'A grim discovery brings disturbing revelations in this chilling ghost story from the late Marcus Sedgwick.
'While mucking about in the ruins of an old farm while on holiday in Yorkshire, James hears strange laughter echoing around the walls. The ghost of a young girl appears to him and urges James to follow her but at first he’s too afraid.
'When she appears again, this time James follows. But will he be able to face the terrible truth she reveals ...?'
Ravencave is a gloomy tale, one filled with atmosphere and emotion as a small family travels to Yorkshire to visit the home of their ancestors, in order to scatter the ashes of their grandmother. Rather than the trip bringing them together, however, it seems to be seeing them draw further apart. Young James has to watch on as the cracks begin to appear in his family, as his father deals with having just lost his job and worries about the future, how his mother is struggling with her writers block knowing that her work might be the only thing that can help them right now, and how his older brother Robbie seems to have turned into a sullen teen who doesn't even want to talk to him anymore.
There's a sense of gloom that hangs over this small family as they holiday in a place that only the year previous gave them a nice time. Their individual worries seem to gnaw at them, causing the rifts to grow wider, with James being the only one able to see that if they just took a moment and tried to be with each other that things might start to get better.
When exploring one of the areas where their family used to live generations ago, James hears a creepy laughter coming from one of the ruined buildings, and discovers the ghost of a young girl there waiting for him. She gives him a cryptic message, and James runs away from her. But as the holiday continues the girls words gnaw at him, and he soon becomes determined that if he sees her again he'll go with her to try to discover more.
Ravencave sounds like a ghostly tale, a story that might scare, but that's a clever bit of misdirection, it's the thing that might get you to pick up the book and give it a try. Instead, this book is about relationships, family, and grief. James' family are the focus here, their fractured lives and the ever growing distance between them the thing that's really driving the narrative. James comes across as something of an outsider, possibly due to his younger age keeping him sheltered somewhat from the pressures of the adult world. As such, he can has a somewhat innocent approach to things, and can suggest the idea of 'ignore it for now, just be happy together for a moment' that adults in the grips of worry would ignore.
But, his family don't seem to be listening to him; so wrapped up in their own worries they continue doing their own thing, not really paying him any attention, leaving him to his own devices. This is where I'm going to get into major spoiler territory, so if you've not read the book please jump ahead to the last paragraph. There's a moment that comes up, where James is lamenting how his family barely interact with him, where his mother talks to him, but in an odd way and doesn't look at him where it all suddenly clicked into place for me; and a revelation soon after confirmed it. James is dead. James has seen a ghost because he is one, and that's why is family is fracturing, why they seem to ignore him most of the time, and why whenever his parents speak to him its when they're on their own. James died in Yorkshire the year before, and the family have come to both scatter ashes, and to say goodbye to James. This is where the sense of grief hanging over everyone begins to make more sense.
From here the book suddenly opens up and becomes something much bigger. The ever pervading sense of something being wrong makes so much sense, they way the characters are interacting starts to feel more realistic. They're not a family pulled apart by the small worries and their own issues, they're a family fractured by the loss of one of their own. Once you realise what's going on you're able to look back at all of the times James has interacted with his family and it makes so much sense. They're not ignoring him, they can't hear him. They're not being distant and odd when they talk to him, it's people talking aloud to a lost loved one in moments of solitude. It becomes one of those things that feels ridiculously obvious, yet it takes a while before you even consider it as a possibility.
The book taking this sharp pivot into a deeply upsetting story, of the untimely death of a young child, is shocking, but it also improves the book in a lot of ways. It takes the narrative in an interesting direction, and once James realises what's happened, and tries to help his family through his grief, it becomes incredibly touching and moving. Losing a beloved family member is one of the more painful experiences, especially in circumstances like in this book. Grief is not an easy journey, and it can take a very long while to get through, and this book shines a light on how hard grief is, how much is can hurt, and gives the message that things will ultimately be okay. And considering children do live through moments like that, it's good to see a book for kids conveying that message.
Ravencave was not the book I was expecting it to be. From the description I was expecting a spooky tale with ghosts. And whilst I didn't get that story, I got something better instead. Instead the book delivered an important story about grief, loss, and family that you don't often see tackled in books aimed at younger readers. Ravencave was an emotional journey, but one that I'll remember.
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