What do you think?
Rate this book
Adantis #1
The Curse of the Raven Mocker
A chilling fantasy based on Cherokee myth
It’s been weeks since Adanta’s sick father left on a quest to find the healing lake mentioned in the lore of the Cherokee. Since then a visitor has arrived, a man Adanta doesn't like – James, or, as she's styled him, the Lean One. One day, after witnessing him make a frightening incantation, Adanta finds that her mother has fallen under the Lean One's spell, and she is lured away from the cottage. Left alone in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains, Adanta has no choice but to venture forth into the wilderness, in the hope of finding both her parents. To accomplish this, she must journey to Adantis, the secret home of the Hidden People deep in the mountains.
On her quest, Adanta finds many friends, but she also encounters untold dangers, including the threat of the Raven Mockers – humans who take the form of birds and steal the remaining life from those who are hurt or ill. To protect herself, and potentially save her mother and be reunited with her father, will require all the strength and courage she can muster.
It’s been weeks since Adanta’s sick father left on a quest to find the healing lake mentioned in the lore of the Cherokee. Since then a visitor has arrived, a man Adanta doesn't like – James, or, as she's styled him, the Lean One. One day, after witnessing him make a frightening incantation, Adanta finds that her mother has fallen under the Lean One's spell, and she is lured away from the cottage. Left alone in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains, Adanta has no choice but to venture forth into the wilderness, in the hope of finding both her parents. To accomplish this, she must journey to Adantis, the secret home of the Hidden People deep in the mountains.
On her quest, Adanta finds many friends, but she also encounters untold dangers, including the threat of the Raven Mockers – humans who take the form of birds and steal the remaining life from those who are hurt or ill. To protect herself, and potentially save her mother and be reunited with her father, will require all the strength and courage she can muster.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 2003
About the author
Marly Youmans
37 books121 followers"Youmans (pronounced like 'yeoman' with an 's' added) is the best-kept secret among contemporary American writers." --John Wilson, editor, Books and Culture
MAZE OF BLOOD (Mercer University Press, 2015.) Novel. Inspired by the life of Robert E. Howard. Profusely decorated by artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Literary / fantastic. "...A haunting tale of dark obsessions and transcendent creative fire, rendered brilliantly in Youmans' richly poetic prose." --Midori Snyder
GLIMMERGLASS (Mercer University Press, 2014) IndieFab BOTYA Finalist. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Novel. "It’s brilliantly well-written, shockingly raw, and transportingly—sometimes confusingly (but not in a bad way)—weird. Glimmerglass shimmers on the boundaries of the real and the unreal, of poetry and prose, of the ordinary and the fantastic. It’s down to the caprice of the individual reader, therefore, to decide exactly what sort of story it’s trying to tell. It’s difficult to overstate the emotional effect that Glimmerglass has had on me. This is a beautiful, complex, moving book. Marly Youmans’s prose flows like clear water, and every image is, as Cynthia observes, “full of meaning” (p. 39)." -Tom Atherton, "Strange Horizons"
A DEATH AT THE WHITE CAMELLIA ORPHANAGE (Mercer University Press, 2012) The Ferrol Sams Award for 2012; Silver Award in fiction, The ForeWord BOTYA Awards. Novel. "It is seldom that a novel from a small university press can compete with the offerings from the big houses in New York. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage may be the best novel this reviewer has read this year. Its quality and story-telling remind one of The Adventures of Roderick Random, Great Expectation and The Grapes of Wrath among others. The winner of the 2012 "Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction," A Death has the potential to become a classic American picaresque novel. / One wishes, however, that this novel will not get shunted into the regional box and be seen only as a Southern novel. Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience." 30 July 2012 ABOUT.COM Contemporary Literature, John M. Formy-Duval.
THALIAD (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012.) Post-apocalyptic long poem combining elements of the novel and the epic. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. In THALIAD, Marly Youmans has written a powerful and beautiful saga of seven children who escape a fiery apocalypse----though "written" is hardly the word to use, as this extraordinary account seems rather "channeled" or dreamed or imparted in a vision, told in heroic poetry of the highest calibre. Amazing, mesmerizing, filled with pithy wisdom, THALIAD is a work of genius which also seems particularly relevant to our own time. --novelist Lee Smith
THE FOLIATE HEAD (UK: Stanza Press, 2012.) Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Collection of formal poetry.
