Ravensong

Title: Ravensong
Author: M. L. Hamilton
Genre: Contemporary YA/NA
Rating: 4/5
Cover: 5/10

First things first, and I'd like to know what the hell this book is doing on 'adult' shelves. There is not a dot in Ravensong that is adult. Not a single drop of ink. So I went expecting what most adult books have, and halfway through realised that I'd been mislead. Nevertheless, I was already roped in, so hey-ho. But if you're putting off reading it right now because you're in the mood for YA, pick it up; it's YA all right.

Now on the stuff that matters...
Ravensong was a tricky one to rate. The book started out So. Darn. Good. And it kept on being good, right up until about 75% in. Then things just got weird. And I'm not necessarily saying that weird is bad, but this weird was definitely confusing enough I can feel a headache building.
It kept jumping from memories to present without any indication of what was what, changing from one memory to the other with the same marking as though it were changing POV, and it took me a few lines to figure out if what I was reading was a memory, or a new development. And, while I found all those memories fascinating, and loved the chance to get to know Josh better, they were really just sort of... put there, kind of randomly, far - and long - enough to the end of the book that I worried we'd be stuck with memories and never find out how things turned out in the present. Since the book starts with a memory, I guess putting the others closer to the beginning of the book would have made more sense. Also, while Josh was almost 4D, there was so much depth to him, I felt a lack of depth regarding some of the other characters, most notably Elena and Julian.
All that considered, and the truly great plot, I decided a 3.5 rating would be about good, and just rounded it up to 4. To sum it up: an interesting read, and definitely worth your time.