Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult. Supernatural. Romance.
Publication Date: September 18th 2012
Publisher: Scholastic
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 409
Rating: 5/5
“There are only two
reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said.
“Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every
year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the
soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this
year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His
name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at
Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away
from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But
Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it
all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much
more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven
Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege
around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and
Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but
says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been
warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this
would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the
strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
From
Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver
trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the
inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve
never been before.
Now, there was a stage in my life where I read every Maggie
Stiefvater book as it came out but for some reason that sort of died off for a
while. I bought The Raven Boys before that- in fact I bought this beautiful
hardcover edition for about $12 (which is ridiculously cheap for Aus) and then
onto the shelves it went. I’ve considered picking it up so many times, but I
just never did- not until now.
I had absolutely no idea what this book was about at all. I
knew from Tumblr that pretty much everyone loved Gansey and that was about it.
Therefore, I knew nothing going into this book and I’ll admit that the first 20
or so pages took me a while to read. I was interested in what was going on, but
I was so confused by it all that it took me a bit to get into it. I can
actually pinpoint the exact moment I fell in love with this book- and that was
the mention of Wales. I’m not sure this is something I’ve ever mentioned on
here before, but I have a deep love/obsession for Wales and anything remotely Welsh.
So you can probably imagine my excitement for this book…
Maybe it’s my love for Wales, but I really, really loved the
plot. It’s completely different to anything I’ve ever read before. I suppose
that can be a sort of silly statement, but I really have never read or even
heard of anything like this before. I think sometimes it could be a little
confusing- there were parts about the ‘ley lines’ that I didn’t really get.
That being said, I really loved the idea of them. I’m interested to see more
about Glendower and the mystery surrounding Blue’s ability (I don’t know if
that’s really the right word) in the sequels.
Now we reach my favourite part of the review. The part in
which I can talk about the characters in detail. Let’s start with Blue- I
admit, the name kind of weirds me out and I’m a fan of unique character names
as much as the next person but I don’t know, something about ‘Blue’ got to me.
I love her as a character though- I think she’s a different type of character.
She’s a bit weird, but I also think she’s quite strong and I feel a lot of
sympathy towards her. I can imagine that growing up in a family like hers, without
having the same powers the rest of her family does, would be incredibly
difficult. I don’t know if any of you who’ve read the book will agree with me
here, but I feel that Gansey sort of took over the story a bit. Don’t get me
wrong, I love Gansey but I would have liked to see a bit more of Blue.
Anyway, this brings me onto Gansey himself. Like I said, I
love him. I wasn’t sure about him for a little while- he was kind of the
stereotypical rich asshole, but then he changed. I liked being able to see the
different sides to him- the side that Adam, Ronan and Noah got to see and the
one Blue was starting to see and then the side that everyone else sees which is
that ‘rich boy’. I think he’s a wonderful character, especially with how
protective he is of his friends. That was one of my favourite things to read. I
just really, really wanted to give him a big hug.
Adam. Can I just mention whenever I see a character named ‘Adam’
I instantly go into hate mode? My mind just instantly connects the name Adam
with the Shatter Me series (like most other things) and I start seeing red
(#WARNER5EVER). I try to keep a level head when it comes to Adams, and I really
liked this Adam. He’s like that cute, sweet little boy that you just want wrap
up in a blanket, place in front of a heater and give a teddy to cuddle or
something. I feel the same about Noah (who instantly reminds me of Noah Shaw).
The thing is, I kinda don’t know where I stand with either of them after the
end of the book. I know that I really love Gansey, but I don’t know about the
others. Does anyone feel the same?
I like most of the other characters. I actually really like
Ronan- I don’t know whether anyone agrees with me, but I do. For me, he
provides a lot of entertainment and just the right amount of tension. I also
really like Maura, Persephone and Calla and I hope we get to see a lot more of
them in the rest of the series too.
Speaking of the rest of the series, now I’m going to have to
attempt to hold myself back from ordering the second book especially since I’m determined
to get it in hardcover so it matches the first one. I just can’t wait to see
what happens to all the characters, plus I’m a serious need of some Gansey/Blue
action.
