It’s not until much later in the book that readers discover the true emptiness of the faerie courts. Yet they still chase enchantment and dream of becoming fair folk themselves by drinking at the Green Well. The people of Whimsy unwittingly trade away the ability to communicate, or even their very lives, for wealth and beauty. The dangers of obsession with the fair folk are evident from the very first chapters, as Isobel reflects on how easily the enchantments gifted by the faeries can turn sour. “An Enchantment of Ravens” takes a hard look at this trend and comes to several conclusions that Christian readers will largely agree with. In one novel after another, fair folk and similar beings have become an ideal of impossible power and animalistic passion contained in unspeakable beauty and ageless nobility.

Yet, in recent years, this fascination has turned to obsession with the glamour and immortality of faeries and immortals, reflecting society’s pursuit of undying youth, beauty and pleasure. Faeries have fascinated readers for centuries. The chief attraction of “An Enchantment of Ravens” is its subtle critique of a growing trend in modern literature. Thrown off course by monsters, Isobel and Rook must survive the treacherous faerie courts, the dreaded Alder King, and the blossoming love that might just be their doom. She is torn away from her home and family to face judgment for a mistake that nearly cost Rook his life.

But when Rook, the autumn prince, seeks her out for a portrait, Isobel finally missteps. For years, she has navigated through one bargain after another with these faeries, trading her art for enchantments, for the fair folk desire human Craft, since they themselves cannot any. Isobel, heroine of Margaret Rogerson’s debut novel “An Enchantment of Ravens,” is the finest portrait artist in all of Whimsy, the land between the mundane World Beyond and the forests where the fair folk-or faeries-dwell.

Isobel an enchantment of ravens