SOCIAL MEDIA

Friday, July 18, 2014

THE RAVEN BOYS (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Source: Gift from friend
Format: Paperback
Pages: 408
Buy it: Amazon|B&N|Book Depository

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






Every year, Blue Sargent stands in the churchyard, next to her mother waiting for the soon-to-be dead to walk by. Usually, only her mother can see the people that will die in the next twelve months, but this year she sees a young boy in an Aglionby sweater come out of the darkness––Gansey.

I am absolutely in love with this book from head to toe. The characters in are all so unique and complex. At first, this book was very confusing to me because there were so many characters introduced all at once and the writing style was very hard to get used to. It took me about 70 pages before I fell into the story and could not stop reading. Blue lives in a house with her mother, her aunts and a few of their friends who are all psychic. The only one who is not is Blue, but she when she is around them, she enhances their abilities. Gansey compares her to "...the table everyone wants at Starbucks...the one next to the wall plug."

credit to tumblr user eitherfearorlove
Then there is Gansey and his eccentric group of friends, Ronan, Adam and Noah, who attend Aglionby all boys private school.

Gansey comes from an extremely wealthy family, but is not your typical rich kid. He has an obsession with the supernatural. His quest is to find Welsh King Owen Glendower, who was supposedly buried under this energy line (ley line) and Gansey's hope is to find him. He tries so hard not to be the politician his family raised him to be because he does not want to be that pretentious ass hole rich kid, but you cannot help but hear the politician in him when he speaks. He speaks so beautifully and with such charm and charisma. Like when he says, My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I’ve come unequipped with the ability to disarm them,” my heart stopped and wondered how a young boy can speak so exquisitely. He is the group leader than everyone adores and will never give up on. Even the way that Blue describes him, "He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people.

Ronan comes off as the bad ass of the group. I kinda pictured him as being Jackson from Teen Wolf. The one who could care less about what you think of him. You see these moments of anger and violence in him, but then you also see these moments of anguish and sorrow from him as well.

Adam is going to Aglionby on scholarship and will not accept any finical help from any of the other boys. All Adam wants to to not be the poor boy anymore. He wants to make a name for himself without anyones help and getting into Aglionby was the first step.

And finally there is Noah who is the watcher who knows the most, but says very little. The slouchy shy one that people seem to forget. I loved the moments with Noah and Blue because he is just to sweet and comforting towards her.

You would not normally put a group of boys like this together, but when you do you get a friendship like no other. There is such a brotherly love between these boys and it makes my heart melt. They all care for each others so much even though they may not have much in common.

I have fallen in love with this series and cannot wait to read more and more. There are quite a few mysteries that will slowly unfold throughout this series and its extremely refreshing to know that yes, this quest for Glendower is the main problem, but there are other little problems to face along the way. I liked the paranormal feel the book had to it. It was very creepy and mysterious and you never knew what was going to happen next.

The one complaint I have is Blue's fashion sense is atrocious. As I read what she was going to wear I could help, but go with "Really? You're stepping out of the house in that?" It's small stupid thing, but other than that I was obsessed with this book while reading it. The sequel The Dream Thieves came out on September 17th, 2013 and I will be posting my review of that very soon. I gave this book 5 our of 5 stars. This paranormal thriller had me on the edge of my seat and left me wanting more.





Let me know what you think!
Lee Chand

Some face claims I made

Blue:













Gansey:













Adam:









Ronan:



















Noah:


7 comments :

  1. The characters sound great. I love the characters you thought of in you mind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ronan is Roy on arrow! lol
    and Gansey is Nate on Gossip girl

    ReplyDelete
  3. Raven Boys sounds interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Then there is Gansey and his eccentric group of friends, Ronan, Adam and Noah, who attend Aglionby all boys private school.: Starts out sounding a bit like Gossip girl until we get to the supernatural!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just recently read this book actually and I do like it for the most part. I feel a real connection with the characters which is what normally makes me fall in love with a book. As much as I love all the characters in this book, there are some parts of the story (major parts) that I cant really seem to connect with. For example the whole Irish foll thing isnt really my thing and so I tended to ignore those parts of the book and focus more on he romantic parts. Anyway I’m hoping to get my hands on book 2 soon!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh I am so reading this book now! Thank you for the recommendation

    ReplyDelete