The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
♦publisher: Scholastic
♦release date: September 18, 2012
♦hardcover, 408 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Raven Cycle, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
“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.
Review: It's always exciting to see Maggie Stiefvater come out with something new. Her stories are always so imaginative, her writing so lyrical and beautiful. I gleefully anticipated this new series from the moment I heard of it's existence, and even more so after seeing the incredibly unique cover.
And now that I've finished it and can think back on it as a whole, I can say that I really enjoyed it. As a whole.
But...in all honestly, I have to admit that there were a few times that I very nearly put this one down.
The prologue and first chapter were perfection...eerie, dark, and utterly compelling. I was drawn in and immediately convince that what lay ahead was going to blow me away. But then, somehow, it just lost it's grip on me. We're introduced to the main band of characters of the story: Blue and her family of psychic women, and of course, The Raven Boys themselves: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah. We get glimpses into their lives, their personalities, their individual quirks, but for almost 120 pages, nothing really
happens. At 50 pages, and then again at 100 pages, which are usually the two places that I give books to absolutely draw me in to the story---I stopped and didn't know if I wanted to continue. I didn't care much for any of the characters at that point, they were mildly interesting but I just wasn't invested in what was going on. But I pressed on---why? Because it's Maggie Stiefvater. I've loved her work before and I just couldn't give up.
I am glad I stuck with it. It may have taken until chapter 15, but from that point on, this story is pure magic. What it took, for me, was for the character to come together. Blue and the Raven Boys finally come together and the whole story just starts to come alive! Eerie and magical things start to happen, a subtle but very sweet and unsure love story starts to blossom, and every one of the five of them just starts to show a side of themselves that you can't help love and feel compassion for. It was like night and day. Gansey, who at first seems cocky and pretentious and clueless about anything but his rich-boy life turns out to be smart, endearingly curious, and so caring about his friends---I think he surprised me the most throughout the story. The whole group of them all had their problems, but they were all so tightly bound together by their friendship that each of them was able to face it all with bravery. And Blue was a firecracker---I love how well she was able to hold her own among this odd mix of boys
and the even more bizarre group of women she had at home.
There are some really great creepy moments along the way as they search for a legendary lost king. The plot unfolds with much cleverness and mystery. Ghosts, killers, visions, and magic among the trees---while this story may have taken a while to really get going for me, it took my breath away in the end.
