I picked The Raven Key up off of NetGalley as the start to my October spooky/thriller reading marathon, and it delivered with that goal!

I’ll start by saying I appreciated the trigger warnings given by the author. I implore those who pick this book up to note them before beginning.

I think this book is a good new adult read when it comes to the romance portion. It is LGBTQIA+ and there is good representation throughout the story.

While this writing style isn’t my usual cup of tea, I did enjoy many elements of the story. I believe this is the author’s first novel, so I commend her, however, this book left me wanting. I found myself at times wanting to skip over paragraphs to get back to the plot. The pacing wasn’t great, but once the action picked up, I found myself enjoying it much more.

I sympathized with the MC, Seth, and could relate to a lot of the things he dealt with throughout the story. My only critique would be that he seemed inconsistent at times.

This was a good October, spooky season read that I would recommend to new adults who enjoy steamy romance scenes. The spice was there for sure!