The Raven Boys
Raven Cycle, Book #1
By Maggie Stiefvater
ISBN# 9780545424929
Author’s Website: http://maggiestiefvater.com/
Brought to you by guest reviewer Erin
Summary:
“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.”
Blue Sargent has grown up in a family of psychics, and she is the only one who can’t see the future. Her gift is that her presence makes the power of others stronger. But growing up surrounded by psychics has given her this: a prophecy that tells her that if she kisses her true love, he will die. So when she sees a Raven Boy, a student at the snobby all boys school in town, on St. Mark’s Eve, she needs to know more. The boy’s name is Gansey, and he is on a quest to discover the mystery of an ancient Welsh king, along with his three best friends (and fellow Aglionby students) Ronan, Adam, and Noah. Blue and the Raven Boys paths collide and their lives change forever.
Review:
The Raven Boys alternates between Blue’s point of view and Gansey’s, so we can see the psychic side as well as the mystery the Raven boys are wrapped up in. The summary on amazon really doesn’t do it justice, and that’s why I didn’t read it when it came out. I finally read it now and I’m so glad I did. It isn’t really about Blue avoiding killing her true love; the prophecy really serves to put her on this greater path. The idea of it is still there, always lingering on the edges and occasionally drawing attention to itself, but there is so much else going on that I think it won’t be until the next book that it becomes a bigger issue.
I finished The Raven Boys almost a week ago and I can’t stop thinking about it. Immediately after I finished it, I thought “that was good, I’ll definitely get the next one when it comes out”. But as the days wore on I found myself thinking about it more and more. Sometimes I’m thinking about each of the five main characters (Noah especially), sometimes it’s the plot and what’s going to happen in the next three books. And sometimes it’s the mythology; I want to know more about the ley lines, and what else they might be connected to, if other magical things are going to come into play (I can’t say anything else without revealing spoilers). This book is just so rich in detail that I know when I re-read it sometime before September (when book 2 finally comes out) that I will notice a hundred new little details I missed the first time. I love that each character is flushed out and so different, and that when they get deeper into solving the mysteries surrounding the ley lines that they will each have their own part to play (thanks to the giant hint at the very end of the book).
The book wraps up some of the little story archs that were started in the book, so you have some closure. I don’t know if I could handle six months without getting that. It also sets up some potential questions for the next book. I have no idea what’s coming next, and I’m dying to know.
