The Raven Boys-Maggie Stiefvater
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. From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of theShiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
Review:
“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.” Every year on the night of St. Mark’s day, Blue visits an old church with her mother to wait for the spirits to arrive. She can’t see them but her presence makes it easier for her mother to communicate with the ghosts of people who are to die in twelve months’ time. This year, when Blue visits the churchyard with her aunt Neeve, she is startled to see a ghost of a boy no older than her. Blue has always been told that her first kiss with her true love would be the death of him. She never believed it but with Neeve’s words from their first meeting still ringing in her head and the ghost of the Raven boy she can see, Blue knows things are changing. Reading the synopsis one might feel that this book would be another paranormal romance revolving around forbidden love and dark magic, but don’t be fooled; there is paranormal magic but it’s intricately woven around such a mesmerizing story that you would be left in awe with nothing but praises for Stiefvater’s beautiful writing in The Raven Boys. The story had me gripped from the beginning with its eerily intriguing start. The narration was in third person and even if it shifted rather quickly from one character to another, it greatly benefited the story. The author left crumbs for the readers to follow and it felt like we rounded up on the starting point at the end of our journey. I felt like the revelations were made for us earlier so that we could wait for the characters in the story to catch up. It made the writing style strange but also the anticipation of what would follow really high. Starting with the characters, I’d say that each one of them with their eccentricities made them endearing to me. Sixteen year old Blue was the only female in her family who didn’t share the psychic gift like her mother and half-aunts. All she wanted was a taste of that power, of the magic that revolved around her but was still out of her reach. The promise of getting her wish fulfilled is what draws her to the Aglionby boys she had promised to stay away from. Blue’s importance in the book was somewhat lost to me. Besides the obvious portable battery role that she played, I couldn’t see how she fit in Gansey’s strange quest. Her playing a role in Gansey’s death should be the answer, but I think I’ll have to wait for the sequels to find out. Gansey, was the rich Aglionby Raven boy who was obsessed with his research of finding Glendower’s resting place, a Welsh noble who disappeared right before the English could capture him. His research led him to Henrietta, where he became close friends with Ronan, Adam and Noah. Gansey was a multi-dimensional character. He tried so hard to be something more than what his name made him out to be. His individuality was in his journal, his orange Camaro and his humble *cough* weirdly huge *cough* abode, Monmouth Manufacturing.. Adam, the scholarship kid, who tried so hard to fit in, was also a complex character. He carried a huge chip on his shoulder and at times his money-driven thoughts did make his yearning seem too desperate, but I could see where he was coming from. His troubles at home and his internal battle of standing on his own feet, followed with his fear of becoming a possession to Gansey, made his despair so much more realistic. Ronan, the aggressive, slacking, bad-boy was an enigma. His secrets and his loyalty towards his friends made him more than just the angry deviant he came out to be. Noah, the troubled, fidgety friend who knew more than he let out, was another story. The relationship that these boys shared was one of my favorite aspects of the story. Stiefvater has managed to knit the stories of all these characters in a big haunting mystery leaving me unsatisfied yet gladly pleased with her book. The book mostly had an eerie feel to it so the humor fell flat for me at places. The serious mood that I was in while reading the book made it feel out of place for me to laugh at some jokes, for instance the Butternut joke. And talking about eerie, there was one scene in the book that left shivers down my spine. I had been skeptical about that detail for a while but still, I wasn’t prepared for it at all. It was that kinda moment where you feel like an idiot for not noticing all the hints and clues that were loosely left behind. Moving on, one thing that nagged me a little through the entirety of the story was Gansey and Whelk’s obsession for the ley lines. I understood their reasons but they didn’t seem enough somehow. Moreover, my dissatisfaction also comes from the plethora of questions that I’m left with. Here are a few: Where did Neeve go? What happened to Adam? How are Maura, Calla and Persephone’s rituals connected with Cabeswater and Blue’s father? Why were the trees in Cabeswater happy to see Ronan and Blue? Why could only Gansey hear them initially? Why was Gansey saved? What is the significance of the raven? What did Rowan mean by the last line? Speaking of last line, why the hell did the book end in such an anticlimactic fashion? All the build-up for what? We are back to where we started, only more confused and with more mysteries to unfold. Even though I had my qualms, this book was definitely a compelling read. It was my first Maggie Stiefvater book so I didn’t know what to expect but I’m very pleased to say that I wasn’t disappointed and this surely made for a unique reading experience. I’m hooked and can’t wait to see how the story progresses from here. 4 shining stars.