Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger

Raven Girl

by Audrey Niffenegger

Once there was a Postman who fell in love with a Raven…

So begins the tale of a postman who encounters a fledgling raven while on the edge of his route and decides to take her home. The unlikely couple falls in love and conceives a child – an extraordinary raven girl trapped in a human body. The raven girl feels imprisoned by her arms and legs and covets wings and the ability to fly. Betwixt and between, she reluctantly grows into a young woman, until one day she meets an unorthodox doctor who is willing to change her.

One of the world’s most beloved storytellers has created a dark fairytale full of wonderment and longing. Illustrated with Audrey Niffenegger’s bewitching etchings and paintings, Raven Girl explores the bounds of transformation and possibility.

Reviewed by pamela on

2 of 5 stars

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About a year ago I received tickets to a preview performance of The Royal Ballet's 'Raven Girl', choreographed by Wayne McGregor. In the playbill I was fascinated to learn that the choreography was based on a collaboration with Audrey Niffenegger who had been asked to write a modern, dark fairy tale to which Wayne McGregor could choreograph a new story ballet. The lights went down on a perfectly realised set, and the performers came out in immaculate costumes and then...I got bored. What I saw was a postman delivering mail for the first act and then some more banal movement interspersed with some genuinely amazing choreography and dancing, but which was few and far between, and an ultimate story which made little to no sense and went absolutely nowhere. Naturally being so disappointed by the ballet's telling of the story I assumed I could get my hands on the story itself, which would hopefully fill me in on some of the plot details I felt the ballet was missing.

A year down the line, and I finally read a copy of 'Raven Girl', and all I can tell you is how wrong I was. A postman rescues a fledgeling raven, looks after her, then promptly falls in love with her. They conceive a child, the titular Raven Girl, who is born with human features but the soul of a Raven. She seeks to look on the outside as she feels on the inside and finds a doctor who can give her the wings she so desperately desires.

Niffenegger has the style and language just right, but where she really fails is the pacing. The book cries out for a detailed plot, indeed I felt she had one in mind, but the format of the fairytale meant that the whole thing felt rushed and lacking in detail. We end up with a character who is introduced, disappears suddenly, only to be replaced by another character who is not introduced until the very last paragraph of the story. These were the questions I left the Royal Opera House asking, and the question I asked once again after reading I book I so badly hoped would answer thise questions; who are these characters, where did they come from, why were they not mentioned earlier?

That isn't to say that the book is all bad. The illustraions, rendered by Niffenegger herself, are beautiful. Minimalist and dark, they are a perfect addition to the mood of the tale. The illustrations were instrumental in creating the set for the ballet, which was superb (the set, not the ballet), and greatly complemented what should have been stylistic perfection. The cover design is superb, and the quality of the paper and the design can not be faulted. It is a shame then that such a beautiful book should be so let down by the words contained within.

Despite it's beauty however I can not recommend either the book or the ballet. Both had amazing potential, but ultimately left me feeling not only cold, but disappointed.

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  • 24 May, 2013: Reviewed