The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Published by Scholastic on September 19th 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 454
Source: Library
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Even if Blue hadn't been told her true love would die if she kissed him, she would stay away from boys. Especially the ones from the local private school. Known as Raven Boys, they only mean trouble.
But this is the year that everything will change for Blue.
This is the year that she will be drawn into the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys. And the year Blue will discover that magic does exist.
This is the year she will fall in love.
Magic, ghosts, ley lines, and ancient Welsh kings – Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle is exactly the series I love to read, and I didn’t even know until I started reading The Raven Boys!
“If you kiss your true love, he will die.” Blue Sargent’s family of psychics have been telling her this all her life, but she has never really given it much thought until she starts to cross paths with the mysterious group of boys from the local private school. Gansey is intent on his search for Glendower, an ancient Welsh king supposed to be buried along a ley line, possibly near their small town in Virginia. Blue joins Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah in their search, but there is also someone else searching – someone sinister.
Blue comes from an eccentric family to start with, so we can excuse any weirdness on her part, but the four boys in this story each have their own special brand of strange – not at all as I would expect rich seventeen-year-old boys to act. Not that it was a bad thing – this is not your typical high school drama in any sense.
I am completely blaming (and thanking) Cait from Paper Fury for convincing me to read this series. I can see why she loves it – the whimsical writing style seems right up her alley! I loved the settings – the descriptions of locations around town, the magical woods; even Blue’s house and the converted warehouse the boys live in takes on a personality in this story. The writing is just beautiful, especially in the magical sequences. I especially loved how things could be progressing along, then suddenly things would take a creepy turn. I was glad I was mostly reading this in daylight hours – it creates a dark feeling of foreboding that I couldn’t get enough of.
I recently listened to Kate’s review of this book on YA Today Podcast and have to agree – none of these kids are in any way realistic teens. But the thing is, it’s a story about paranormal phenomena, and everyone has their own eccentric back story, so they’re not really going to be just like real seventeen-year-olds. Maggie Stiefvater’s weird and wonderful characters and writing style may not be for everyone, but I LOVE IT.
As soon as I finished The Raven Boys I went looking for The Dream Thieves, and I can’t wait to get back into this world. It’s great when you can start reading a complete series with no waiting in-between books!
Read this series if you love stories with a dark, mysterious and magical mood, and don’t mind eccentric characters.
The Raven Cycle
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