The Raven Boys - A Book Review

Hi guys!

So I know I'm late to the party, and probably everyone has read it by now (except not everyone, because I hadn't read it). But I finished The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater last night, and all I want to do is talk about it, so I'm doing a book review.

About the book, courtesy of Goodreads.

“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.

My rating

            

There was so much I loved about this book. Meaning, the characters.

The characters are so good.

Blue is not your normal female lead. She's not overly strong, or insanely quirky. She's pretty sensible really. To me, she thinks exactly like a sixteen year old girl thinks, which is kind of unique in Young Adult books. One strange thing about her is she designs all of her own clothes, and its kind of funny because as I'm reading the descriptions I'm like "Oh yeah, I would have wore this a few years back."

She's got good fashion sense.

The Raven Boys themselves are all such big teddy bears. Some it's just harder to tell under their sharp edges. But I want to hug them all.

Currently Gansey is my least favorite, but through no fault of his own. I don't dislike him by any stretch, he's just not as colorful as the rest of the lot.

Adam is such a cinnamon roll, and I love his dynamic with Blue. I just want to hug him and whisk him away from danger, and then yell at him to stop being so stubborn. Which is to be expected when dealing with teenage boys, I suppose.

Noah is such a sad little guy, and I love him.

But my favorite is Ronan. Which will probably come as no surprise to anyone. He's my literary type. Dangerous, snarky, so very angry. I worry about myself sometimes.

As for the story line, it absolutely hooks you. Normally I can outguess a book pretty fast, and know what's going on, but there were so many twists and turns in this one that I didn't see coming at all.

It was both maddening and fantastic.

It's a fast paced book and stuff just keeps happening, but I loved how it wasn't all action related to their magical quest. I loved the personal turmoil and chaos that sprung up from all of them, and how they dealt with it.

Content was the only reason I took a star off the rating. There was a lot of cussing.

No sex, or anything like that. A few very mild innuendos. But a lot of cussing.

Also, if you don't like psychics and mediums, and things of that nature, pass this book up. I didn't find it a bother, but some people might.

Now all that's left for me to do is scurry on over to the library to get book two.

Fingers crossed that they actually have book two. 

Have you ever read The Raven Boys? What did you think?

I'm in the mood to chat about it.