REVIEW: The Raven Boys by  Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle: The Raven Boys –  Maggie Stiefvater

 

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 Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. 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 told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. 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.

 

I actually avoided reading this book because of what’s written above. It is seriously a very misleading blurb that makes the book sound like it is a romance-driven, reverse harem story about an annoying, oh so special girl whose main concern is whether to kiss a boy or not. So I stayed away despite some very positive reviews.

I finally decided to give this one a try after seeing pictures of people shipping Ronan and Adam and finally noticing that it has a GLBT tag in Goodreads. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it enough to buy the rest of the books although I felt a nagging feeling that something was a little off. I like all the characters. I don’t know why Ronan is so angry but I see him as a punk and I love punks. Gansey’s tendency to unwittingly offend people through unfortunate phrasing is something I also suffer from. Noah is precious and Adam is nice. Blue is a level headed, sensible type who can make her own clothes. And I am so glad nobody’s  forcing the romance angle, nobody got on my nerves,  they can speak Latin, they got their own HQ and the ending is bam!

Now to what’s nagging me about it all. The book reads like a story with British characters but speaking in American English. All that tea, all those eccentricities (especially the women), all those posh private school boys in their uniforms, the woods, the atmosphere, that dead Welsh king, it gave me a British book feel. It’s not necessarily something that detracts from my enjoyment of the book but sometimes I get disoriented and realize that this is all in Virginia.

Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and love 

(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17675462-the-raven-boys)

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