Title: The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Published on: September 2013

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Young-Adult Fiction

 

Synopsis (via 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.

 

When a certain book has so much hype, I tend to become cautious. To avoid putting pressure on the book, I don’t read reviews about it so that I would go through it without any influences. With the hype surrounding this book, I dived into to it without a single idea what it was all about. But since I was so excited with this book, I can’t help but to pressure it and hope that it would be great read.

During the first hundred pages (I think), I was starting to get bored with it. I felt like there’s not much event or action going around, and I’m not a fan of psychics or fortune tellers. I really think they’re lame and pretentious. The whole premise between a poor girl and a group of rich kids, with the expectations of a love triangle blossoming was, in my honest opinion, so cliché I thought I couldn’t handle it. So it’s safe to say that I forced my way through the next hundred pages. And you know what? I’m glad I did!

I just realized that each of the characters were interesting–our female protagonist (Blue) and her raven boys (Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah). I was particularly drawn towards the boys. They’re quite intriguing with their complicated life stories, striking features, and extreme personalities so different from each other yet you cannot think of one without the others.

I admire the determination and passion shown by Gansey towards his quest and how the rest of the gang showed their support. With Adam, I felt that he was a dangerous character just by looking at the situation he is in and the goal he is fighting hard to achieve. Now Ronan, at first I don’t really know what to feel about him, but as the story progresses, I began to understand his battle, and I root for him. And we have Noah! I was curious, very curious and when his character was finally unraveled . . .

Now with regards to the story and the legendary quest, I have to say I was intrigued by it too! At first, I thought it was introduced so quickly that I only got pieces of the whole idea. I was basically hungry for more details about it, and when it was given, I was all in!

And last, I have to applaud the writing of Maggie Stiefvater. I confidently conclude that she is an amazing storyteller. I admire how carefully the words were chosen and how it was beautifully brought together to create a vivid image of what she wants the reader to see. With those cliffhanger words from Ronan Lynch, I just got so interested and excited to pick up the next book in the series!

 

 

 

Guest post contributed by abOOkishOwl. Sprinkled around this blog’s book reviews are book quotes and original pictures, and the author is a self-professed book geek.