THE THRONE OF PSYCHE (Mercer University Press, 2011.) Collection of formal poetry. "Youmans is a writer of rare ability whose works will one day be studied by serious students of poetry." Greg Langley, Books editor, The Baton Rouge Advocate, October 2, 2011
VAL/ORSON (P. S. Publishing, 2009.) Novel. "Book of the Year" for 2009 Books and Culture Magazine
INGLEDOVE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) Fantasy, y.a.
CLAIRE (Louisiana State University, 2003) Collection of poetry.
THE WOLF PIT (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.) The Michael Shaara Award. Short list, Southern Book Award.
CATHERWOOD (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.)
LITTLE JORDAN (David R. Godine, Publisher, 1995.)
MAZE OF BLOOD (Mercer University Press, 2015.) Novel. Inspired by the life of Robert E. Howard. Profusely decorated by artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Literary / fantastic. "...A haunting tale of dark obsessions and transcendent creative fire, rendered brilliantly in Youmans' richly poetic prose." --Midori Snyder
GLIMMERGLASS (Mercer University Press, 2014) IndieFab BOTYA Finalist. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Novel. "It’s brilliantly well-written, shockingly raw, and transportingly—sometimes confusingly (but not in a bad way)—weird. Glimmerglass shimmers on the boundaries of the real and the unreal, of poetry and prose, of the ordinary and the fantastic. It’s down to the caprice of the individual reader, therefore, to decide exactly what sort of story it’s trying to tell. It’s difficult to overstate the emotional effect that Glimmerglass has had on me. This is a beautiful, complex, moving book. Marly Youmans’s prose flows like clear water, and every image is, as Cynthia observes, “full of meaning” (p. 39)." -Tom Atherton, "Strange Horizons"
A DEATH AT THE WHITE CAMELLIA ORPHANAGE (Mercer University Press, 2012) The Ferrol Sams Award for 2012; Silver Award in fiction, The ForeWord BOTYA Awards. Novel. "It is seldom that a novel from a small university press can compete with the offerings from the big houses in New York. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage may be the best novel this reviewer has read this year. Its quality and story-telling remind one of The Adventures of Roderick Random, Great Expectation and The Grapes of Wrath among others. The winner of the 2012 "Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction," A Death has the potential to become a classic American picaresque novel. / One wishes, however, that this novel will not get shunted into the regional box and be seen only as a Southern novel. Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience." 30 July 2012 ABOUT.COM Contemporary Literature, John M. Formy-Duval.
THALIAD (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012.) Post-apocalyptic long poem combining elements of the novel and the epic. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. In THALIAD, Marly Youmans has written a powerful and beautiful saga of seven children who escape a fiery apocalypse----though "written" is hardly the word to use, as this extraordinary account seems rather "channeled" or dreamed or imparted in a vision, told in heroic poetry of the highest calibre. Amazing, mesmerizing, filled with pithy wisdom, THALIAD is a work of genius which also seems particularly relevant to our own time. --novelist Lee Smith
THE FOLIATE HEAD (UK: Stanza Press, 2012.) Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Collection of formal poetry.
THE THRONE OF PSYCHE (Mercer University Press, 2011.) Collection of formal poetry. "Youmans is a writer of rare ability whose works will one day be studied by serious students of poetry." Greg Langley, Books editor, The Baton Rouge Advocate, October 2, 2011
VAL/ORSON (P. S. Publishing, 2009.) Novel. "Book of the Year" for 2009 Books and Culture Magazine
INGLEDOVE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) Fantasy, y.a.
CLAIRE (Louisiana State University, 2003) Collection of poetry.
THE WOLF PIT (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.) The Michael Shaara Award. Short list, Southern Book Award.
CATHERWOOD (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.)
LITTLE JORDAN (David R. Godine, Publisher, 1995.)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 8, 2022
Adanta lives with her parents in a small cabin in the Smokey Mtns. Her father gets sick and leaves to find a legendary healing lake. Her mother is taken away by the Lean One, a Raven Mocker, one who draws life force from the sick or weak. So Adanta journeys to find them and winds up in Adantis, where her father is from--although he never talked about his home.
