Rereading TRC after nearly 4 years and I almost forgot just how much longing these books were full of. Every word, every thought, every glance, even all the inanimate objects are teeming with such a profound need that it clenches the whole of my chest. Ahhh
richard campbell gansey iii: a raven cycle playlist
listen on spotify here
Ley Lines by Flor
Like ley lines / Find meaning to take hold / It all goes to sway / On empty / We will what we make whole
“The way Gansey saw it was this: if you had a special knack for finding things, it meant you owed the world to look.” - The Raven Boys, pg 24
This Must Be the Place by Iron & Wine (Talking Heads Cover)
Home is where I want to be / But I guess I'm already there / I come home, she lifted up her wings / I guess that this must be the place
“Back out in the hard spring night, Gansey tipped his head back. Now that he knew that Ronan was all right, he could see that Henrietta after dark was a beautiful place, a patchwork town embroidered with black tree branches.” - The Raven Boys, pg 96
The Predatory Wasp of The Palisades is Out to Get Us! by Sufjan Stevens
Oh I am not quite sleeping / Oh I am fast in bed / There on the wall in the bedroom creeping / I see a wasp with her wings outstretched
“Though the sound of buzzing had died away, it only took him a moment to find the insect on the window: a wasp, crawling up the narrow wooden frame of the window, swiveling back and forth. Gansey didn’t move.” - The Raven Boys, pg 161
Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique / Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes / Unique in each way you'd conceive / And now after some thinking / I'd say I'd rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery / Serving something beyond me
“Gansey had always felt as if there were two of him: the Gansey who was in control, able to handle any situation, able to talk to anyone, and then, the other, more fragile Gansey, strung out and unsure, embarrassingly earnest, driven by naive longing.” - The Raven Boys, pg 289
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Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour
Maybe I'll sleep when I am dead / But now it's like the night is taking sides / All the worries that occupy the back of my mind / Could it be this misery will suffice?
“When Gansey couldn’t sleep, he studied the bristling journal he’d compired of all things Glendower, or when he was too tired to read, used a cereal box and bin of paints to add another building to the waist-high model of Henrietta he’d constructed.” - The Dream Thieves, pg 35
Passenger Seat by Death Cab for Cutie
Looking upwards / I strain my eyes and try / To tell the difference between / Shooting stars and satellites / From the passenger seat as / You are driving me home / Do they collide? / I ask and you smile / With my feet on the dash / The world doesn't matter
“Gansey let the Pig slide to a stop. He stepped on the parking brake. They both gazed out the driver’s side window. It was a sort of ferocious, quiet beauty, the sort that wouldn’t let you admire it. The sort of beauty that just always hurt.” - The Dream Thieves, pg 364
I Wish I Was by The Avett Brothers
But, if I get too close / Will the magic fade? / Would I turn you off or away? / If I pull you in / Would I push you out / Of something here you care about? / I'm at a loss for what to do / I'm drawn to you
“I wish you could be kissed, Jane,' he said. 'Because I would beg just one off you. Under all this.' He flailed an arm toward the stars.” - The Dream Thieves, pg 367
Welcome Home by Radical Face
Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun / And the days blur into one / And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done
“When Ronan thought of Gansey, he thought of moving into Monmouth Manufacturing, of nights spent in companionable insomnia, of a summer searching for a king.” - The Dream Thieves, pg 411
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The Meadow by Nickel Creek
Since I last / Drifted through the meadow / With someone wondering / What if I were yours and you were mine?
“Palm up, fingers stretched back to Blue. This was not allowed. He knew it was not allowed, by rules he set himself.” - Blue Lily Lily Blue, pg 36
Voyager by boygenius
There are days spent tangled up together / And sometimes you let me read your mind / Then there are nights you say you don't remember / When you stepped on the gas and you asked if I'm ready to die
“After a long pause, Blue said, in a different voice, ‘I’m going to sing myself to sleep. See you tomorrow. If you want company.’ The phone went quiet. It was never enough, but it was something. Gansey opened his eyes.” - Blue Lily Lily Blue, pg 170
Hopeless Wanderer by Mumford and Sons
So when your hope's on fire / But you know your desire / Don't hold a glass over the flame / Don't let your heart grow cold / I will call you by name / I will share your road
He held her gaze, but his eyes had gone far away, pensive. He was weighing it, maybe, the cost of this quest versus his undying need to see his king. Then he was focused on her again. He shook his head.” - Blue Lily Lily Blue, pg 202
This is Why We Fight by The Decemberists
So come to me / Come to me now / Lay your arms around me / And this is why / This is why / We fight / Come hell
“Gansey touched his lower lip very gently. He lowered his hand, and he said ‘Wake up.’ He said it like he had said stop earlier. He said it in a voice Adam had heard countless times, a voice he could never not listen to. The beasts woke.” - Blue Lily Lily Blue, pg 360
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This Will End by The Oh Hello's
No, I am not afraid to die / It's every breath that comes before / Heartache, I've heard, is part of life / And I have broken more and more
“On the recording, his own voice whispered, ‘Gansey.’ A pause. ‘That’s all there is.’ Finally, it was happening. He was no longer merely an observer in this world; he was a participant.” - The Raven King, pg 2
Northern Wind by City & Colour
You're the lullaby / That's singing me to sleep / You are the other half / You're like a missing piece
“Why do we breathe air? Because we love air? Because we don’t want to suffocate. Why do we eat? Because we don’t want to starve. How do I know I love her? Because I can sleep after I talk to her.” - The Raven King, pg 262
The View Between Villages by Noah Kahan
Feel the rush of my blood / I'm seventeen again / I am not scared of death / I've got dreams again / It's just me and the curve of the valley / And there is meaning on Earth, I am happy
“Make way! they shouted. Make way for the Raven King! It was loud enough now that lights were beginning to come on in houses. Gansey climbed into the car and turned the key - start, Pig, start. It growled to life. Gansey was all things at once: elated, terrified, overcome, satiated. With a squeal of tires, he pursued his king.” - The Raven King, pg 342
First Light by Hozier
A voice your body jumps to calling out your name / But after this, I'm never gonna be the same / And I am never going back again / The sky is set to burst, the gold and the rust / The colour erupts / You filling my cup, the sun coming up /Like I lived my whole life /Before the first light
“You will live because of Glendower. Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not.” - The Raven King, pg 418
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The Raven Cycle (Full Playlist)
ronan lynch (graphic)
adam parrish (graphic)
blue sargent (graphic)
As someone who attended a very rich private school in middle school (on 100% scholarship) in the South it is my pleasure to inform you that Ronan and Gansey most certainly had to take a year of etiquette classes, including a section on ballroom dancing in like 7th grade. Those boys can perfectly execute a Viennese waltz at the drop of a hat, I guarantee it
