The Raven Boys - Review

Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Source: Library

Goodreads 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.”

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 thoughts:

 I read Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and I while I was like, yeah those were ok and told a good story, I was never completely enamored.  For me, it they felt like good books but I didn’t love them or feel the need to tell anyone to read them.  The Wolves of Mercy Falls series was very hushed feeling to me, silence, a warm house with the hiss of a radiator in the background, a tea kettle rattling on the stove that has quite reached a boil.  The Raven Boys is different - it is more alive and vibrant, tension slowly building, like a bonfire.  I wanted to huddle around this book until I read it all – I made the mistake of starting it at 10 pm on a work night, and around 1 am had to physically remove it from my presence so that I could get some sleep.  I just really connected with this book where I had not before with any of Stiefvater’s other books.

I was very immersed in this world of Henrietta, Virginia, and ley lines.  I love character driven books, and I found all the characters in Raven Boys and their quirks to be so endearing.  Blue, Gansey, Noah, Adam, Ronan – all were my favorite character.  Except I did like Adam just a little bit more, best of all. 

Blue’s mother and her mother’s friends are all psychics.  They all live together, and work there as well.  All have their own specialty.  Blue is the only one who can’t see the future, but she does have her own special gift.  Every year Blue and her mother go to the corpse road, where they meet the spirits of the people who will die within the next twelve months. Blue has also been told that she will meet her true love, and her kiss will kill him.  She also has a rule, to stay away from Aglionby boys, which are the boys who attend Aglionby School. 

The book begins with Blue going to the corpse road, but from the start things are different.  Instead of her mother, she goes with her mother’s friend Neeve – and immediately things take a turn for Blue.  Something occurs that night which never has before.  This event winds up taking Blue on a different path, changing her life around.  She breaks her rule, and befriends Raven Boys – Gansey, who is obsessed with ley lines, the supernatural, and finding Glendower; Adam, who is a hardworking, quiet, practical scholarship student, Ronan who is troubled and tough, and finally Noah, who is distracted and “smudgy”. They are on a particular quest, which Blue joins. I felt every main character in this story was interesting, complicated and complex, and I wanted to know more about all of them. 

 Along the way, you find their path has many different branches and mysteries.  Eventually all lead to the same place.  And of course, the ending leaves you hanging!  I really loved this book – I have to know what happens next!

And I think this qualifies for the R.I.P. VII Challenge!