The Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey

Title: The Raven’s Eye Runaways

Author: Claire Mabey

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 2^nd July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 336

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: A gripping, beautifully-told fantasy quest set in a parallel medieval world.

Three friends and a one-eyed raven find themselves up against the rulers who restrict the gifts of writing and reading to an elite few.

Getwin is a bookbinder, working from dawn till dusk with her mother at Raven’s Eye Bookbindery. Lea is a scribe, living in a monastic-style castle, where she and other girls are forced to copy manuscripts until their fingers bleed. Buckle is Getwin’s loyal and close friend.

When Lea escapes her prison-like life and the soporific tea that drugs her, she is rescued by Getwin and Buckle. They go in search of Getwin’s mother, who has been taken by the regime.

They encounter dangers and must travel through a fearful city and a magical forest.

Will they find her safe? And what is the terrible truth behind everything they think they know about their world?

They must go on a wild and unpredictable rescue mission. Who and what will they meet along their way? And what is the terrible truth behind everything they think they know about their world?

~*~

Getwin and her mother Gunnora live in Spitchwick, a small village on the outskirts of the Greater City of Wyle, a medieval-esque fantasy world where certain classes of people, certain guilds, and certain areas of the city can only do what they are told. Some people are Scribes, some people are Bookbinders – yet even in this world where women are employed in these roles, they’re not allowed to learn to read at all. And then there are the undercurrents of Strangeness – magic – which those in power seek to quell and control under a regime determined to hide secrets and hunt down those who dare to defy them.

Getwin and her mother are the Bookbinders who put the manuscripts that come from Missal – and Lea – together for Carver, one of the people in charge of the regime. One day, illegal books come to light for Getwin, and her mother must leave to go to Wyle. Getwin is left to fend for herself with her one-eyed raven, and best friend, Buckle. And when Lea comes into their lives, and this is where the action really kicks off as secrets, magic and books start to combine throughout the narrative, where the elite control who gets to read and what they read, though our three intrepid heroes are the ones who will defy them throughout.

The treacherous journey means leaving the safety of Raven’s Eye Bookbindery to trek throughout the village and city in search of Gunnora – Lea knows more than what she is letting on, and she knows that things have been clearer since she stopped drinking the tea – a way to control the Scribes. It is a story that looks at how governments and regimes are able to control their population through things like jobs and employment, or education – and what this means for society. It highlights that power can be taken easily and abused by people like Carver – because they want the world to think a certain way, and in Carver’s case, there’s also a sense of eradicating a characteristic or group of people based on something that makes them unique and that from what I could tell during reading, they can’t control – it’s just who they are.

This desire to control can be driven by many things, usually a need and drive to have power over things you can’t control – in Carver’s case, perhaps a fear of magic. Or, attempts to control can come from hatred -a need to divide people, something we have seen happening throughout the history of the world in so many different places, where one group feels they should have power over another. It reflects a reality that the world has always had, and also made me think of the recent spate and talk of book banning in Australia – controlling what reading material people have access to, and the slippery slope this can lead to, affecting what people know and understand, and how ensuring that people do not have access to reading can impact the way we interact with the world around us. Of course, this is taken one step further in Getwin’s world, where not only is the reading material controlled, but rules about who can read are in place.

Spitchwick is based on the medieval world, but there is a sense that there is more control in this world. A darker regime that has produced further restrictions that could act as a warning for what happens when humans let an elite or a few people take ultimate power and start telling everyone what to say, how to think and how to act, demanding a certain way of being. It is both a reflection of what has come, and a warning to not let reading and literacy become an elite act limited to the few who can afford to. Everyone should have access to reading and books, and education. I felt that this book reminds us of how important this is – how crucial it is to be able to remain informed and know what is going on around you. In Getwin’s world, power seems to be everything, and there are those who will use what they know against you – there were times when I wasn’t sure who to trust beyond Getwin, Lea and Buckle, though there are a few characters who come through during their journey and help them.

This was a book that celebrated the power of reading and writing, as well as family and friendship, and leaning into what you’re good at, and using it to help others. The medieval, twelfth century world suited the story well – it allowed for various areas to be isolated, depending on what their role was in the regime led by Carver, and what I found interesting was that this was a predominantly female-led book and society – across all roles, and this made it interesting. It showed that each society throughout the world would be led differently based on the beliefs and personality of who is in charge. I found this an intriguing book that speaks to things that have happened in the past as well as where the world could be headed in some areas, and how certain beliefs can inform how we respond to freedoms that we take for granted.