I really loved this book, a beautifully drawn, well crafted tale that draws you in with mystery, humour and great characters. While it's aimed at teen readers its a pretty timeless story that should appeal to all readers. Much respect to Leah, John and Sally Jane Thompson!

This is an enchanting, endearing and genuinely exciting graphic novel, that adults and young readers will enjoy.It is a tale of magic, of friendship, of family, of secrets, of danger, and of birds. The Corvid family of bird species, to be exact.It is a unique and refreshing twist on the teenage girls, magic items, superpowers and superhero genre. All captured in elegant yet simple tones of black, white and blue.It is modern in that the band of unlikely heroines come from all backgrounds, race, c...

When Anne Ravenhall inherits her great-aunt's estate, she finds herself one of 5 descendants of the family who holds a powerful item that gives her superpowers. She must find the other heirs to reinstate the Dissimulation that fought evil with their powers.Kind of a cool twist on the superheroes idea. This story is pretty quick. Perhaps a little too quick at times, the part with Crow got a little muddled because it happened so fast. I would like to see a prequel about the original Dissimulation

The illustrations in this book are so moody & beautiful, and the back cover honestly made me wish I'd been able to enjoy more of it in color to really do it justice. There were a lot of characters & it was too short a book to really engage with any of it past very surface level/bare bones information. Otherwise it's a nice, quick read about girls who discover they are descendants of a powerful matriarchy, and who wouldn't enjoy that?

Anne Ravenhall is studying at boarding school when she is left a mysterious old mansion in her great aunt's will. The gift of a locket leads Anne to learn about powers she never knew she had, and to make new and unexpected friends.This was a charming young adult/early teen story. I like Gothic mysteries, so I was drawn to the plot, and the cover art. Just a word of warning: the artwork inside is not in colour; it is only in blue, black and white. This is disappointing after the promise of the co...

A cute graphic novel for kids/tweens about Anne Ravenhall, and her boarding school friends, whose lives are turned upside down after Anne inherits an old manor...and a strange stone with magical powers. I appreciated the clean art in black, white and blue. The story was fun but there were a couple areas that felt thin, like the character of Margo. Recommend for its intended audience age range.

Leah Moore describes this project in the endnotes as "magical girls meets Edgar Allen Poe" and that's a pretty good summary of why I enjoyed this book. It's the perfect fusion of girls developing magical powers, old-fashioned boarding school antics and Gothic novels. Plus the art is stunning. The denouement was a bit more steampunk than I was expecting and the ending felt like the beginning of something new rather than a definitive end, but there's a lot of promise here. I hope we get more adven...

Artwork was beautiful but the text of the story jumped too quickly, I kept flipping back to see if I'd missed a page and came away confused. The elements of the story are promising though - I hope if there's a sequel it'll be twice as long & the author (or her editor) won't rush through the storyline.

This is a fun story about the descendants of heroines who find each other generations after their foremothers' confederacy was dissolved. The cyan, black, and white coloring gives this graphic novel a cool feel. There were some gaps in the plot which could have been fixed prior to publication, but the narrative still works as is.

This is a beautifully written and drawn all-ages graphic novel that really does suit the name of that category- it would really appeal to children, teens and adults. Sally Jane Thompson’s artwork is absolutely stunning and the use of one spot colour really helps to portray a gothic sense of ‘the other’ that suits the storyline. The artwork and setting feel similar (to an extent) to that in Locke and Key although there is an innate Britishness rather than the New England sensibility in Hill’s wor...

Very cute and fun book about a teen inheriting an old English mansion from a great great aunt...and fantastical events begin. I bought this primarily because I adore Sally Jane Thompson’s style, but the title also drew me in as I love ravens. The book’s illustrations utilize a cool bluish tone that gave me cool vibes while reading. Sky blue is one of my favorite shades of blue. The characters are also all very likable and as this does take place in the UK there is lots of English slang and phras...

Edgar Allen Poe meets Sailor Moon.

Told with humor, stylishly drawn illustrations, and inclusivity, Conspiracy of Ravens is a graphic novel that should find its way into many hands. I found enjoyment in this novel as would many of my students. The narrative is left open-ended, and my hope is that Moore and Reppion continue the “conspiracy” story.For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2018/11/28/co...For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog

Adorable! I love the term "juvenile fiction" (that's what it says on the back cover, lol) - I'm a big fan of fantasy middle grade books because they still have that magical childlike quality and start to explore themes of self/group identity with hope, as opposed to the cynicism often found in adult works. This book hits upon a lot of cool themes that I like: black birds, magical girl outfits, Victorian aesthetic, female friendships... I also really liked the art style.My biggest problem with th...

C0py/pasted from my review on Flickering Myth, which you can read here: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2018/1...Would give it a 2.5/4, but per Goodreads system I will round it up to a 3/5. Tl;dr, gorgeous artwork hampered by an overly-fast paced story that doesn't flesh out its characters beyond typical fantasy tropes.With all the recent announcements regarding the upcoming Birds of Prey film in the DC Extended Universe, I’ve been wracking my brain for a way to make a quip out of the fact that I...

This book had a lot of potential and I really wanted to like it. The artwork is nice. The premise is interesting. But the plot was too rushed and full of gaps. I found myself repeatedly checking to see if I'd missed a page because the book jumped to something and it didn't make sense. I then thought maybe that's because I didn't read the book but I'm pretty sure there is no book. And the multiple authors (?) shouldn't be the reason for this.I checked with my teen who had requested the book and s...

Latest graphic novel from John Reppion, Leah Moore and Sally Jane Thompson. All-ages tale that evokes a nice nostalgic feel whilst remaining completely modern. Here's hoping there's more to come with these characters.

Wonderful, spooky supernatural tale.

The authors describe this as 'Sailor Moon meets Poe', and ... not really? Having ravens in it doesn't make it like a Poe work, people. They don't even talk, they're just there and kind of magical and it's not very well explained (what's up with the white raven? is it a human? Why is it so smart??). That said, this is a cute magical girl team-up story with pretty art. Annie inherits a magical amulet things, gathers a group of other girls with powers, and they fight a villain. It's pretty standard...

Cute and girly, so not quite my thing. Certainly get why some would love this, especially younger readers, but for me being a fan of Alan Moore's work and wanting to see what Leah is doing was the wrong reason to pick this up. I liked the birds, sense of mystery, costumes, Lovelace reference and all the blue though! Would require added length and depth, horror and much more text to cater to my taste, but it's perfectly fine that this novel just isn't for me.