choice you make in that moment.
These are lessons I too have internalized. We are all constantly changing and growing, the process is simply less obvious when experienced day by day in Real Life instead of in fiction when three books in a series can be read in short succession. Anna and Colin have so much to teach both kids and adults about embracing all aspects of ourselves, living in grey areas, and finding family. They also provide a refreshing example of male and female identifying characters that are allowed to just be friends without any romantic tension between them. Plus, they have a cool sentient house, a billion magical creatures, and some very awesome adventures.
I have no idea what the next and final book in the series, Ravenguard, will bring for these characters. I am also unsure what kind of person I will be when I read it. I hope I’ll be a blogger that has more time and is better organized than my current self, but let’s be realistic. Like Anna and Colin I’ve still got a long way to go. It’s nice sharing the ride with these two.
Note: BookishlyJewish took Ravenfall out from the library, picked up Hollowthorn at Raid The Shelves and received an e-arc from the author for Witchwood
Find It:
Ravenfall: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon