Title: The Raven Boys
(The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
First published: September 1st 2012
Finished reading: December 21st 2015
Pages: 416
The fact was, by the time she got to high school, being weird and proud of it was an asset. Suddenly cool, Blue could’ve happily had any number of friends. And she had tried. But the problem with being weird was that everyone else was ‘normal’.
I have wanted to start The Raven Cycle for a long time now, but after not really enjoying The Wolves Of Mercy Falls I somehow held back. Such a shame, because I actually liked The Raven Boys a lot better! I’m not fangirling all over the place like a lot of people, but I cannot deny it’s a more than solid read and very entertaining. The biggest problem I had would probably be the love triangle, but it seems that those are hard to escape anyway when you want to read a YA novel… But still, whenever they appear it’s quite annoying. The prose was really easy to read though and the characters are quite likeable; my favorite would probably be Blue and not only for her name. I love quirky and strong main characters! And the only reason it took me so long to actually finish this novel by Maggie Stiefvater is that I didn’t really have a lot of free time to read at the time I read it… Because I really enjoyed The Raven Boys and I will definitely try to read the sequel soon. Recommended!
It is tradition that Blue goes along with her mother to the churchyard every year as the soon-to-be-dead walk past. Blue doesn’t exactly has powers herself, but her clairvoyant mother can see them. This year, things are different though when a boy shows himself to Blue and speaks directly to her… For years, every paranormally gifted person has predicted that when Blue shares a kiss with her true love, he will die. And now everybody at Blue’s house thinks the poor boy will be her victim. Blue doesn’t believe it, because she would never hang out with a ‘raven boy’, a student at the local private school Aglionby, in the first place because they always mean trouble. But somehow she meets a few raven boys anyway while she is working and things soon start to change… And Blue is suddenly having a hard time keeping up with her promise to stay away from boys.
I still want to hit my head for not reading this series first, because I liked The Raven Boys a lot better than Shiver and its sequels. The characters are better developed and I liked the overall story better as well. Sure, the love triangle was a minor setback, but the whole mystery/paranormal element really made up for it. It’s a very entertaining read and I will be looking forward to the sequel!
