The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater – Review

Title: The Raven Boys
Series Name: The Raven Cycle
Book Number: 1st book in series
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Paranormal
Publication Date: September 18th, 2012
Pages: 454
Publishers: Scholastic
Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis:

“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.

When I picked up this book I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I had seen it recommended tonnes on BookTube but never seen a review or anything that told me what it actually was.
As I was reading the iBook version I couldn’t even flip it over and read the blurb, I was going in blind.

When I first started reading this book I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it. Oh, how wrong I was.

May contain some SPOILERS!! Continue at your own risk.

I absolutely loved this book and I am so keen to purchase the rest of the series!

Firstly I loved that the chapters switched between the characters. Unlike some books, it didn’t have the name of what character we were following on the top of the page, but it was always clear within the first line or paragraph who we were following in that Chapter.

I liked how even though this book was about the paranormal, each of the characters was still relatable. Blue who wasn’t physic like the rest of her family, Adam with an abusive father, Ronan with his father being dead and his brother and himself hating each other and fighting all the time, Gansey just trying to look out for the other boys but still not knowing if the boys actually like him and Noahs definitely that one quiet friend.

Even though I haven’t read that many paranormal books or know much about things like the ley lines, after this book I know what they are and I am not confused in the slightest. The writer made it so easy for an outsider to understand what they were trying to do, what things were and what was going on. Which some books lack and you come out more confused than when you started.

I’ll talk a little bit about each character, but only about when we first meet them, so hopefully there won’t be too many spoilers.

Firstly, Blue Sargent, so literally the first line of the Prologue tells us that she has been told that she will kill her true love. So at first I was thinking, please tell me this isn’t going to be some love/tragedy novel. We soon find out that unlike her other family members Blue missed the Physic gene somehow. however, she does still help by making the energy stronger for her mother and friends when they are using their physic abilities.

Then we kinda meet Gansey (Richard Campbell Gansey III) in spirit when Blue and Neeve (Another Physic friend of her Mothers) visit an old church on St. Marks Day. When blue sees a spirit for the first time is when she realises that this is the boy that she is meant to cause the death of.
When we actually meet Gansey, even though at the time we don’t know who he is, he has a bit of a disagreement with Blue. He is wearing an Aglionby sweater so blue thinks she knows what type of person he and his 3 friends are and stays away from them.

Adam Parrish, we meet at the same time as Gansey, as he is the reason that Gansey was even talking to Blue, to find out if she would be interested in Adam. Blue quickly discovers that Adam is not the typical Aglionby boy and she is a lot easier on him that she was with Gansey the first time.

Ronan Lynch , we first see as Gansey’s housemate and friend who rescues Gansey from the side of the road when is Camaro breaks down. We find out early that Ronan is also interested in the Paranormal the same as Gansey and Adam are.

Noah we meet and he just seems that Quiet friend. There wasn’t much to know about him at the start.

Early in we also meet Ronan’s brother Declan who you soon find out Ronan does not get along with.

We also meet Barrington Whelk who is the Latin teacher at Aglionby and teaches Adam, Gansey and Ronan. When we first met Whelk I thought there was something weird about him and didn’t like him from the start.

I love how the characters grow and bond in this book. I also enjoyed the story and the major twists and turns that you discover in the book. It was thrilling and also a very interesting read.

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I do recommend this book and hopefully, I will be purchasing the whole series very soon!

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