Customer Reviews

Raven Stole the Moon

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Garth Stein has captured the culture, mystique and emotional beauty of Alaska in his novel, HOW RAVEN STOLE THE MOON. It is the story of a woman, a mom, a lover, a wife and what she must go through to aid her son's soul in passing over to the Land of the Dead Souls. Does the story contain cliches? Yes, but the theme goes beyond the everyday writing. Characters are well-developed and their stories are rich. Jenna is a woman not afraid to show her vulnerability in situations, she remains strong by doing so. She is right to take the time to analyze her current relationship with her husband, my only disappointment is that Alaska remains in the past by the time the final page is turned.The beauty of Tlingit legends comes alive. Some of these legends are well explained through various characters in the story. The reader is given the opportunity to explore, appreciate and value the spiritual world that is presented. The author does a wonderful job in explaining the idea that kushtakas, like people, contain within their spirits both good and evil.My only disappointment is that Mr. Stein lives in New York and not Alaska. Maybe someday he will return to this setting, both phsyically and as an author. Should Mr. Stein and his family return to this great state, I'm sure they would be welcomed with open arms and eager readers. Just the random thoughts of a fellow Alaskan.

Story Overview

On the surface, Jenna Rosen has it all: a husband who loves her, a comfortable life in Seattle, and good looks. But Jenna is troubled; it shows in her excessive drinking, Valium addiction, depression and the increasing discord in her marriage. But her problems can all be traced back to the loss of her son Bobby, who drowned during a family vacation in Alaska two years ago. Jenna blames herself for Bobby's death and cannot get past it. Yet her husband Robert seems to have been able to put the past to rest. One night at a party, Jenna gets in Robert's car and keeps on driving. Her trip leads her to Bellingham, WA, where she impulsively boards the ferry that will take her to Wrangell, Alaska--a small town where her Native American grandmother lived and close to the Thunder Bay Resort where Bobby died.

Once in Wrangell, things happen that lead her to believe that something is calling her to discover the truth about Bobby's death. Her grandmother's Tlingit ancestry begins to manifest itself in strange and frightening ways. As Jenna begins to explore the Tlingit legends of the kushtaka, she begins to believe that Bobby's death was no accident. Determined to find the truth, Jenna embarks on a quest to discover what really happened at Thunder Bay. The result is a terrifying but liberating journey into the heart of the Alaska wilderness and the ancient legends of the Tlingits.

My Thoughts

Contrary to what you might think, this isn't a new book by Garth Stein, author of the best-selling Art of Racing in the Rain (which is on my TBR list for later this year). Rather, this is a rerelease of his first novel, which was published in 1998. (Note to authors: If your first book is not very successful, keep on trying. You may score later on and then get a rerelease for your earlier books!) Raven Stole the Moon has been out of print for several years, but is being rereleased on March 9. Remember how I told you I was reading a mystery book that I couldn't talk about? This was it!

Anyway, on to my thoughts about the book. I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I enjoy stories of ancient legends coming to life in our modern world, and I thought the sections dealing with the kushtaka were disturbing and frightening at times. (Let me tell you, after reading this book, I won't look at otters quite the same way again!) On the other hand, I had some issues with the tone and writing in the book. In many ways, the book is told in a very plain, straightforward way: She did this. Then she did that. He reacted this way. Then the author mixes in some stream-of-consciousness stuff that I found a bit jarring. Here is a small example:

She got off the freeway in Bellingham feeling tired and hungry. She pulled into a gas station to get some fuel for the Machine, and she picked up some Corn Nuts and a Coke--fuel for herself. The trip suddenly had the feeling of an all-night drive. Standing under a canopy of fluorescent bulbs. Artificial sunlight. Electrified reality. Everyone would be asleep if they weren't plugged in.

My other quibble was that I thought the emotional lives of characters could have been better developed. We know Jenna is devastated by the loss of her son because the author tells us, but I never really felt it from Jenna herself. For me, this kept the book from being more than a competently told story with some supernatural elements. I think with a little more work and polishing, this book could have been something special. However, in the end, I think it falls shy of the mark.

My Final Recommendation

If you enjoy books with supernatural elements related to Native American culture, this would be a good read for you. The Tlingit legends and story line were the most compelling part of the story for me, and the descriptions of the kushtaka were interesting and a bit frightening. Although the writing is competent and the story moves along quickly, I didn't think it was unforgettable or out of the ordinary. For this reason, I'm giving it 3 stars.

A woman of Native Alaskan blood is drawn back to the place of her only son's murder, where her marriage, as well as her belief system are challenged. Garth Stein weaves Tlingit legend with mystery thriller to create a story that is gripping and, at times disturbing. He is not afraid to make his characters unsympathetic, which adds to the realism of his story. Being one half Tlingit drew my interest to this mystery, but Garth Stein's ability as a novelist kept it until it's climactic finish.

Ever since the drowning her heir son, Bobby two years ago, Jenna Rosen and her husband, Robert are more like strangers then husband and wife. Jenna decides to get away from her life and Robert for a while. She takes off for Alaska. This is where it all began. Where Bobby drowned. Jenna experiences some strange things like...a wolf or wolf type dog chases her through the woods. Jenna meets a man named David. He is a shaman. He tells Jenna of a legend hat the Tlingits believe. It has to do with the belief that not all people die peacefully, so people's souls are trapped to wither wander aimlessly or take form in another being. What does this have to do with Bobby? Could this mean that he might be alive after all?

Raven Stole the Moon is the first book I have read by Garth Stein. I have wanted to try his work out when I first heard about The Art of Racing in the Rain but just haven't gotten around to it. After reading this book, I definitely plan to check the book out. I have to admit that I did get a little lost at first trying to figure out in my mind about how the shaman and the Tlingit beliefs really played a part in this story and Jenna's son's death. Once I out it all straight, I was able to fully sit back and immerse myself in this book. I found that I absolutely was delighted with this book as well as Mr. Stein's writing style. He really brought the characters to alive on an emotional level that made you connect with them in the moment. I only have one last comment to make and that is... you have got to check Raven Stole the Moon for yourself.

Reading about odd, otter-like creatures with black eyes and crooked, brown teeth who travel between spiritual realms and change into human forms was not exactly what I had on my weekly agenda. I'd never heard of the kushtaka, nor the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, and I wasn't sure about shamans, shape-shifters, or the Land of Dead Souls.

But I did feel privileged to have been asked to review Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein, author of the NY Times bestseller, The Art of Racing in the Rain, so I opened my mind--and the book. Raven Stole the Moon was the author's debut novel, published in 1998, which is now being re-released by HarperCollins.

Even the best of marriages would suffer tremendously from the death of a young child. Raven Stole the Moon is the story of a married couple, Jenna and Robert, bereaved parents who lost their young son, Bobby, in a drowning accident at Thunder Bay in Alaska.

"She had sworn never to set foot in the state of Alaska again. Two years ago, as she flew away from the place where her heart had been ripped from her body. Where her very soul had been crushed. Where her spirit had drowned with her baby. She swore she would never go again."
~Raven Stole the Moon, Garth Stein

Although Jenna had resolved to never return to Alaska, she finds herself leaving her husband and home in Seattle and boarding the ferry, which takes her from Bellingham, Washington to the town of Wrangell, Alaska, home of her long deceased grandmother. (A ferry to Alaska! I was ready to board the Columbia--what an exciting trip that would be! Everyone camps out for a few days on the ship, tries to stay warm, and attempts to sleep comfortably. It would surely be an adventure.) Still grieving and feeling unsettled about her marriage, Jenna is mysteriously drawn back to Alaska, and her trip becomes a quest for answers which surround the mystery and horror of her son's death. Jenna befriends a dog, Oscar, and rents a room from a local fisherman, Eddie, and soon enters into a world which features the supernatural, menacing shape-shifting spirits, the kushtaka, of Tlingit myth and legend.

Garth Stein's first book brought to mind the work of Stephen King, mainly because of the magical realism. Along with Jenna and other characters, I gradually suspended my disbelief and doubts, and considered the possibility that reality may be more supernatural, strange, and unknowable than previously thought. The author's great-grandmother was a full-blooded Tlingit, and he learned about the Indian legends by reading and listening to the stories his uncles and aunts told around campfires. Garth Stein adeptly weaves these magical elements into a refreshingly original, gripping, and moving story. Raven Stole the Moon is also about relationships, about the bonds between husbands and wives, mothers and sons, and grandmothers and granddaughters, which may last beyond physical death. The best stories touch me, and I wept near the end of this one.

A recent lovely weekend spent reading How Evan Broke His Head led me to find a copy of Garth Stein's earlier book, Raven Stole the Moon. This book is more modern in tone than Evan, more an indulgence in pure story-telling and for me, even more of a delight.

The plot is outlined in the Amazon review above-a woman suffering from toxic grief at the loss of her son, abandons her husband and heads north from Seattle to the spot near a fishing village where the boy disappeared in the ocean. The action is resoundingly spiritual, tutelary beings and vengeful kushtaka spirits appear: but the setting and the characters are remarkably textured and real. Anyone who's ever marvelled at the material culture of Tlingit or Kwakiutl Indians will detect the spirit of their culture in both the spiritual and material dimensions of this very elegant tale.

(For a photographic sense of the environment, rent Johnny Depp's Dead Man)

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming bang-BANG from Kunati Press.

Like most folks, I came to this book after searching out more Garth Stein after Racing in the Rain. That book was an unequivocal 5 star rating from me. I am glad I read this book, but I want to be very clear for fans of Racing: this is a VERY different book. It is closer akin to Stephen King than to racing. The first time the supernatural element shows up - I will not spoil it by providing any details - it is jarring in effect. Its like, "OK, so it is going to be THAT kind of book." As one who (embarrassing admission coming here)DOES enjoy at least many of Stephen King's books, I was OK with that. If you cannot suspend disbelief long enough to deal w a book heavy on supernatural elements, I would suggest you let this one pass.
Stein does create a very richly-detailed heroine in Jenna Rosen. She is a fully formed and vividly painted character, with whom you come to empathize greatly. Stein could have turned her husband into a complete charicature, but portrays him fairly, too, as a flawed but real human being also dealing with a tragedy. Most other characters are just there to fill their predestined, precast, role. It is a shame that a book so imaginative & w a lead character so well painted actually becomes somewhat predictable, with other players wearing clear white or black hats, & the action somewhat predictable.
Still, on balance, I am glad I read it. Not all will be: I fully understand the 1 star reviews. I initially bought this for my wife, as she read & loved Racing before I did, but she didn't get to it, so I read it before her. She doesn't care for supernatural fiction, so I now think she'd hate it. it is a matter of taste: if this sort of thing is your cup of tea, come along for the ride & you won't be disappointed. If it is not, wait for Stein's upcoming novel, which looks like Racing II.

Jenna's son is gone, and in her rational mind she knows it's true. But the ...way... he died, the things she ...saw... as it happened, she can't quell the sense that he's still alive...somewhere.

I heard that Garth Stein is part Tlingit, (on his grandmother's side), and if it's true it'd go a long way toward explaining the unusual mood and coloring of this original and chilling novel. From the beginning, there is a sense of foreboding, and the rich imagery and character drama that follow only work to increase it. The story is psychological - disturbs but still leaves you hopeful; plumbs your realities and then asks you to go deeper; but never goes so far as to betray your trust.

For me, as Jenna probed deeper and the world I knew began to waver and fade to nothing, I wasn't all that happy with her choices. It was way too late to stop reading, though. And when I realized that if she succeeded in spanning the void to some other place and I might be forced to face whatever she found, I willed her to turn around and stop. She didn't.

Let me just say this: there are some utterly terrifying images and situations in this novel.
If you enjoy good character drama, this one has plenty, or if you ever imagined being caught in a tight, and I mean REALLY tight, dark, very earthy place, "Raven Stole the Moon" is sure to lift your hair for you.

I'd say pretty darn good book for a first time novelist. I was a bit put off by the modern language, the obligatory swear words, masturbation scene, the confusion over which man the female protagonist was going to choose, but I like Stein's descriptions of Alaska, the way he built suspense and at times caught the reader off guard. He wrote a good story and kept up the pace, the interest, so that the story didn't flag. I had trouble putting the book down. I look forward to more books by this writer, because I think he has real potential; he's got plot down well, his characters are interesting if a bit skinny, and his sense of context is good. Keep on writing, Mr. Stein!

Raven Stole the Moon, Garth Stein's first novel, first published in 1998, was released in a new edition earlier this year, and I couldn't be happier, because I love this novel. I was immersed in it from the first sentence ... no, from before the first sentence ... it was the word Akákoschi! (Tlingit for "See") that caught my eye on a page I almost missed. From that I was hooked until the very last word 441 pages later.

Raven Stole the Moon is the story of Jenna Rosen and her haunting, poignant search to understand her son's drowning in Thunder Bay, Alaska two years earlier so she can put it behind her and move on with her life. Was it her fault? Was it her husband's fault? Was there something else involved? It's is an obsession that her husband doesn't understand and wishes she'd get over and get on with life, because it's driving him crazy and tearing them apart. So one night she drives away and takes a ferry to Wrangel and begins her search for answers and for understanding. Along the way she meets a mysterious old Indian woman, falls in love, is chased through the woods by a Tlingit spirit called a kushtaka, is rescued by a dog that chases the kushtaka away, meets a shaman and finally ... well, buy the book, jump in, find out for yourself and enjoy the adventure.

Raven Stole the Moon is a wonderful read. It's rare that I read a novel that breaks into my dreams, but this one did - a dream with a shaman and spirits and the smell of rain and mist, forest, sea and fish. Garth Stein is that kind of story teller.

His next novel, by the way, is a Pacific Northwest ghost story. I have no idea when it's to be published, but as soon as it is, I'll definitely buy a copy and lose myself in it.