Antonia Hodgson was not at all on my radar going into 2025, but The Raven Scholar quickly became one of those books that is lauded seemingly wherever fantasy is discussed. I don’t always read the year’s big trend books, but I had the opportunity to give it a try in December to see for myself what all the fuss was about.
The Raven Scholar takes place almost exclusively on the small island that houses the government of a vast, continent-spanning nation. The people individually choose to follow one of eight gods—each with its own animal avatar and particular skill—and every twenty-four years, each sect sends a champion to the tournament that will determine who rules the empire. Only this year, the tournament begins with a murder, and the titular Raven scholar is tasked with finding the killer before more bodies drop, all while navigating the complicated politics swirling through the tournament attendees.
The Raven Scholar is clearly the first entry in a series, despite weighing in at over 600 pages in its own right. But while it is undeniably a big, fat fantasy with epic stakes, it’s one that borrows much more from recent trends than it does from Tolkien and his legion of imitators. The factions could come out of Harry Potter (or perhaps Divergent, which I have not read), and I’m told that the tournament plot is on-trend recently. Furthermore, even the gods speak in a contemporary style with more than a hint of ironic detachment, and some of the rivalries could come straight out of high school. The result is a big book that’s easy to blast through very, very quickly, with the overarching plot advanced as much by interpersonal drama as it is anything else.
It’s a style that will be familiar to many readers of popular, contemporary fantasy, for all that it may jar those looking for a throwback fantasy epic, and it makes for an engaging reading experience. It’s easy to see how this could be a book of the year for the right reader, though it’s also easy to see how it could fall flat for others. It all depends on stylistic preference and the willingness to suspend disbelief.
I’ve talked a bit about the style already. It won’t hit for everyone, but it’s a bingeable and entertaining read. So let’s spend a little bit of time on the suspension of disbelief. The Raven Scholar offers a ton of twists and turns to keep the drama high and consistently offer new plots to ponder over the course of the book. But a lot of that drama relies on characters acting significantly less mature than their stated age may indicate, with ostensibly deep-seated rivalries changing on a dime and a dearth of smooth political operators who might be able to see through some surface-level pettiness and subterfuge. Far be it from me to suggest in the year 2026 that politics cannot be driven by immature adults letting personal grievances drive their agenda, but I confess to breaking immersion over just how many characters seemed to loathe the competent-but-overlooked protagonist. There’s enough ingrained classism to justify some of it, but the sheer volume feels like it comes from a teenager’s nightmare.
For readers who live for the petty drama, The Raven Scholar offers loads of it, buttressed by a page-turning style and a thrilling plot. But readers looking for more depth in their political intrigue won’t find much to satisfy. I saw a review on Reddit that pegged the book as either a 4.5-star or a 2.5-star, depending on reader preferences, and while I personally have a foot in both camps, that assessment captures a lot about the reading experience. It’s a book that excels in a few key areas and barely gestures at others.
The plot does lead to a thrilling climax that engenders real change and makes The Raven Scholar feel like its own novel and not just an extended prologue, but it’s very much not settled at the end. Characters are in danger, and a whole host of threads are just waiting to be picked up in the sequel. It’s a solid series-starter, but a standalone it is not.
Ultimately, many books rely on finding the right audience, but it feels especially important for The Raven Scholar. For readers who lean into the drama and don’t mind a few sketchy or implausible details, it’s a wild and bingeable ride that’s being lauded for excellent reasons. For others, it may feel shallow or jarringly modern. Neither reaction is necessarily wrong, they’re just focused on different elements of a book that’s enthralling in many ways and frustrating in others.
Recommended if you like: snappy fantasy books heavy on the interpersonal drama.
Can I use it for Bingo? It’s hard mode for Book in Parts. It’s also a Book Club book, a 2025 Release, it features Gods and Pantheons, and I’d argue there’s a pretty significant Down with the System plot.
Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.