Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this beautiful book.

An artist in need of healing, a woman with a broken heart waiting for her spring... A story of myth and legend in Aurora, Alaska. I'll admit it, I have a soft spot for retellings, but I particularly loved this one... it was a different look at the holidays. Pieces of the history of a frozen land that I didn't know, in soft words that melted my soul.
Totally recommended.

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Una artista que necesita sanar, una mujer con un corazón lastimado en espera de su primavera... Una historia de mitos y leyendas en Aurora, Alaska. Lo admito, tengo debilidad por los retellings, pero este particularmente me encantó... fue un vistazo diferente a los días festivos. Pedazos de la historia de una tierra congelada que no conocía, en palabras suaves que me derritieron el alma.
Totalmente recomendado.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting idea behind this story but it felt distinctly homemade. The writing was quite good and felt folk tale like at times. It was quite white washed however which led to a lack of sympathy and engagement with the MC.
An OK read.

This is the story of Katie Mason, a sculptor, who needs to get away for awhile. She actually, secretly feels frozen, like a block of ice, a chunk of stone and she wants to numb her pain, turn solid until she forgets. To thaw, she must heal, and to heal she must thaw. To heal, she must face her pain and work on her art.

She goes up to Aurora, Alaska, a small town, frozen in the winter to hide from everything. She meets neighbors, all embracing winter, while waiting for the spring, as she is.

But spring doesn’t come. Raven is the spirit who is meant to awaken the world for spring, but sometimes he forgets.


This was a lovely book, full of imagery and myth. It is a retelling of a myth and a blending of stories. Ice and snow can harden everything, but with rest and reflection it can thaw and that is the point. Winter is rest, and spring is refresh and restart. There is warmth beneath the snow; it insulates, quiets, calms and protects. And it sparkles like diamonds in the sunshine. The ending is just like this — it was lovely, magical, heartbreaking and heartwarming all together.

I enjoy myths and the retellings of them, and I loved this one. The only thing I didn’t get was why Kate was in so much pain. Yes, someone she loves and cares for has left her. The book doesn’t say what happened between her and Billy, just that he left and she is hurt. But he was an ass and she recognizes that, too. I am sad for her that she seems in so much pain for someone who didn’t seem to like her all that much!

Raven Wakes the World is a charming holiday story which brings to life a traditional Inuit folktale of how the Raven wakes the world every year after winter. Katie Mason is an artist who moved up to northern Alaska to recover from a broken relationship. However, she persists in her isolated melancholy as the winter season continues. When Christmas approaches images and model Ravens appear in town along with traditional decorations. A friendly shopkeeper explains that the raven is central to their Christmas story. Katie soon meets someone who brings her joy and comfort but why is it always winter; why hasn't spring come? The story moves along nicely and the characters are engaging and complex. I enjoyed this book, learning a little about life in Alaska and a new holiday legend. Although the Raven folktale is for all ages, this book is written for adults or older teens.
If you are looking for something interesting to read for the holidays or a thoughtful gift, this is a good choice. I give Raven Wakes the World 5 out of 5 stars.

This is a very enjoyable well-written book. It is an update of a myth from native northwest American people as well as a study in sorrow and recovery (with a touch of romance). It deals with the loss of love and creativity, which I found very easy to relate to. It is a very restful and soothing book (which we often need), and absorbing as well. The illustrations are lovely, I only wish there were more of them.
I will look forward to more books from this pair of author and illustrator.
#RavenWakestheWorld #NetGalley

The preface notes explain that this work originally started out as sort of Christmas gift for friends. Essentially, a short novel written and illustrated by a couple and shared among their immediate community. There's a distinct Hallmark Christmas romance feel to the work that certainly makes it feel seasonal and if you're into love stories that focus on sad women learning to love again, the main story may well appeal (think a wholesome <i>How Stella Got Her Groove Back</i> set in far northern climes). I was, however, made very uncomfortable with the decision to use so many indigenous characters as props for the healing of one, it seems, white woman who has arrived in the "wilderness" to find meaning in her life. There was an ickiness to that approach that, while not exactly cultural appropriation, felt like a misuse of stories and traditions and left a bad taste in my mouth.

What an adorable little book.

First off I’m jealous Kate gets to live in Alaska, it’s a dream of mine. Kate
left sunny California to heal from a broken relationship.

This was such a neat way of explaining spring.

A raven wakes the sun that starts the changing of the season from winter to spring. The raven takes the shapes of different animals, and sometimes a man. The raven also sometimes forgets he is the raven and forgets to wake the sun.

While I have always liked the folktale of the raven bringing light to the world, I did not enjoy this version. Well, the story seemed correct, but I didn't care for the story of the human romance. It took away a great deal of the original beliefs. It did nothing for me and I really wanted to like the story.

Raven Wakes the World: A Winter Tale
By John Adcox and Carol Bales

I’ve studied fairy tales my whole life, so when someone brings me a book based on a tale, it better have something special. This one does.

Far from a simple re-telling, this story takes the Inuit tale of Raven and weaves it into a very real, very down to earth story. Katie Mason is a painter and sculptor who has been emotionally hurt down to her creative core. The basis of the story is her journey to healing. The sensitivity and understanding used to explore this makes it clear the authors are either artists themselves, or closely acquainted with them. As a painter and sculptor myself, I can vouch for the painful numbness, the “desolate, pristine emptiness” described.

The blanket of Winter coats the Alaskan landscape, enclosing Katie in a quiet, peaceful winter of the soul, allowing her to avoid her painful past. Going into town, being forced to interact with people, is awkward at best, panic inducing at worst. Staring at the barely begun canvases and half-started sculptures in her studio is even more agonizing, so she drinks until numb and turns away, ignoring Mrs. Tallbear’s incessant requests for art to sell in the shop. Katie’s “bubbling excitement had numbed to apathy. Maybe in the spring,” she thinks.

She must face and answer the questions that she keeps avoiding - Who is she without her past relationship? Who is she without her creative spark? If that spark never comes back, who will she be then? If these questions aren’t faced, she risks her Spring of healing never arriving.

This story is a romance, complete with a dark-eyed stranger, but not in the typical sense. It’s not a boy-meets-girl, or even girl-meets-world, but rather artist-meets-herself, with the help and protection of the spirits of Alaska. The authors’ understanding of mythos and it’s subtle power in our lives works its way through the entire story.

The writing is poetic, sparse and true. Katie is real, visceral. She drinks, she burps, she gets hungry, she cries, laughs, and yearns. The other characters are, by necessity of Katie’s state, distant, but still intriguing. I would love to see this town and these people explored more fully, possibly a series of stories exploring the lives of different characters introduced here and how they connect to other Inuit myths.

If you love fairy tales as much as I do, I highly recommend this. If fairy tales aren’t your thing, you’ll likely miss the subtle beauty, as subtle as the many shades of white in snow.

http://johnadcox.com
www.TheStoryPlant.com
ISBN-13:978-1-945839-58-1

#RavenWakestheWorld #NetGalley

Overall, I liked the concept of combining the old story and the modern world, and have always liked ravens. Must be the Poe fan coming out, but also Odin had two as wise companions too. The beginning could have had more details, especially why she left Boston and came to the middle of the wilderness in Alaska by herself. Never quite got the sense of urgency of why she left her old life. Did like Lucas and the shopkeeper too. Would recommend, especially if you like folk tales. Good read.

In a fictional town in Alaska, a fictional artist and sculptor spends her large inheritance and fails to make the creative works she expected of her sojourn, in a piece that tries its best to bring an inflection of the traditional Native Peoples' folklore to a much more mundane setting. Tries, I say, for it doesn't quite work for me. She's not only there to create, but to get over the failure of her previous relationship, which really doesn't sound that great – and we're never told why she should be in such agony over its ending. And that hinders this story, for it is about giving oneself a sort of redemption, but without any reason for her needing it we can't engage as we should. The Native flavour comes mostly with her new man – and yes, one key question about him is in our minds from when he first chaps on her door, and asks for a lift back for his things. It's a brave piece that takes something so inexorably folkloric as he is and puts it in a modern romance story, but again there was a strong sense of it not feeling right – we are told they handily swing from being two single people in remote homes to one unbreakable couple with no cares in the world almost overnight. Also, the key dialogue from him before they make love for the first time seems really poorly written to me.

Still, this is a rich little debut, for all its flaws – it's a new look at the old saw about pain being needed to create art, and it conveys this with respect for the Alaskan Native's mindset and a good look at the character of both her and the place she's in. So it does capture enough to make it worthwhile considering, and the right reader will get to like this for its distinctive flavour. I just found too many awkward beats and authorial decisions getting in the way.