Along the way, she runs into Tassel the Pony Boy, who offers to help her find her grandmother. She meets other assorted odd characters, but, eventually, she and Tassel find her grandmother's home--only to discover that she is a Raven Mocker as well, but she has no intention of harming either of them. They find the lake, but not in time to save her dad. Her mother is addled at best. Adanta decides to relocate what's left of her family to Adantis.
Ok story--not as zippy as it could have been.
Along the way, she runs into Tassel the Pony Boy, who offers to help her find her grandmother. She meets other assorted odd characters, but, eventually, she and Tassel find her grandmother's home--only to discover that she is a Raven Mocker as well, but she has no intention of harming either of them. They find the lake, but not in time to save her dad. Her mother is addled at best. Adanta decides to relocate what's left of her family to Adantis.
Ok story--not as zippy as it could have been.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2015
I wanted to like this book. I really did. I had just been on an Appalachia kick, I love cultural exchange, and American-set fantasy outside of the paranormal vein is few and far between, so I was thrilled to see this book lying there on the discount shelf and snapped it up immediately. I loved the premise and was thrilled to see a mix of Cherokee, Irish, Scots-Irish, English, etc folklore (and a cast of largely mixed race characters). The writing started off sturdy enough, if not stellar. However, about 2/3rds of the way through the book I just didn't care anymore. I don't know if it's because I was sick while reading this, but it seemed like there were narrative leaps and, despite a fair amount of lampshading and exposition, I found myself confused a lot as to what had happened or why a character had done something. I had to go back and read the last page or several paragraphs on numerous occasions. At one point someone was referred to as Lalu, when I thought earlier that was stated to be the name of the character's doll and then in the glossary Lalu is something entirely different so I give up. At that point I just mentally checked out, which wasn't too much of a loss as the ending seemed rush and never dealt with a lot of the issues/fallout/themes of the books. Don't get me wrong, I love an ambiguous ending, but this just seemed like the author had written herself into a corner and didn't know how to resolve it and wrap things up. I feel almost guilty for not liking this because I so wanted to. The author clearly had a great idea and did the research. The story just kind of veered off and got away from itself in the telling.
April 4, 2010
This is a unique YA fantasy novel, set in America, with a rich overlay of Appalachian and Cherokee mythology rather than the usual creatures from European myth and legend. Adanta, a young girl whose parents have disappeared, must venture into Adantis, the land of the Hidden People, to find them. In some ways, this novel reminded me of Stephen King's The Talisman (a young protagonist on a fantastic quest to save a parent), but Youmans's writing is very different from King's. It's descriptive but still very much aimed at younger readers; it has a dark tone at times, but it's safely PG-rated. The only drawback was that, as in many "quest" novels, there were significant stretches of time where not much happened except that Adanta goes somewhere, meets new people, is shocked/surprised/tricked/scared, and then goes somewhere else.
February 5, 2013
A well written Novel about a young Cherokee girl whom is thrust into a adventure. In the beginning of the novel you find her father has left her mother,Charlotte and his daughter Adanta after he has taken ill to look for the healing Lake. A man whom is supposedly her fathers friend James, comes to help out and watch after the family. Adanta Leary of him, questioning his motives to why he is there. One action that takes place leads Adanta to leave her home to discover secrets that have been kept from her about her grandmother/family Members. (I don't want to say to much as to spoil this story.)
"The Curse of the Raven Mocker" owes much of it's folklore, and culture ways to the early settlers of that backcountry region, as well as to the legions of the Cherokee People."-Mary Youmans.
"The Curse of the Raven Mocker" owes much of it's folklore, and culture ways to the early settlers of that backcountry region, as well as to the legions of the Cherokee People."-Mary Youmans.
July 18, 2010
I read this a couple years ago, not expecting much. I mean, there are so many books out there that go along the same lines, and it just gets old after awhile... But the magic in this book, the environment, and just the story as a whole was so vastly different, that in the end it proved itself more rewarding than the majority of YA literature out there. One of the few unique fantasies that kids and adults can enjoy.
May 6, 2012
Darkly beautiful. I wish Marly would write a sequel or two.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews