K. Ancrum

K. Ancrum's The Legend of the Golden Raven novella, part fairy tale and part gritty reality, follows a boy as he descends into madness. August and Jack weren’t meant to be friends. One is a misfit with a pyro streak and the other a golden boy on the rugby team. But as their relationship intensifies, Jack slowly begins to lose his mind—taking readers on an intimate journey into the fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of his world. As the novella moves back and forth between a medieval legend and our own, contemporary world, nothing is as it seems. The boys alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity and as Jack’s quest to fulfill a dark prophecy begins to consume them both . . . Devour this companion novella to The Wicker King. An ImprintBook Praise for The Wicker King: “An eerie and mesmerizing thriller that questions the spacewhere reality and perception overlap, The Wicker King is a spine-tingling read that will have you riveted.” —Caleb Roehrig, author of Last Seen Leaving and White Rabbit “An eerie piece of realistic fiction whose characters revelin intense emotions.” —Kirkus Reviews

A Novella of The Wicker King

The Legend of the Golden Raven

kelsey

after that thought, all at once, like a horrible cacophony of sound, the voice that lived behind his teeth whispered: this is the love of your life. he could never tell him.

“you’re the love of my life, you know,” he said bravely.
august just looked at him and shrugged. “i know.” 

i loved getting jack's pov for some of the scenes, it helped make sense of a lot of things that happened. and wow does he love august. i thought this novella would give me closure, but now i'm just crying over how much jack and august love each other.

and the fairytale world was such a lovely story alongside of jack's pov. i just want more of their story.

Geoffrey Froggatt

I read this novella years after I read The Wicker King, so it took me awhile to remember the finer details of the story. I had somehow forgotten that Jack was the one experiencing hallucinations and not August. I had somehow switched the characters in my mind. This was cleared up for me within a few pages. I was unsure of when this novella took place, but I think that the first half takes place during The Wicker King and the last bit takes place after. This novella is a short retelling of the events of The Wicker King novel, but from Jack’s perspective. I loved this retelling and loved returning to this world to see Jack and August’s relationship. The prose was beautiful in both depicting Jack’s hallucinations in the real world and the world that he made up in his head. I found both this novella and The Wicker King to be great stories that depict shared psychosis and delusions. This syndrome is most commonly diagnosed when two or more individuals of concern live in proximity, may be socially or physically isolated, and have little interaction with other people. Where a dominant person (known as the 'primary', 'inducer' or 'principal') initially forms a delusional belief during a psychotic episode and imposes it on another person or persons (the 'secondary', 'acceptor', or 'associate') the assumption is that the secondary person might not have become deluded if left to his or her own devices. If the parties are admitted to hospital separately, then the delusions in the person with the induced beliefs usually resolve without the need of medication. Jack is the inducer and August is the acceptor. The last page of this novella was beautiful and gave me hopeful closure to Jack and August’s story. I recommend that anyone seeking closure after reading The Wicker King novel read this novella, just for the way that it ends.

Aishling

I actually think I liked this more than TWK. I loved seeing things from Jacks eyes. There were some moments in TWK where I thought Jack was a bit of a dick but seeing those moments from his eyes definitely changed my view on him for the better. The story about the king and the champion didn’t interest me as much, I just wanted too get back to Jack’s pov.

Emelie

Akansha

This novella combined with the book makes the story perfect. Jack is ready to give all of himself because August needs to be lead. August likes controlling things but everyone feels tired once in a while and just want to be lead. And so Jack gave it in the only way August would take. 

Jack yearning for August is so painful at times especially with all the visions he is having. " This is the love of your life. Jack looked quickly away as shame and fear rushed up from the bottom of his feet, and crowded around his heart like a swarm of bees. He could never tell him. Hecouldnevertellhimhecouldnevertellhimhecouldnevertellhimhecouldnevertellhimhecouldnevertell— "

The times he just wants to tell him but he doesn't know how to. " Jack didn’t know that anything on earth could hurt so much as this.
He stared at August and Rina as they lay in her bed. "

The first book doesn't talks much about the yearning and love because August is too tangled up in helping Jack cope with his hallucinations but this novella has glimpse of what Jack could differentiate from his visions. His true feelings for August. " Was he being punished for something? Did this have rules just like everything else? Must he sacrifice every inch of himself to win his freedom? His life, his sight, his heart? "

I can find peace in the fact that fictional characters mostly heal and they will find a way to love each other more in a non messy way. ❤

Leni Bulat

Juliette Raven 

I had a hard time going into it at first because I have read The Wicker King quite a few months ago and couldn't remember everything but I'm still in love with K.Ancrum's writing! It was great to see what was going on inside Jack's head and the chivalry story was entertaining.

The Legend of the Golden Raven A Novella of The Wicker King

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