The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Published by Scholastic Press on September 18th, 2012
Genres: Paranormal Mystery, YA
Goodreads
“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.
So I have a small confession to make. I added this book to my TBR shelf on Goodreads just because of the cover. Yes, it’s true. I, the awesomeness behind Read, Sleep, Repeat, am a cover whore. To be completely honest birds of all kinds really freak me out, so when I saw this cover and fell in love I knew I had to read it. Then I read the blurb and I was hooked, counting down the days for “The Raven Boys” to be released. Lucky for me I didn’t have too long to wait.
The story starts with Blue and the constant reminder that she will kill her one true love with a kiss. If that doesn’t pique your interest please leave this page right this second because we can no longer be friends. Once you get over that little bit of information you are immediately standing in the middle of an abandoned and crumbling church watching for the souls of people who will soon die.
SWEET GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!!
Ms. Stiefvater, if I may say, I. Love. YOU.
You would think that with an opening like this the book would probably stall for a bit, slowly unfolding itself until you managed to get to the ending and see all of the big bad guys. Nope. Not even close to what happened with “The Raven Boys”. From page 1 to page 408 there was ALWAYS something happening, and not in that overly dramatic lets-throw-everything-in-all-at-once-and-then-let-it-magically-solve-itself kind of way. It was informative, gripping, well paced, and obviously a work of geniusness (yes that is now a word).
Blue lives in a house full of psychics. Her mother (Maura), her Aunt Neeve, Persephone, Orla and Calla. Blue is the only non-psychic in the house but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a slightly underrated ability of her own. Lack of psychic powers aside, Blue was a dream to read about. She wasn’t necessarily a heroine in the traditional sense, and she definitely wasn’t a damsel in distress. I think the best way to describe her is to say she seemed like someone I would meet here in Cleveland. Just a normal chick (minus the house of psychics). I’ve ranted and raved before about tangible characters and that is exactly what Stiefvater made Blue. She didn’t have crazy super powers, or go through this I-love-him-even-if-I-kill-him inner monologue. She wasn’t abnormally pretty, or athletic or rich and powerful. She was Blue. She went to school, went to work, occasionally attended psychic readings, and that was it. I’m not sure how it was done but Blue was the perfect character for this book.
Gansey, Adam, Ronan, Maura, Persephone, Orla, Calla and even Whelk made a great supporting cast. I could never get aggravated with Gansey no matter how rich he reminded me he was. At the end of it all I knew his heart was in the right place even if his words never were. I’m lost on how I feel about the relationship between Gansey in Blue. On the one hand I’m so excited there was NO insta-love. However, on the other hand I was a tad disappointed with how the “relationship” was in this book, but I don’t like spoilers so I will say no more on that subject.
Adam and Ronan were a little harder for me to swallow. I know what it means to build a life from nothing but I truly felt that Adam’s pride and stubborn attitude was unnecessarily dangerous. I can’t pretend to understand what it would be like to leave your family completely at 16 but I do know that my life means more to me than that fear of not having “mommy” and “daddy”. Don’t get me wrong I liked Adam’s determination, and hard work. I even liked how sweet he was. I just don’t understand why he couldn’t distinguish a handout from no strings attached help. Ronan was another love of mine. He was my rebel without a cause, my James Dean, my bad boy. He looked tough and got into fights but you know there is so much more to his story and I’m crazy excited to see what exactly his past holds. In fact I’m bursting at the seams waiting for the next book and I don’t really know how I will make it without a padded room until the next book is release. There was so much action, and information, and build up in this book that if you aren’t on the floor crying waiting for the next one to come out you probably have more “issues” than I do.
