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The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4)

Maggie Stiefvater

Start date: April 1, 2022

Finish date: April 30, 2022

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Mar 22, 2021 akacya ❦ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audience-young-adult, genre-fantasy, format-physical, own, want-to-own

This was a great conclusion to the series. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes character-driven books better than plot-driven books, though if you like a mix of both this would probably be perfect for you, too!

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2020 Ruthie rated it really liked it

It was so good and I liked it so much that it's hard to describe. I definitely think the third one that I felt meh about could have been combined into this one or part of this book put into the third book. There was always something going on there were no slow parts or build up parts even in the dialogue or backstory information. This last one makes me glad I read the whole series! ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2016 Melany rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016, own, 2018, 2023, own-physical, own-kindle

So a lot of my thoughts have stayed the same from the last time I read this. This book is a massive disappointment. It finds a way to both feel too long and not long enough, and I hate to harp but a lot of that feeling revolves around Henry.

Before I get to my more complicated take on Henry I want to talk about the other things wrong with this book. The problem around Glendower and the solution felt lazy and rushed. Everything around Piper and Lamouiers was lazy and rushed. The only villain that So a lot of my thoughts have stayed the same from the last time I read this. This book is a massive disappointment. It finds a way to both feel too long and not long enough, and I hate to harp but a lot of that feeling revolves around Henry.

Before I get to my more complicated take on Henry I want to talk about the other things wrong with this book. The problem around Glendower and the solution felt lazy and rushed. Everything around Piper and Lamouiers was lazy and rushed. The only villain that felt anywhere near impactful was Nevee (view spoiler). I have changed my stance on Adam and Ronan once again and I feel that this time around it also felt lazy and rushed. They had a lot of potential but did not give the time.

And while we're speaking about about characters with a lot of potential but did not give the time; Henry. So my thoughts on Henry have changed. While I still feel his addition did take away from other characters and that felt rushed and forced into every scene he was in, this time around I felt like it was waste to leave him for the last book. I think if he was introduced in one of the early books and given time to develop both as a character and in his relationship with Blue and the boys he could be a great addition to the story (view spoiler). I think I have softened on him so much because he highlights one of the major flaws of these books is that Blue has no friends other than the boys and it would have been nice if Henry could have been her friend.

I will say I was hoping that I would enjoy this book better on this reread and I still ended up disappointed.

Previous Review
(view spoiler)[ I'm not really sure how I feel about this book, but what I do know is that I found it very disappointing this time around.

I'm going to start with the things I liked. I liked the progression of Gansey and Blue's relationship, I really love them this time around, they would have been perfect if not for the intrusion of Henry (I'll get to him later). I did enjoy Ronan's and Adam's relationship more in the book. It felt more natural because of Adam's confusion and doubt. There were no confessions of love it was two confused boys acting on confusing feelings so that made it flow with the story so much better. Especially when considering there were always a hint of Ronan's feelings for Adam but there were no hints for Adam having any for Ronan so the confusion match with the recurring idea that the person that knows Adam the least is himself worked really well. Almost in spite of the ending, I felt it fit. I felt that it was a good way to wrap it up (for the most part) while still leaving the magic in the world.

Now to what I didn't like. I really hated Henry and as the story went on I hated him more and more. He feels so unnecessary, forced, and worse of all he was forced into scenes that he; didn't belong in, and two he would magically have insight that he shouldn't have. The connection he had with Gansey felt so forced. I don't understand why there were so many scenes that it would have made so much more sense if it was Ronan, Adam, or Blue with Gansey Henry was forced in acting like an ass and generally felt out of place in the entire story. And the fact that Blue could get along with him and not the others didn't make sense he was worse about money and had a more "rich mindset" than even Gansey. I don't really understand the point or purpose of making Henry this ill-fitting third wheel to Blue and Gansey's relationship. I don't see how it makes any sense for Henry to be tagging along on Blue and Gansey's break year advantage, the first time they are really going to explore their relationship alone he unnecessarily tags along. Also, why is it ok for Henry to make grand gestures like offering to take her to Venezuela but if Gansey did even after they were dating he would lose his head? It made no sense and so much had to be forced for him to be even in the story. I think Herny could have been a good character but he was forced in so ungracefully and all development between him and the others (of which there was none between him and Adam and Ronan) was rushed, forced, and unnatural. Hm being in scenes he didn't belong in nearly ruined the book for me.

Some other things I didn't like (because it wasn't just Henry) were that the Grayman had to be forced out of their lives like that it felt like a really lazy choice to make the ending more "bittersweet". Especially when considering that the Lamouiers were such an underwhelming villain that the choice felt even more unnecessary. And honestly, the whole Piper and the evil magical black market storyline was awful. It was just so dumb in comparison to the demon and the real problem and it was badly handled. And while I don't want to blame all the things I didn't like about this book on Henry it is hard for me to believe that he was either added to the story to make this part work or more likely this was added to make him have a "point"

Rereading this series made me realize that it really is one of my favorites and it was much better on reread (excluding this book which was worse) but this ending was very disappointing because it added this that really didn't need to be added and focused on things that it shouldn't have (and that was Henry in both cases sorry)

I know I'm going to reread this in the future hopefully, it will be better next time. (hide spoiler)]
...more

2 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2017 Natalie rated it liked it

Shelves: magic, mythology, lgbtq, paranormal, young-adult, fantasy, romance, urban-fantasy

After being immersed in this series for weeks, I was seriously looking forward to seeing how the series ended... And to be honest, I'm kinda disappointed :/

The style of writing was beautiful, the characters still incredible and an overarching plot with so much potential but it just... fell flat for me compared to the others.

There were just so many things that bugged me... (view spoiler) After being immersed in this series for weeks, I was seriously looking forward to seeing how the series ended... And to be honest, I'm kinda disappointed :/

The style of writing was beautiful, the characters still incredible and an overarching plot with so much potential but it just... fell flat for me compared to the others.

There were just so many things that bugged me... (view spoiler)
...and so many others that I really don't want to go into because otherwise I feel my rating will go down even more :|

To be honest, I'm not really sure what to rate this overall... I had such high hopes after falling in love with the first book, and yet I seemed to enjoy each sequential book slightly less than the previous. I was really hoping there was going to be some grand finale where it all made sense and everything was brilliant again but... no luck.

I did however love the development of Adam as a character, and the writing style continued to be beautiful. So for that I'm going to give 3 stars - I enjoyed it overall, but I just feel too disappointed to really give a good mark :/ ...more

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May 21, 2020 Kim rated it really liked it

The last book in the series and therefore not my favorite. I loved these series so it’s pretty much guaranteed that I would be unhappy with the ending...mostly because it’s the end.

This book has so much more lovey-ness in it. At times I enjoyed this and others where it felt odd. One section of this tale felt like it was going somewhere and really fizzled at the end, for me. Other parts were unexpectedly wonderful.

I loved this series even though the end of this book was not my favorite. I’m so ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Diana rated it really liked it

It was still good, but a little disappointing. The author took a really long time to get to where they were going with the story, so there was very little left for the ending. I do feel it was a bit rushed and I was left with some questions. But, it was still a good read.

1 like · Like · see review