Review of The Book The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

A few chapters in, I was hooked on the story. And as an avid reader who is experienced with finding books with terrible plot, bad writing and very cliched characters, I can guarantee you won’t find it in this story.

This book follows a 16 year old Blue Sargent, as she lives in a house full of eccentric-psychic women in a small town in Virginia of Henrietta. All her life she was warned by her family that she will cause her true love to die from her kiss. Unlike any other heroines of YA Literature, who regards boys with desire, she sees them as enemies. Her rules are to, “stay away from boys, because they were trouble, ” specifically boys at the local prep school, “because they were bastards. ” but on the night of St. Mark’s Eve, those who will die are lined up through a cemetery in the annual ceremony. Blue, wasn’t a seer herself but only amplifies the energy of those around her, and for the first time ever she sees the ghost of a young man which can only happen to a non-seer if "you're his true love. . . or you killed him". That turns out to be Gansey, a Raven Boy, who is obsessed with finding Glendower. Blue crossed paths with the four boys of Aglionby Academy: Noah Czerny, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, including Richard Campbell Gansey III. Blue gets caught up in the world of the Raven Boys and finds herself joining the quest to find these ley lines and the Welsh King. Before she ended up realizing that being around these Raven Boys are more troublesome than she ever thought because of her prophecy.

The Raven Boys is a wonderful, beautifully written book by Maggie Stiefvater. The book isn’t the usual first person point-of-view but rather takes on a third person point-of-view that you don’t get to see in a YA Literature. The writing is one of my favorite parts of the book wherein it just sucked me into the world of the Raven Boys. Stiefvater was able to create a complex character driven story but do so in a way that isn’t boring and still shows a distinct mood. Dark and Mysterious with a perfect hint of romance. There’s a lot of complaints about this book on how it has a dragged out story. As it is a character driven story, it’s an entry novel into the series wherein we, the readers, are just getting to know the characters and into the world of magic. The characters fully blooms at the end of the book as Blue and the Raven Boys, have a riveting account of deep and unique stories you don’t see coming. Blue is an amazing protagonist and one I could relate to. She wasn’t afraid to be herself, she’s eccentric, she didn’t care how people see her. She doesn’t seem fazed by the crazy antics that the Raven Boys have since she lives in a such a crazy household.

I find her interactions with the Raven Boys so interesting since in the back of her mind, says that these boys are danger. She was able to create such an incredible connection with these boys when she finds herself letting that go but still wary of getting to attached to them. Because she knows that if she ever gets too attached and falls in love with any one of them, they’re going to die and it’s going to be her fault. Just having that kind of thought is terrifying and I can’t even imagine forming a friendship with the Raven Boys if it was bound to be doomed in the end.

Gansey, is a really an interesting character but not very likeable for the first half of the book. He’s the character that comes of as the hopelessly rich boy with way to much time on his hand. He also has such an incredible devotion to his friends and he always puts them first which is kind of intriguing. He kind of acts like their protector, and to a fault he loses himself trying to protect them and fix all the broken pieces around him. He has this obsession to find and wake the Welsh King and the ley lines and this completely took over his life. The quest he set for himself was all he could think about night and day. And I would really like to know why would he devote himself on this kind of quest. As the story progresses, Gansey is a character that grows on you especially with his interaction with Blue. I find Ronan to be the most interesting of all the characters. He gets to be the brooding, mysterious Raven Boy. He is this emotionally distraught character that plays a factor on how the story goes. He has such a complicated past and that’s one of the factors why he is the most fascinating character. Lots of interesting things happened to him in this book and I’d like to see where it will take him.

The more I read the book, the more curious I became of what’s to come next of him in the next book, The Dream Thieves. I really sympathise with Adam’s predicament in this book, even though he could be frustrating at times. He struggles a lot on his own, being the only Raven Boy who isn’t swimming in money. As Adam had once told Gansey, "Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done”. He has to work to pay for his fees and refuses to receive help from others which kind of weighs him down and goes to a self-pitying kind of routine in his mind. I would like to see another side of him, one that looks beyond that he has to earn everything for himself and how he’s surrounded with privileged people. The fourth and final Raven boy was Noah, a character I find adorable at times. He was just always there, never doing much or saying anything. A quiet, observer of the Raven Boys. Although he is one of the characters that was underdeveloped, he held a special place in my heart. His story is super interesting and mysterious. I’d really like to see more of him and his story in the following books.

Overall, the characters made the story come to life or rather how the characters were written brought them to life and not at all what I had been expecting. I really enjoyed reading The Raven Boys and will recommend for you to read the rest of the series (Raven Cycle) which entails a whole lot of twisted, paranormal and fascinating characters and stories that will soon unravel and put the missing pieces back together. This series opens up some fresh perspective we all can put into good use.