The Raven Boys
Review after 2nd read
Because The Dream Thieves is coming out in a few days I re-read/listened to (whispersync rocks) The Raven Boys so that everything was fresh in my mind.
“He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people.”
Blue has been told by her mother and every other psychic she has met that if she kisses her true love he will die. She has had so many theories throughout the years of how kissing someone would cause their death that it almost seemed like a dream. But that all changes one night for Blue when on the corpse road she sees the spirit of Gansy. There is only one reason that she would see his spirit; either he is her true love or she will kill him. For Blue they are almost the same thing.
The Raven Boys are a group of three boys that all attend the affluent private school in Henrietta. Gansy is the boy with a quest to find a lost welsh king, Ronan the misunderstood bad boy with daddy issues and Adam is the quiet scholarship kid from the wrong side of the tracks with a chip on his shoulder. Together they are an unlikely grouping but it works. They each bring something to the quest and each seems to have a bit of magic and mystery surrounding them.
This is a beautifully written book. The wording of sentences, the imagery produced, the soft southern drawl the book encompasses make it truly special.
“More than anything, the journal wanted. It wanted more than it could hold, more than words could describe, more than diagrams could illustrate. Longing burst from the pages, in every frantic line and every hectic sketch and every dark-printed definition. There was something pained and melancholy about it.”
There is a peak into a magical world of possibilities and Blue will definitely play some part in the uncovering of that world. Never did the magic of the book seem overdone, I bought into it all, I rolled with the story and as some foundation were laid for future books some of the mysteries were revealed.
I especially liked that Blue is surrounded by psychics, her mother and the two other women that live with them. They are particularly interesting and added just enough to the story to give glimpses. They were lovably odd and intriguing.
I’m engrossed in the world and characters that Maggie Stiefvater has created and look forward to the next installment in this very original work.
P.S. This is a fantastic audiobook the narrator is phenomenal. If you are at all a fan of audiobooks it is my preference for this one.
March 2013
Unexpectedly fantastic.
I don't read a lot of paranormal fiction. But this book made me question why not. The blend of the quest for a mythic king, the ghost road, psychics and a murder were engrossing I just couldn't get enough. I have a lot of questions after this first book in the trilogy and really want to find out so many things. Blue's kissing destiny, Why Gansey seems like he has two different personalities in him, what is up with Ronan's dreams and what happened to his father, will Adam be forever changed....etc. But the story telling was done extremely well. For a first book I never got bored with the details of it, while world building. Blues mother and Aunts were fantastic as well the trio was so fascinating to me Persephone especially.
I can't wait to see what happens to our band of Raven Boys and Blue in the next book.
