Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Book Review: The Raven Boys

Book being reviewed: The Raven Boys
I give this book:
4 out of 5 owls.

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

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.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

I just want to start off by saying that I am undoubtedly impressed by this book.  It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Mrs. Stiefvater's Shiver.  I remember being bored with it and couldn't grasp that reader connection we all hope for in a book.  With The Raven Boys, however, I had an undeniable connection as a reader.

There are so many detailed aspects to this book.  The characters themselves were so well thought of and brought to life with so much detail, and each and every single one of them were completely different from one another.  This is saying a lot, since there are TON of characters you come to know within the story.

I enjoyed getting to know characters like Blue, Adam, Gansey, Noah, and even Ronan at times.  Even though Ronan scared me, he's still a character that has much more to him and we have yet to see exactly what it is.  Every character had their strengths and weaknesses pointed out in many ways, which gave way to so much detail about them.  And one aspect that I truly enjoyed was, despite all their differences, they all had so much love for one another and showed it earnestly in anyway each one of them knew how.   Even Ronan, who acted like he could care less about anything in the world, showed he cared in his own way.

This could just be my own personal observation, but one thing I noticed in Shiver that I also noticed in The Raven Boys is Maggie Stiefvater's unique style of writing.  I didn't particularly care for it in Shiver, I thought it was odd, but it fit with this novel.  Some authors like to incorporate humor in their writing, and Mrs Stiefvater does but hers is a dry type of humor.  You either get it or you don't, you either think it's funny or it isn't.  I found myself laughing periodically through the book. 

As much detail as there was in the book, there's still so much mystery that has yet to be discovered.  The Raven Boys gave you enough to keep you hooked through the book, but now I'm itching to get my hands on the The Dream Thieves to get one step closer to unlocking the mystery that is The Raven Cycle series.

Might I add, thank you to those book buddies of mine who insisted I read this book!  You were right, The Raven Boys is a great book!

Raven Boys fan signing out,