Book One of The Raven CycleBy Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy courtesy of Krystal of Live to Read
Read my reviews of LAMENT, BALLAD, SHIVER, and LINGER
Read Maggie's guest blog
Guys, I am blown away.
It's not like I don't know that Maggie Stiefvater is a terrific author. I've been a fan from the very beginning. And I knew she was excited about THE RAVEN BOYS, from both her blog posts and hearing her speak at TLA. I still didn't expect this. All of the books I've previously crowned the best of the year are going to have to step aside for the true king.
Blue Sargent knows that magic exists. She lives in a family of seers, though she is not a seer herself; she magnifies others' abilities. Every seer tells her the same thing: the first boy she kisses, her true love, will die. Then she sees Gansey's spirit on St. Mark's Eve. The only explanation is that he's her true love or she kills him. In Blue's case, it might well be both. But when she meets Gansey, she doesn't fall for him. She falls for Adam, one of his best friends. But she is pulled into the magnetic Gansey's search for a lost Welsh king.
The characterization in this story, you guys. The characterization. Gansey cannot say the right thing and he buries himself under a perfect, empty surface. Ronan is a bundle of anger and hugs for his pet raven Chainsaw. Adam is a scholarship student and both cares deeply for his friends and wants to make his own way through live without their help. Noah, the smudgy one, hangs quietly around the edges. Suffice it to say, I want to knit each raven boy a fuzzy, ugly sweater to replace their school raven sweater and cuddle them and show them that they are loved and it will be okay. And of course, it isn't going to be okay. There's an aura of dread throughout THE RAVEN BOYS. There's going to be death. It's inevitable. THE RAVEN BOYS is a book where you know things will not end well. And I may love happy endings, but I adore impossible situations and certain doom even more.
If you didn't like the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, I'd still give THE RAVEN BOYS a chance. With it's use of Welsh mythology, it's closer in style to her faerie books. Even then, THE RAVEN BOYS is a new sort of beast. It's a book where the magic is limited in scope and barely present, yet frightening to encounter. It's a book about love - not romantic love, particularly - and the lengths people will go to for love. And the lengths people will go to for power. It's about being a teenage boy and being a teenage girl and all the craziness that entails even without life and death on the line.
If this review is incoherent, please excuse me. I've been left bereft of much of my senses. The only thing clear to me is that I must read the second book of Stiefvater's Raven cycle as soon as possible.
I thought this one started a bit slow, but it got a lot better as it progressed :)
ReplyDeleteThe characters were great. You'd probably have to work at getting Gansey and/or Ronan to wear a sweater, they seemed rather particular ;) (I think they'd secretly appreciate it, though!)
It was a little slow, but the type of slow I love. "Nothing is happening now, but something terrible is soon to happen."
DeleteI feel like I'm stubborn enough to get them into a sweater eventually. (Ronan, though, would act like it was all his own idea once he got it on.)
I wasn't a fan of SHIVER, but I turned around on Stiefvater after THE SCORPIO RACES (headlong love for that one!). I am beyond excited to hear that you love this one. AHHHHH! Must find time to read it!
ReplyDeleteI've been a fan since LAMENT! You might want to try LAMENT and BALLAD because they're more like TSR and TRB.
DeleteI really loved Shiver and Linger...still need to read Forever. Yes, I'm a slow with series. But I AM excited to check this one out. I'm so glad you loved it. I'm a big character person, so your review is very exciting about that aspect.
ReplyDelete-lauren
I think you'll really like it. It is deffo a book for character lovers. (And hey, I'm slow with series too.)
DeleteAnother beautiful review about this book! I've really enjoyed seeing them appear and it is all making me that much more excited to finally get to this book myself.
ReplyDeleteHee, I love really anticipating a book! I hope it lives up to the reviews for you!
DeleteI'm hoping really hard that the doom is not going be certain after all, and the series will end with them all sitting in front of a fire place with mugs of hot chocolate feeling loved....somehow, though, the sense of doom refuses to stop impending.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a lovely ending . . . but it seems so unlikely.
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