Helpful Score: 2
I was really looking forward to a new book from Steifvater. This was an interesting book that is told from numerous POVs. It really isnt any one characters story but a story about a group of people. It was an intriguing read and is full of mystery.
Blue comes from a family of Clairvoyants, but she herself only makes their abilities stronger. That is until she sees the ghost of a boy named Gansey on the road in a cemetery. Blue comes to find that Gansey is one of the rich boys that goes to Aglionby, an all boys private school. Gansey is on a quest to search out ley lines and is accompanied by three other Raven boys. The five teenagers must solve a mystery of murder, ghosts, and mystical energy.
This story is told from five points of view. That of Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Wilkes. Blue, who lives with many clairvoyants, is told that the first boy she kisses will die. She has one rule and that is to never get involved with Raven boys.
Gansey is seeking out Ley lines in hopes of finding something hes missing. His friends are all wrapped up in the mystery and death with him. Ronan is a wild and dangerous boy who has never been the same since his father died. Adam comes from an abusive and poor family and always feels like he is so much less than the other boys, he is constantly trying to prove himself. Noah is Ganseys third friend and he is quiet and drifts in the background.
The last POV we hear from is Wilkes, he is the Latin teacher from Aglionby and has a dark secret that ends up tying in with the mystery the Raven boys and Blue get wrapped up in.
The multiple POVs work well for this story, but make it so the story belongs to all of the characters and not really any one character. The characters are all very well done, they have a lot of depth to them, and you really care about what happens to them. They are all loners in their own way, yet are drawn together by Ganseys quest to search out the ley lines and the truth.
The plot is mostly driven by Ganseys quest, by Blues predicted fate, and by the mystery behind what Wilkes did so long ago. It ends up being a mystery of ley lines, future deaths, and missing people. Some of the most interesting parts of the story are driven by how all of these somewhat flawed characters interact with each other.
The story starts a bit slow but picks up pace towards the end; almost all of Steifvaters books are like this. The story was still engaging and interesting and I enjoyed reading it. The book is well written and the descriptions of settings are beautifully done.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. Its pretty much a paranormal mystery involving future deaths, missing persons, ley lines, and fate. The whole story is well put together and the characters involved are intriguing. I hope in the next book we get to dive deeper into the lives of these characters and learn more about the ley lines. Recommended to those who enjoy a character-driven paranormal mysteries. I cant wait to see what happens next.
Blue comes from a family of Clairvoyants, but she herself only makes their abilities stronger. That is until she sees the ghost of a boy named Gansey on the road in a cemetery. Blue comes to find that Gansey is one of the rich boys that goes to Aglionby, an all boys private school. Gansey is on a quest to search out ley lines and is accompanied by three other Raven boys. The five teenagers must solve a mystery of murder, ghosts, and mystical energy.
This story is told from five points of view. That of Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Wilkes. Blue, who lives with many clairvoyants, is told that the first boy she kisses will die. She has one rule and that is to never get involved with Raven boys.
Gansey is seeking out Ley lines in hopes of finding something hes missing. His friends are all wrapped up in the mystery and death with him. Ronan is a wild and dangerous boy who has never been the same since his father died. Adam comes from an abusive and poor family and always feels like he is so much less than the other boys, he is constantly trying to prove himself. Noah is Ganseys third friend and he is quiet and drifts in the background.
The last POV we hear from is Wilkes, he is the Latin teacher from Aglionby and has a dark secret that ends up tying in with the mystery the Raven boys and Blue get wrapped up in.
The multiple POVs work well for this story, but make it so the story belongs to all of the characters and not really any one character. The characters are all very well done, they have a lot of depth to them, and you really care about what happens to them. They are all loners in their own way, yet are drawn together by Ganseys quest to search out the ley lines and the truth.
The plot is mostly driven by Ganseys quest, by Blues predicted fate, and by the mystery behind what Wilkes did so long ago. It ends up being a mystery of ley lines, future deaths, and missing people. Some of the most interesting parts of the story are driven by how all of these somewhat flawed characters interact with each other.
The story starts a bit slow but picks up pace towards the end; almost all of Steifvaters books are like this. The story was still engaging and interesting and I enjoyed reading it. The book is well written and the descriptions of settings are beautifully done.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. Its pretty much a paranormal mystery involving future deaths, missing persons, ley lines, and fate. The whole story is well put together and the characters involved are intriguing. I hope in the next book we get to dive deeper into the lives of these characters and learn more about the ley lines. Recommended to those who enjoy a character-driven paranormal mysteries. I cant wait to see what happens next.
