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The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)

Maggie Stiefvater

Start date: June 1, 2016

Finish date: June 30, 2016

Discussion: Book/Genre of the Month

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What Members Thought

May 28, 2016 Angela Blount rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, urban-fantasy

Windily intriguing and pleasantly eerie.

I was a little surprised at how well I liked this book, given the languidness of the pacing and lack of answers delivered by the ending. (I should preface this by saying I listened to the audio book, and Patton does a phenomenal job with bringing the voices and characters to life. Also, Stiefvater went the impressive and spot-on impactful extra mile by creating an original musical composition piece exclusively for the audio book. I HIGHLY recommend this m Windily intriguing and pleasantly eerie.

I was a little surprised at how well I liked this book, given the languidness of the pacing and lack of answers delivered by the ending. (I should preface this by saying I listened to the audio book, and Patton does a phenomenal job with bringing the voices and characters to life. Also, Stiefvater went the impressive and spot-on impactful extra mile by creating an original musical composition piece exclusively for the audio book. I HIGHLY recommend this method of ingestion.)

This book is a series set-up, told from multiple 3rd-person POVs. The setting is a rural and vaguely mystical town in Virginia called Henrietta. Our primary characters are a 16-year-old girl named Blue--the eccentric-yet-sensible old-soul daughter of the town psychic. Fairly early on in the story she becomes caught up (almost against her will) with a tetrad of exclusive private school boys: Richard "Gansey", their old-soul history/mystery-obsessed leader; Ronan, the grief-torn rage monster; Adam, the meek and abused grease monkey; and Noah, the forgettable tag-along.

The urban fantasy elements are strong initially, but peter off for much of this particular book. And while the characters hold more depth and dimension than I typically see in mainstream YA, I didn't become particularly attached to any of them. It was the lyrical meandering of the prose and the novelty of the plot itself that kept this reader engaged. Despite the tension remaining low a vast majority of the time, the intrigue held on. All while presenting a small Southern town with something closer to realism than the condescension common in contemporary lit.

I picked up book #2 immediately, and that says a lot for the writing itself.

Content Note: To those parents and teens who it may concern, this book leaned somewhat heavily into -actual- (i.e. borrowed, not invented) occult elements. (Tarot card readings, scrying, astral projection, and what I would assume is possession.) The instructional how-to of which is sparse and primarily limited to tarot cards--at least in this book. ...more

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May 20, 2016 Kristal Fleming rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-a-little-romance, small-city-2016, 2016-setting-showdown-big-city

So to start off with I have to say that this is an emotional ride that I wasn't expecting. I was stammered in the beginning with the different POV's that she has going on in the book.

http://kristalmckerringtons.blogspot.... ...more

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Aug 31, 2013 Megan rated it really liked it

I really like the concept of this book. The story turned out to really get to me. I loved the character development that each of the characters got, and how well the reader was able to know them.

However, it was a bit slow for me. I think it's because I expected there to be romance, but I was misled. Sure, there's a mutual fondness between Blue and Adam, but I could really say that about her and any of the Raven Boys. The only difference being that she and Adam occasionally held hands.

If I had ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Megan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Apparently, Goodreads didn't want me to have this book marked as read. I swear I've written a review for this book at least 3 times. I was proud of my review too! I'm not doing it again, but I'll just say my general thoughts for The Raven Boys.

I put this book off for the longest time, but came across it not too long ago. It's not the funny, upbeat type of book I usually read, but not bad. The curse that Blue has lived with wasn't that big a deal. I can't wait to read where her relationship goes ...more

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Apr 09, 2017 Melli rated it it was amazing

I am so glad that I finally picked up this series. Wow the story was great and different. And the friendship that happens between the boys and blue, wow. I guess you could say they have a ride or die friendship, literally. Just requested the second book from the library.

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Feb 02, 2016 Lucy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-own

OMG. OMG. OMG. Just. Words. Wow.

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Apr 23, 2015 Linda Bakker-Zwakhals rated it it was ok

2.5 stars. It was a nice stort, and stiefvader definitely got better at character development. But it lacked a certain wauw factor that made it a nice read, but certainly not a must.

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