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.
The Raven Boys is a gorgeously woven story about a girl named Blue who's a misfit even among her family of misfits. Nearly every woman in her family is a psychic, but Blue is the only one who hasn't been blessed with the Sight. Except that's when she sees her first ghost, the melancholy spirit of a boy named Gansey. A boy who happens to be very much alive and well in the present, and on a desperate search for a long-dead, buried king. And when their paths cross, it becomes pretty clear that Blue's life won't ever be the same again.
If I'm being honest, I was a little hesitant to start The Raven Boys. Maggie Stiefvater is a brilliant author, but in the past I've had some trouble connecting with her work (the Shiver series, Lament, etc). However, I've been hearing rave reviews about it from my friends on Tumblr, so I finally decided to pick it up from the library and give it a try.
And I'm so glad that I did! Turns out all the hype wasn't for nothing. The Raven Boys was such a lovely read that I savored it over the course of several days, dreading the end. It really was unlike anything I've read before, both in writing style and in plot.
Typically I'm all about the plot in novels, but for me, it was the characters that really brought The Raven Boys to life. It's told from three main points of view (Blue, Gansey, and Adam), which normally I'm not a fan of, but for this book it brought more depth to the characters that wouldn't have been otherwise possible. Each character had their own well-developed story to tell, making it feel like they were real people and I was right alongside them as they struggled through the twists and turns that the author threw. I even felt an emotional connection and desire to know more about the minor characters, which is pretty rare for me.
And speaking of characters, despite my normal tendencies to connect most with the female protagonist, in the case of The Raven Boys, I was all about Gansey. He was such an achingly beautiful character, this wealthy boy trapped in the sort of life that he's born into and can't escape. Sometimes he's a little arrogant, sometimes a little condescending without meaning to be, but when it comes down to it, he's just as messed up as the rest of them and desperately needs somebody to understand him. And then of course there's Adam, Ronan, and Noah, his best friends. I enjoyed getting to know each of them, but Adam's story in particular was really hard to read about, and sometimes I had to actually put the book down as I read about his struggle to get out of Gansey's shadow and live life on his own terms.
But don't be fooled by all my raving about the boys! Blue was an equally wonderful character in her own right, with maybe just slightly less depth. However, she was a strong female lead, with her own quirks and a very distinctive voice. I really loved reading her sections and seeing the world through her slightly different way of looking at things, and despite her somewhat unusual upbringing, she was relatable and easy to read about as she grappled with the concepts of destiny and fate.
The only real downfall for me was the somewhat scattered plot. There was so much going on in the story that at times I found myself struggling to keep it all straight. Not only was there TONS of character development and personal backstories, but there was the search for the dead king, the mystery of Gansey's spirit on the Corpse Road, a fair share of complex family problems, and so much more. There were so many details and plot lines shoved in there that admittedly at times it felt a bit overwhelming. Additionally, the pace of the book can be a bit slow sometimes, so chances are you're not going to be on the edge of your seat, but for the style of the story as well as the characters themselves, it works. Plus, I became so invested in the characters that I couldn't really bring myself to mind too much.
Overall, I would definitely recommend The Raven Boys to people who've enjoyed Maggie Stiefvater's books in the past, or really anyone at all. It was such a unique story that was so unlike anything I've read before in the YA genre, and the characters are some of the best that I've had the pleasure of getting to know in a long time. I really enjoyed it, and will definitely be picking up a copy of the next book in the series as soon as I can.
Pages: 409
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date of Publication: September 18th, 2012
Rating:
