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4 stars! The first part of the review has no spoilers! The second half is a discussion!
NON-Spoilery Summary & Review:
This is the first book in The Raven Cycle Quartet by Maggie Stiefvater. It is about a girl named Blue Sargent who is almost ordinary compared to her family of psychics. Her whole family has different psychic abilities, but Blue’s only ability does not allow her to see ghosts or tell the future. She is somewhat of an amplifier for those who are psychic; she makes things “louder” for them.
On St. Mark’s Eve, Blue and her aunt are watching for the spirit of those who will die within the next year. Only her aunt can see them, but suddenly Blue see’s a spirit. The spirit of a boy named Gansey, a Raven boy from Aglionby private school. Her aunt tells her there’s only two reasons why she should be able to see a spirit: he’s her soul mate or she’s the one who kills him. For as long as she remembers, Blue has always been told that she will cause her true love to die, but she has no idea how she could possibly be linked to a Raven boy. Her curiosity gets the best of her and the story takes off from there!
Going into this book, I kept a very open mind because this was not like any other book I’ve read before. I was also goaded into reading this through bookstagram, so DESPITE all the hype, I chose not to have any great expectations for this book. Goodness was I surprised. This book was mysterious and extremely creepy in all the good ways with on point imagery. I thought the first book was a perfect opening for the series, giving us enough information to understand what’s going on, but leaving us with so many questions that we must keep reading.
I’m very excited to start the Dream Thieves!
Plot:
This book was full of unpredictable reveals. I mean like overtime I find myself trying to connect details to predict what might happen, it’s like WOAH. WHAT. How did THAT come into play?? This is a good thing. I like being surprised obviously. The plot was also much much more than a one way road you follow from beginning to end. There’s a lot of depth to it. There’s some history, some side stories, some romance that all intertwines to make the complex story that is The Raven Boys.
My ONLY problem is that the beginning dragged. The first hundred pages or so was only touching the surface of everything because there was a lot to introduce: the land, the many many people, the social divides, etc. Not that this part wasn’t interesting, but it definitely didn’t keep me sucked in like the second half of the book, which was INCREDIBLE.
All you need to do, if you pick up this book, is get to that one part that gets the ball rolling and then you won’t be able to put this book down!
Characters:
There are five main characters. Of course there’s Blue! I loved her POV’s, they were the best in my opinion next to Gansey’s. My favorites thin about her is her blunt personality. It’s not rude by any means, but more refreshing. She’s also quite relatable in how she handles her first relationship with Adam. As I was reading, I could figure out why she was so interested in meeting the boys because all she wants is to see magic for herself, since she can’t.
Gansey is my second favorite character. I love the way her talks. I could have a conversation with this boy to last days because he talks so smartly. He’s also driven and different from other rich folk. He’s the glue that keeps the boys together. I appreciate that about him.
Ronan, not sure why he has so much appeal quite yet, but he’s growing on me. He’s such a curious boy. I think he’s the one I have the most lingering questions about. I don’t really know what to make of him yet with all these secrets he still has.
Adam is Blue’s love interest. Weird right. That’s how I felt at least. He’s the poor boy in a sea of rich people and though that should be endearing, I still don’t like him that much by the end. I totally ship Blue and Gansey more than anything.
Noah! I can’t say much about him without spoilers, but he is just so adorable with the way he acts around Blue. He’s like a little kitten to me. My baby kitten.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE! MUST DISCUSS!
Spoilery Discussion: (Only have a few points I want to mention)
So Blue and Adam. Was anyone else confused as to why this happened? Just kidding. I wasn’t confused, but I just didn’t like it that much. Maybe because I don’t find Adam that interesting. However! I cannot wait for this Blue and Gansey relationship to happen. I SHIP THAT.
OMG NOAH. I got spoiled about the “Noah Czerny” thing, but even when I was reading it, I was shocked. He went badly. And then how Whelk reacted was unexpected even though I knew he was the one who attacked Noah. I didn’t think he would go and pull a gun on Gansey.. Then Gansey punched it. I could not, for the life of me, stop laughing when I read that he hurt his hand punching the gun because his hand was in his fist. It was one of the laugh worthy moments that made fun of Gansey’s richboy-ness (never learned self defense).
I need to say how when they found out about Noah in the first place, they were weirded out at first, but easily started talking to him again like he was a normal person. Like “Oh hey, I can’t see him, but that must be Noah trying to talk to me.” Oh, it’s not weird to just know there’s a ghost hanging around and you can talk to him no problem (NBD NBD). I thought that was so funny!
The first time they were in the spooky woods: can I say CREEPY. I assumed they found the major ley line, what else could it be? I was not expecting the magical vision tree. Blue’s vision gave us more insight into how Gansey MIGHT die? Lots of questions left about the visions because we haven’t seen hers yet or Adams.
The second time they visited the forest as even WEIRDER. They were passing through different seasons and this was the part where I felt Maggie’s writing really show because the imagery was fantastic. Oh and the trees speak! Not only do they speak, but they speak Latin! Thank goodness for Ronan here cause he was the translator. This is where Ronan was growing on me because he started to seem smarter and what can I say? I like smart boys.
The third time they ended up in that forest was the most suspenseful of all! WHELK DAMN YOU. I’m not unhappy that he got killed, by Adam no less. Adam started this whole thing which is a reason why I mentioned I didn’t like him all that much. So annoying him and his pride. Also, if he sacrificed himself… How is he still here? What happened to him really? & Blue’s aunt disappeared? Where’d she go? After this scene I was left with 10000 more questions…
The ending did nothing to help with that. Ronan’s raven, Chainsaw, wasn’t REAL?! How is that? Was the bird something he dreamt up? Oh and cute little Noah is back! So glad they moved his bones back. I would have been sad he ended up “moving on.”
Thank you all! Hope you enjoyed! :)