Raising the Horseman by Serena Valentino || Modern LGBTQ+ Take On A Classic

Raising the Horseman

From the New York Times best-selling author of Disney’s Villains series comes a ghostly new stand-alone novel that reimagines The Legend of Sleepy Hollow through the eyes of a modern teen.

The two-hundredth anniversary of the Headless Horseman's legendary haunting of Sleepy Hollow is approaching, but Kat van Tassel wants nothing to do with the town's superstitious celebrations. As a descendant of the original Katrina van Tassel, Kat knows she’s expected to fulfill her ancestor’s legacy by someday marrying her longtime boyfriend and running the prestigious family estate. But Kat dreams of a life outside Sleepy Hollow.

Then Kat meets Isadora, a new girl in town who challenges Kat to reexamine those expectations, opens her eyes to the possibility that ghosts are real, and makes her question who she truly wants to be . . . and be with.

When Kat is given the original Katrina’s diary, a new legend begins to take shape, one that weaves together the past and the present in eerie ways. Can Kat uncover a two-hundred-year-old secret, and trace its shocking reverberations in her own life, in time to protect what she truly loves?

Fans of Serena Valentino will delight in this supernatural coming-of-age tale that finally gives the women of Sleepy Hollow a chance to tell their side of the story.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• A retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
• Spooky (but not scary) books to get in the fall/Halloween mood.
• Contemporary LGBTQ+ romance
• Coming of age stories

Many thanks to Disney-Hyperion and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Confession: one of my very first loves was Christopher Walken playing the Headless Horseman in the 1999 version of Sleepy Hollow. Okay, yes, sure, this concerned my mother greatly because, one, she was a little perturbed that I didn’t love Johnny Depp the way she did, but two, and probably the greater point, he was kind of a murdering psychopath. But not without reason, okay? Give him a little credit. Also, I was nine. That may have had something to do with her concern, too, now that I think about it.

Anyway, point is, I am a fool for the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and absolutely had to read this book the minute I knew it was a retelling of it.

Raising the Horseman is a retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that blends horror, paranormal, and the charm of contemporary romance in a creepy, gender-bent reimagining of an old classic.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was just surprised! I thought it would err on the side of creepy Halloween vibes, and it did a little bit, but this really felt more like a contemporary romance with some paranormal elements than an actual horror book. Fans of contemporary romance would probably be able to really get into this book! There’s a lot of discussions of finding yourself and permission to be who you want, which I thought was extremely relatable, especially for this age group. Valentino also does a great job of establishing an atmosphere, because it was sufficiently creepy to qualify as a fun fall read to get in the Halloween mood!

Kat van Tassel comes from a loooong line of Katrinas, but she’s having a hard time accepting the role her family says she’s meant to play in life.

This is one of those expectations versus desires tropes that seems to be really popular in YA, and I think it does the job here. Her parents’ expectations are a little unrealistic: marry her childhood friend and take over as the Katrina van Tassel in town, meant to run the farm and keep the whole town afloat. No pressure or anything. That has, after all, been the role of Katrinas in town all the way since the original Katrina van Tassel all those years ago.

Kat, however, has other plans. She feels a little “not like other girls” in this regard, which I didn’t love how hard the “not like other Katrinas” narrative was pushed, especially since she is like other Katrinas. Well, namely, she’s like the original Katrina, as she finds out through Katrina’s old journal. In fact, the parallels are rather uncanny. Almost like her story is a retelling of the original’s story. 😉

I think there are a lot of parts to Kat’s story that readers will find relatable. The sense of wanting something more in life, of wanting to get out of a small, dead-end town alone is a totally recognizable (and totally reasonable) desire. On top of that, Kat isn’t sure exactly what she wants for her future. She wants to see the world (she’s sure of that, at least), but not quite sure who (or if) she wants to marry, what for sure she’ll be, etc. And at 18, it’s a bit unrealistic that her parents have it all figured out for her, right? I suspect many young readers will be able to see themselves in Kat and her struggles to find her own future.

Kat’s story reads an awful lot like a contemporary romance, with an obviously abusive boyfriend that she needs to gather the courage to leave, and a female love interest that sweeps onto the scene who may or may not be too good to be true.

Not gonna lie, this part of the book surprised me a little, because it’s not what I was expecting. Some of you will already know that I’m not a huge fan of contemporary romance, so I didn’t particularly love this almost soap opera-esque part of the story. However, contemporary romance fans will! There’s an almost insta-love quality to the LGBTQ+ relationship that mirrors Katrina’s initial enamorment with Ichabod Crane that makes for a really interesting retelling.

The boyfriend was a git, and was probably the most painful part of this book. He’s bad news from the beginning, and Kat can’t see it until she sees her situation through someone else’s eyes and finds the courage to leave. Lots of trigger/content warnings here for partner abuse, including gaslighting, among other things. It’s hard to read at times, but also a good example of how hard it can be to leave toxic relationships and how people can talk themselves into staying.

This is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow like you haven’t seen it before. Namely, from the point of view of the women.

You know, that highly overlooked and underappreciated gender that rarely was taken into account in stories all those years ago when it was first written. Yeah, that one. Not only is this retelling from the point of view of a female (obviously), but the main focus is on the life of Katrina van Tassel and the whirlwind courtship as it appears from her point of view.

The Headless Horseman’s spirit is very much alive in this retelling, as are other spooky, paranormal things. This retelling is spooky, but not scary, and is focused much more on finding the truth of what happened in Sleepy Hollow with the original Katrina. While the story is the same one we all know and love at its heart, it takes on a wholly different meaning and feel when told from a different perspective, which I appreciated.

Half the story is told through the original Katrina van Tassel’s diary, and while I really enjoyed the story and perspective, the way this section was framed and written was very awkward and weird.

Let me explain. Technically, one would expect that Katrina’s diary would be like a normal diary, right? From her perspective, first person, telling everything she’d been through. Except that’s not the case. Instead, the diary starts with a paragraph or two in first person to set the scene, then switches to third person. From there, it’s likely to jump to any other character’s head and thoughts. Some of these jumps are framed with an explanation, like how Katrina’s mother later told her XYZ. Not all of them, though. Sometimes, the reader just finds themselves randomly in someone else’s head.

Not everyone will care about this, but I found it so clunky and weird! What I really wanted was a diary from Katrina’s perspective, first person, like we’re in her head (as diaries are wont to do), experiencing her story with her, as she discovers the truth herself, not as she’s supposedly heard from others years down the road. The book would’ve been so much stronger if that were the case!

About Serena Valentino

Serena Valentino has been weaving tales that combine mythos and guile for the past decade. She has earned critical acclaim in both the comic and horror domains, where she is known for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty, and extraordinary protagonists. The books in her best-selling Villains series are best enjoyed when read in the following order: Fairest of All, The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunate Soul, Mistress of All Evil, Mother Knows Best, Odd Sisters, Evil Thing, Cold Hearted, and Never Never. She is also the author of the Villains graphic novels Evil Thing and Fairest of All.

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1 winner will receive a finished copy of RAISING THE HORSEMAN, US Only.
Ends October 7^th, midnight EST.

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