If you watched the 2022 anime adaptation of Kōko Shirakawa's Raven of the Inner Palace light novels and wondered how faithful it was to the source material, the answer turns out to be “very.” Both versions follow sixteen-year-old Jusetsu (Shouxue in Crunchyroll's subs; the novel uses the Japanese reading of the characters' names whereas the streams used the Chinese reading), the most recent inheritor of the title “Raven Consort.” There's a lot of mystery surrounding the women behind the sobriquet, but most rumors agree that she has supernatural powers of some sort. That's why Koshun (Gaojun), the newly ascended emperor, seeks her out: he is concerned about a ghost possessing a jade earring. But the more he gets to know Jusetsu, the more he's fascinated by her and the position of Raven Consort.

Koshun's attraction to and fascination with Jusetsu and her position intertwines with Jusetsu's supernatural investigations in the Inner Court to form the core of this first novel. Shirakawa does a very nice job of entangling the two storylines: Koshun, from both our perspective and that of other members of the court, is plainly falling hard for Jusetsu despite her prickly ways, and his determination to learn more about what exactly Raven Consorts are is driven by his infatuation with her. At one point he flat-out asks her if she'd consider being one of his “regular” concubines, a suggestion she scoffs at, but that says a lot about his feelings for her. For her part, Jusetsu believes that her only real benefit from her position is her powers, and to that end she is determined to use them to the best of her ability. Although she claims to demand a price, we see her helping ghosts (and those haunted by them) of her own free will, and it isn't hard to figure out that she's invested in aiding those who deserve it. If Koshun is able to bring her more of those people, she'll accept it – and possibly him.

Naturally “death” is a major thematic element of this work. In part this is simply because Jusetsu has the power to help ghosts pass on to the afterlife, but it's also something that is deeply present in both her life and the emperor's. We know that Koshun came to power after the death of his father, but his family didn't come by the throne bloodlessly; his grandfather killed nearly every member of the previous imperial line. The empress dowager, wife of Koshun's father, was a murderous woman, and several important people in Koshun's life were killed at her behest, if not her actual hand. Meanwhile Jusetsu is an orphan after her mother was killed due to standing orders from Koshun's grandfather's time about the old imperial bloodline, and when we first meet her, she isn't that far out from the death of the woman who raised her, the previous Raven Consort. Both Koshun and Jusetsu have lived with death as a close companion, and that perhaps makes them more attuned to the spirits who haunt the Inner Palace – and more willing to work on their behalf.

The question of why Jusetsu has her powers in the first place is an interesting one. We do learn the origins of the Raven Consort in this volume, and the mythology Shirakawa has constructed is fascinating. It's no fluke that all of the women of the Inner Palace have bird titles, and the reason why Jusetsu isn't permitted to leave is interestingly intertwined with the worship of Uren Niangniang, who is the founding deity of the kingdom. There's a clear sense that the repression of the Raven Consort is tied into efforts to keep women from real power, and certainly the only other woman with any true agency and ability is the empress dowager, and it wouldn't be a stretch to call her “evil.” Is that because she was just a horrible person? Or is it that she was grasping the only crumbs of power she could, and that turned her into a murderer? We don't know the answer, but the history of Raven Consorts and the idea of female power does beg the question, especially since Jusetsu was taught by her predecessor that it is better – safer – for her to remain alone.

The novel is divided by case-length chapters, but there is no episodic feel to it. Although each mystery is largely wrapped up within the confines of the (long) chapters, the overarching plot of Koshun and the history of the Raven Consort keeps things from feeling choppy. We do see a few recurring elements within each mystery that carry through, such as the deaths of the previous imperial family and Jusetsu slowly allowing more people into her life against her better judgment, and overall, the story reads well and has a couple of genuinely emotional moments. As with many light novels, there are elements that are overwritten, and the translation doesn't help this; while there aren't tons of typos, there are still more than I've seen in the average Seven Seas light novel, and there are several instances of redundancy. Simply put, it feels like the book could have used another edit.

Raven of the Inner Palace's first novel should please fans of its adaptation. It's easy to see what changes were made and understand why they happened, and it never feels like one version negates experiencing the other. Jusetsu's tsundere tendencies come from an understandable place, and Koshun is so clearly trying to do his best for everyone that it's hard not to like them, to say nothing about the side characters who have their own distinct personalities. If you enjoy pseudo-Chinese fantasies, this is definitely worth picking up.