Given that I love a bit of YA fantasy fiction, and fell madly in love with a fifteen year old Alex Pettyfer in Stormbreaker (I was 33, it was never going to work), it surprises me that I haven’t got stuck into the prolific Anthony Horowitz before. But I’m here now, and if how great I found this book is anything to go by, I have some time to make up.
Raven’s Gate is the first of the Power of Five novels, which chart the adventures of five special children, who all have their part to play in saving the world from an ancient evil. The hero of Raven’s Gate is fourteen-year-old Matt Freeman, who was orphaned by a car crash at the age of eight. The story opens as he gets into a scrape with the law, and is put into care with the mysterious Mrs Deverill, who lives on a farm in deepest darkest Yorkshire. And boy is it deep and dark. It quickly become clear that all is not well at Hive Hall. Mrs Deverill and her creepy cohorts have something very nasty planned for Matt. His dawning realisation that he’s trapped in a sinister plot, and his desperate search for an ally and a way out, are terrifically exciting.
I really enjoyed this book. And I mean that sincerely, not in a raised-eyebrow, post-modern adult-reading-fiction-for-kids way. Horowitz masterfully generates a sense of doom, supernatural threat and panic that are oppressive. Parts of it are reminiscent of The Wicker Man, and I read the middle section with a mounting sense of dread. I’ve ploughed through many an ‘adult’ horror novel that tries to achieve this and fails miserably.
So if you like fantasy/horror fiction, I’d recommend Raven’s Gate. Best of all, there are four more to go!
Cannonball Read V 
Good review. I’m beginning to accept that books aimed for this age group are ones that interest me. I am reading The False Prince and find it quite good, and since I like horror novels, Raven’s Gate seems to fit in just fine.