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The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)

Maggie Stiefvater

Start date: May 12, 2013

Finish date: May 31, 2013

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What Members Thought

Sep 30, 2012 Nairabell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, teen-ya-paranormal, read-in-2012

Even if Blue hadn't been told that her true love would die if she kissed him, she would still stay away from the boys from Aglionby school. Known as the Raven Boys, the students there are generally privileged and trouble. But this year things will change for Blue as she is drawn into the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys. This is the year she discovers magic truly exists. And this is the year she will find her true love.

This is the first book in the new Raven Cycle series and one I wa Even if Blue hadn't been told that her true love would die if she kissed him, she would still stay away from the boys from Aglionby school. Known as the Raven Boys, the students there are generally privileged and trouble. But this year things will change for Blue as she is drawn into the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys. This is the year she discovers magic truly exists. And this is the year she will find her true love.

This is the first book in the new Raven Cycle series and one I was eager to start as Maggie Stiefvater is one of my all time favourite authors. I love the beautiful lyrical nature of her writing style and so I knew I would enjoy this book when I picked it up. The writing here has a deliciously gothic feel and the reader is thrown right in at the deep end as Blue spends St. Mark's Eve in a graveyard collecting the names of those who are to die in the coming year.

It did take me a while to get into the storyline as a large cast of characters are introduced fairly quickly. Blue's family consists of her mother Maura and aunt Neeve as well as Orla, Calla and Persephone, while the Raven Boys consist of Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah. That said the concept of the book pulled me through and once I was hooked I stayed glued to the page throughout. This is the first in a series so setting up the cast is to be expected.

The basic premise of the story is that Blue will kill her true love if she kisses him, but The Raven Boys soon shows there is a lot more happening in the small town of Henrietta. Gansey is on a quest to find a lost king and soon we are drawn into a world of ley lines and magic. The storyline is brilliantly crafted with tension that builds gradually throughout leading to some shocking twists and turns. Being told from different perspectives, including that of a past seeker really adds depth to the storyline.

Blue is a great lead character, although it took me a while to get used to her name. She is the only normal one in her family and she prides her self on her independence and self-reliance. The last thing she wants is to get involved with a Raven Boy and the last thing the Raven Boys want is to get involved with a family as strange as hers. Gansey is desperately seeking the lost Glendower and each of the Raven Boys accompany him for different reasons, but it is Adam's desperate quest to escape his family and stand alone that really caught my attention.

The romance has an interesting twist to it as Blue first falls for Adam, although it quickly becomes clear that Gansey is the true love she is destined to kiss and kill. This isn't a love triangle though as Blue likes Adam and is horrified by the possibility that Gansey is in her future.

All in all this was a great read and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Cover: 10/10

Overall: 48/50 ...more

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Oct 19, 2014 Seahorse Library rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-ya, genre-fantasy

See more reviews on Words Read & Written

Why I picked it up:

I'd seen this series around a bit, and randomly picked it up to start reading on the bus while I was in America.

My Thoughts:

I've read a few of Maggie's novels. I generally enjoy her writing style - it's descriptive and musical, but the Raven Boys felt very whimsical. When I first picked it up, I wasn't too sure what to expect, and because of that it took me a while to sink into the story and figure out who the characters were. It took me ...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Morgan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle-read, young-adult, fiction, paranormal, ghosts, five-star-reads

When I finished it, all I wanted was more.

Can't wait to read what happens next with all of the characters.

I'll just be over here with hearts in my eyes.

Don't mind me. ...more

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May 03, 2012 Bonnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2012-books, young-adult, ya-fantasy-sci-fi, boarding-school-of-adventure

I love Stiefvater blindly and without question. That is not even up for discussion. I think she is one of the most brilliant YA authors I’ve encountered, even if not all her books are the absolute best (then again, who can knock it out of the park every time?).

Raven Boys is a tough one because I delighted in so many aspects of it but there was also something missing. It wasn’t like The Scorpio Races when I just wanted to wrap the story around myself and get lost in it. Something was holding me I love Stiefvater blindly and without question. That is not even up for discussion. I think she is one of the most brilliant YA authors I’ve encountered, even if not all her books are the absolute best (then again, who can knock it out of the park every time?).

Raven Boys is a tough one because I delighted in so many aspects of it but there was also something missing. It wasn’t like The Scorpio Races when I just wanted to wrap the story around myself and get lost in it. Something was holding me back. Maybe because it was a relatively large cast and even though they were all brilliantly done, it was still hard to grasp every single character – which is fine, since it’s a series so they will continue to be fleshed out.

There were a lot of bits that I liked. I liked how class and money is a big issue and poor Gansey is always trying to be good but always ends up doing the wrong goddamn thing because either he honestly doesn’t understand or the person he’s trying to help resents the fact that Gansey has money and he doesn’t (I’m looking at you, Adam!). It’s no more Gansey’s fault that he’s rich than it’s Adam’s fault he’s poor. But because being rich is enviable and being poor is not, it’s easy to hate Gansey for being able to throw money at problems or not having to worry about paying for school or all the other things denied to Adam because his father’s a mean drunk and his family lives in a trailer. My heart bleeds for both Gansey and Adam and both of their hearts are in the right place, but it’s so hard for them not to hurt each other.

Ronan I don’t even know what to do with – he’s very Cole St. Clair from Linger – brilliant and privileged, but trying so hard to destroy himself out of unhappiness. The thing is, I think I liked Cole better. I think it doesn’t help that Ronan is a fairly side character in this whereas Cole was a POV character. It looks like from the cover of the next book Ronan will play a bigger role, whereas this book was the story of Gansey/Adam/Blue. Watch as Ronan ends up being my favorite character (the boy has a pet raven who he treats with all the love and affection of a papa wolf with a pup. He’s going to be hard not to love).

Poor Noah is a tragedy in three parts, and I knew his secret before the reveal, but it was powerful and heartbreaking nonetheless. I think he's sticking around for the next books and I really hope he does - I think he is the soul of the group, because he's the only one who no one gets crazy angry at (everyone else is likely to be feuding with someone else at any given moment).

I think this was a solid first volume and sent a lot of balls rolling but I think it needs the second book to consolidate and enhance. I mean, an entire plotline played out (evil teacher who wants to finish his dream of finding Glendower) and the characters were established and given depth and everything. But it felt like a pilot episode. Yes, that was it. It was a pilot. All the characters are set up and their major traits are defined and even though there is depth the characters still haven’t evolved. Adam is still resentful and Gansey is always doing something wrong even when he tries to do everything right and Noah is still kind of shy and weird and Ronan is still angry and self-hating.

And I realize I have only talked about the boys because even though Blue is a main character this really is about the Raven Boys (just look at the title!). Blue is like the regular girl hanger-on except with more depth and a conflict of her own (which is: will I really kill the boy I love? Also, I can amplify other people’s powers!). And Blue, besides getting to know actual private school boys instead of just thinking about them as stereotypes, doesn’t grow much either.

The rest of this series is probably going to be mindblowingly brilliant. This was a great set-up, but I can’t wait to get into the depth. ...more

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