Opal

The Raven Boys ???????????????
The Dream Thieves ???????????????
Blue Lily, Lily Blue ???????????????
The Raven King ???????????????
Opal ???????????????

I really passionately feel like the Raven Cycle cannot be read as individual books, as each book heavily relies on the other in the series to build a full picture of characters and plot. By the time I finished the first book I felt like I'd received an in depth explanation of the characters, but absolutely no idea about the plot besides we are hunting a dead Welsh king. The second book built up the basis of the plot, and then the third and fourth book delivered heavily in both plot and character. If you were to read part of the way through the series it would feel unsatisfying, but the climax of all four books is intense.

That said, Opal is a novella set after all four books in the series. Which means it both benefits and is hurt by the previous series. At the end of the series I felt like I had been given too little face time with my favourite characters (Adam, Ronan, Chainsaw and Opal) and this novella did a great job of giving me more of their relationships between each other.

I rated it lower than the full length novels and the series as a whole because it was lacking the emotional payoff that the whole series had given me. I wasn't really expecting it at the beginning of the book as the audiobook was so short, but found by the time I had finished I missed it a lot more than I expected. Obviously, Call Down the Hawk is coming out soon and is going to ruin my emotions in the best way possible.