Helpful Score: 1
I'm always excited when a new book by Maggie Stiefvater comes out, and The Raven Boys was no exception. I held off on reading it though because I knew it's the first book in a trilogy, and I really prefer to read trilogies in one go. My plans to wait for all three books to be available to hold the Raven Boys Readathon were foiled however when Maggie posted on her blog that SYNC was giving away the audiobook as part of their summer program. I got the book and couldn't resist any longer.
As I listened to it I congratulated myself again and again on getting it and Maggie on writing it. She continues to grow as a writer and watching her progress makes me happy, not just because she keeps giving me great books to read, but also because every book is a little bit more than the last one. More mature, more masterful, more complex, more quirky, more "Maggie" somehow.
My favorite thing about The Raven Boys is how multi-faceted it is. There are family relationships, friendships, socio-economical differences, abuse and love, and of course magic to make everything real-life seem surreal yet even more heartbreaking, because that's what fairy tales do. I kept remembering the old adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" throughout the novel and marveled at how nothing really is at it seems in it.
Maggie's books are different from a lot of other YA novels in that her characters' families are always very present in them. There's not the absentee parent syndrome that makes it seem as though the teenagers have somehow woken up one day and all the parents were gone (and yes, I know there are books built around that premise too), and in The Raven Boys that's even more noticeable than in her previous novels. Blue's colorful family is particularly central to the story, and it's interesting to see their dynamics, the struggles over Blue's independence being a new territory for both her and her mother. The boys all have their own family issues to contend with, some more serious than others, but all with painful past, present and, I assume, future. I loved seeing their interactions and hearing characters talk and learn about things that are subtle, yet not less true or important just because they don't stare you in the face.
The only thing I wished for is more mystery when it came to the main plot of this novel. From the very beginning it was obvious that the boys' and Blue's lives would be interwoven and in what context, the villain was apparent almost from the very beginning and he didn't seem evil or clever enough to last past the end of this book, and a few other things that I won't describe here, with two exceptions, were not particularly surprising. This dampened my enjoyment of the novel but not enough to make a real difference because for me this book was more about the characters and the setting than Gansey's quest for Glendower. I could also tell that it was setting up the sequels by establishing all the relationships, building the world, giving us clues of secrets and ideas for what will be coming next in The Dream Thieves. How could it not with that kind of last line!
If you are a fan of urban fantasy, magic, engaging characters and excellent writing, and you haven't read The Raven Boys yet, I recommend that you do. I listened to the audiobook and I'm planning on getting the actual book to read, because I want to see the words on the page and soak them in in a way an audiobook won't allow, no matter how good the narrator.
As I listened to it I congratulated myself again and again on getting it and Maggie on writing it. She continues to grow as a writer and watching her progress makes me happy, not just because she keeps giving me great books to read, but also because every book is a little bit more than the last one. More mature, more masterful, more complex, more quirky, more "Maggie" somehow.
My favorite thing about The Raven Boys is how multi-faceted it is. There are family relationships, friendships, socio-economical differences, abuse and love, and of course magic to make everything real-life seem surreal yet even more heartbreaking, because that's what fairy tales do. I kept remembering the old adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" throughout the novel and marveled at how nothing really is at it seems in it.
Maggie's books are different from a lot of other YA novels in that her characters' families are always very present in them. There's not the absentee parent syndrome that makes it seem as though the teenagers have somehow woken up one day and all the parents were gone (and yes, I know there are books built around that premise too), and in The Raven Boys that's even more noticeable than in her previous novels. Blue's colorful family is particularly central to the story, and it's interesting to see their dynamics, the struggles over Blue's independence being a new territory for both her and her mother. The boys all have their own family issues to contend with, some more serious than others, but all with painful past, present and, I assume, future. I loved seeing their interactions and hearing characters talk and learn about things that are subtle, yet not less true or important just because they don't stare you in the face.
The only thing I wished for is more mystery when it came to the main plot of this novel. From the very beginning it was obvious that the boys' and Blue's lives would be interwoven and in what context, the villain was apparent almost from the very beginning and he didn't seem evil or clever enough to last past the end of this book, and a few other things that I won't describe here, with two exceptions, were not particularly surprising. This dampened my enjoyment of the novel but not enough to make a real difference because for me this book was more about the characters and the setting than Gansey's quest for Glendower. I could also tell that it was setting up the sequels by establishing all the relationships, building the world, giving us clues of secrets and ideas for what will be coming next in The Dream Thieves. How could it not with that kind of last line!
If you are a fan of urban fantasy, magic, engaging characters and excellent writing, and you haven't read The Raven Boys yet, I recommend that you do. I listened to the audiobook and I'm planning on getting the actual book to read, because I want to see the words on the page and soak them in in a way an audiobook won't allow, no matter how good the narrator.
