The Raven Boys

i'm reading this for the first time as a 27 year old and i thought i'd be too ‘old' for this, especially considering the odd boyband deviantart esque cover on my library copy. but age be damned, i still had my smiling face buried in my hands when blue received her flowers. i enjoyed it! the second half was a lot more exciting than the first, though i wasn't bored in the first half, i liked the setting up of the story even if it was a tad slow.
i accidentally guessed the ‘twist' without realising it. i was musing about how 60% into the book, noah - one of the main four boys had only appeared in the doorway of two scenes looming like a ghost - it never actually occurring to me that he WAS a ghost. i thought that was a nice touch, and i'm glad he came back at the end. i was grinning like an idiot when they all ran out of the church. it would have been sad to lose him. though i'm not sure what adam ended up sacrificing, if he walked out the ritual apparently unharmed. perhaps this will be attended to in further books.
i'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the rest of the books and i've grown fond of the characters. - wtf was that last line about!

This one is hard for me to rate. For the first 200 pages or so, it was just a really weird story, with characters that seemed unrealistic and a world that was ours but with enough supernatural elements to make it impossible. A bunch of high school children believing in a buried Welsh king in Virginia and the magical ley lines of energy that would lead to him seemed too far-fetched and it was difficult for me to get into it, though I kept reading because I was determined to finish when so many of my friends had enjoyed the book. After page 200 though, the action finally started picking up and with the revelation of Noah's backstory, I was finally invested and enjoyed finishing the final 100 or so pages. It was a solid 3 stars up until that and then I wavered between 3 and 4. The writing is good enough to keep the reader engaged but, like I said, some of the characterisations of these supposed children are too unrealistic - especially Gansey. I just can't imagine a 17 year old, ridiculously rich or not, being obsessed with medieval legends and asserting himself as a father figure to his friends. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel because it focuses more on Ronan and his family.

I read this whole 400 ish page masterpiece of artwork in 2 days flat out. I'M SCREAMING WITH DELIGHT !!!!!!!!!! NEW FAVOURITE SERIES EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD OF BOOKS OF EVER .
uhm , excuse me .


RONAN LYNCH YOU BEAUTIFUL MYSTERIOUS RICH BABY THAT KEEPS A RAVEN, while being a raven boy who has troubles,,, they alll do ??? I DO for gods sakes . (FAVOURITE BOY)

(DICK)gansey ,,, i couldn't tell you how beautiful gansey is actual English so here's my thoughts ( not in English , gansey doesn't deserve that , precious beautiful unicorn .) :
HIS NAME IS GANSEY
HE LOVES WELSH THINGS
HIS FIRST NAME IS DICK + HE LOVES ADAM (they're probs all gays , so same here boys )
THE WAY HE TALKS about blue
HIS HAIR
HIS GLASSES
HIS USE OF LANGUAGES
HE GOES TO AGLIONBY(?maybe misspelt) FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ( i am while staring at the book right now)
#1PRESIDENTMOBILEPHONETRASH .
HE HAS INSOMNIA ( SAME ! *high fives into next week *)
( BASCIALLY EVRYTHING THAT MAKES UP THE HUMAN THAT IS GANSEY )

ADAM PARRISH ,,, god ,, he is such a pure angel who needs to be hugged 24/7 and im up for the position , and available sign me up . HES SO TROUBLED. They all are , we all have problems . I HAVE NO WORDS FOR MY LOVE OF ADAM , he really admires GAnSEy a lot , so d o I , (FAVOURITE BOY)

NOAH CZERNY - gansey can't say his name . niether can i ?? Don't fret , I love the dude though . so silent yet deadly . my type . (FAV LIL BEAN )

oh and of course , Blue ,,, wow ,,, you go girl defying your mum to go see your freinds and beliving in magic and wearing what you want !!!!! beauty.

SO :
I LOVE MY RAVEN BOYS ( sorry blue .. )
NOAH IS PRETTY CUTE
I WANNA GO ON QUESTS WITH FREINDS ( hit me up peoples , i don't bite )
RONAN IS SO PRETTY
THEYRE GAYYYY ( my fav type aye )
can we just sit and admire CHainsaw ?? ( favourite animal )


STILL speechless , forever listening to trees talk to me now ( thanks to Lynch)
Love , Bookishwolf :)

I'm kind of mad at myself for putting off reading Stiefvater for so long. I've had [b:Shiver 6068551 Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) Maggie Stiefvater http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328839272s/6068551.jpg 6244926] sitting on my bookshelf for close to a year, but never got around to it. I only picked up The Raven Boys because it was available at the library when another book I wanted wasn't. I had been hunting for a certain atmosphere for the fall months. Something ghostly and witchy. I had no idea that The Raven Boys was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, it just kind of happened that way.I love the way Stiefvater writes, and am incredibly jealous. Her writing is smart and new and evocative all at once. I was trying to leaf through it to find some of my favorite lines, and pretty much the whole first part of the book is packed with gorgeous prose. The best parts are the introductions to the characters. “Ronan and Declan Lynch were undeniably brothers, with the same dark brown hair and sharp nose, but Declan was solid where Ronan was brittle. Declan's wide jaw and smile said, Vote for me while Ronan's buzzed head and thin mouth warned that this species was poisonous.”Admittedly, Ronan gets some of the best ones. He's easily the most dramatic of characters, and while we never get his point of view, he's on the cover of [b:The Dream Thieves 17347389 The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2) Maggie Stiefvater http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1367060081s/17347389.jpg 21598446] (and I have this image in my head of Chainsaw, his pet raven, all grown up and landing on his shoulder in a flourish of wind and black feathers. Real and unreal), so we have a lot to look forward to.Stiefvater is that kind of YA writer who gets young people so well that she goes slightly beyond their feasibility. I knew exactly what she was talking about when she references Blue's vanity, how she carefully cultivates her weirdness, because I did something similar as a young person, but I was certainly not that aware of it. Her characters are so dynamic, so vividly drawn, and they feel so real that it's like they're sitting next to you, but at same time you wonder, in what awful universe would these people find each other? It's real and unreal, the way fiction should be, in my opinion.This story moves in a strange way. It's not slow, and it's not fast, but at one point I realized that I was more than half way through the book and not sure how I got there, because I had no idea where it was going. While the motivations of the characters were clear, the major conflict was not. It wasn't even clear where the major antagonist was going to come from, if there was one at all. Would it be something supernatural? Something human? Is Cabeswater, the magical forest place they find on the ley line, something to be feared or protected? The book spends so much time contemplating what's going to happen between Blue and Gansey and they're supposed destiny, that the boy that actually is the most pivotal to the story goes mostly unnoticed until the very end. It's a strange unpredictable story and I really really liked it.The atmosphere is delicious. You can feel the magic dripping off the page, and the mystery is like chilly little fingers running up your spine when you least expect it. When you think you've got a hold of it, it twists and squirms out of your hands (Ronan! Ronaaaaan!), and proves you're as good as Jon Snow. And I want more.

MUY bueno. No me recorría esta emoción por el cuerpo desde que lei Cazadores de Sombras en el 2014. Cada uno de los personajes esta creado de una forma majestuosa, todos tienen una razón de ser y una explicación de por que actúan como lo hacen.
La relacion entre ellos es excelente. No podia dejar de leer simplemente por la curiosidad de saber como iban a seguir interactuando.
No solo eso, sino que el libro es re fácil de leer. Los capítulos están escritos 1000/10. No puedo ni describir lo mucho que disfrute leer este libro. No puedo esperar a leer el siguiente.

3.5 Stars
Everyone absolutely loves this book and is always talking about the amazing characters and the writing. As such, I went into this book with extremely high expectations. I honestly think this slightly dampened my enjoyment. I still really enjoyed this book, but I was slightly disappointed. I was expecting a thrilling amazingly written story with so many details and plot intricacies . In many ways this book lived up to that. But I also found the plot to drag in the middle and I definitely did not enjoy the middle 1/3 of the book as much as the first and last third. However, I am still highly invested in this series and eager to pick up the second book.

By far the strongest part of this book is its characters. These characters are unique and each on has their own peculiarities that add to the story. I absolutely loved the snarky, sassiness to the characters. The Raven Boys (Gansey, Adam, Noah, and Ronan) are this tight-nit group that Blue just easily fits into. The friendship between this group is one of my favorite aspects of this book. They each have their issues that they are dealing with, but still somehow come together over the quest of ley lines and their meaning. The other cast of characters that added to this unique group was the aunts and family of Blue. They were so quirky and constantly predicting things and giving “advice” and I loved it. I think if I had to actually deal with it like Blue does, I would absolutely hate it, but I loved reading about it.

As for my “issue” with this book and I use that word loosely. This book definitely dragged as I have said. But luckily it did pick back up. I think the main reason I struggled with this book is solely do to it being overhyped for me. I have not had this issue before, but I think it did play a role in my ability to fall in love with this book the way others have. That being said, I did still thoroughly enjoy the book and cannot wait to continue.

Finally, this book left me with so many questions. There is so much more I want to know. Whether it is more about Blue's fate, the ley lines, the Raven King, or even more about the Raven Boys.

despite all the spoilers i saw, i really didn't see that coming

i was very hesitant to read another YA novel, but this was pleasantly surprising and i'm glad i listened to all of the hype around this. i don't feel like the world was super well-developed, so it was nice to find out that there are three more books in the series. i'm actually quite interested in continuing!

This book hadn't really been on my radar but I am so glad to have read it.

When I saw that there was a prestigious academy for boys I did a little internal groan because usually that is not my cup of tea. I enjoyed that there was definite ways that class bubbled into their lives with Gansey and Adam being the best examples. It was not just a tale of boys doing things with enormous amounts of disposable income - although that did happen once or twice. My girl Blue also recognized from a young age that she was different but I did not see her fall into the ~not like othER girLS~ trap that sometimes happens.

Look, I already know we have a love triangle coming our way and I've braced for impact on that one. However at some points of this book I was like... is this meant to be queer? Is this how I'm supposed to interpret this exchange?

Can't wait to read the next one!

Ever since she was a little girl there has been a prophecy about Blue Sargent, if she kisses her true love he will die, and this prophecy has been around for so much of her life that Blue has grown quite used to it, at times believing it and at other times thinking it's a trick from her clairvoyant mother to keep Blue from kissing any boys. Then one night on St. Mark's Eve in a church yard Blue sees a spirit of a boy who will die within the year. But Blue isn't a seer and the only explanations for her seeing a soon-to-be-spirit is: one, he is Blue's true love or two, she is the one that will kill him. Blue has never met the boy however and all she knows about him is that he is a student from Aglionby, a Raven Boy, and that his name is Gansey.

Gansey is a boy on a quest, sort of like Indiana Jones but with less bad guys to beat up and tombs to raid, though, he is looking for a tomb. For many years Gansey has been searching for Glendower, an old Welsh king, why? I'd tell you but then that would spoil you. Aiding Gansey in his quest are his three closest friends Noah, a shy boy who barely speaks and does less of everything else, Ronan an angry boy with a broken past who seems to want to destroy his future, and Adam who tries his best in school and has multiple jobs so that he can truly be free and never have to depend on or belong to anyone.

The Raven Boys is a story filled with ley lines, magic, and old Welsh mythology and it is a story about friendship, complex characters and their complex relationships. And although The Raven Boys focuses very much on the plot of Gansey's quest, the story also equally focuses on the lives of the characters, not only their back stories but their goals and motivations, their personal lives and their starkly different personalities that seem to mesh perfectly even though logic says they shouldn't.

When it comes to her writing Maggie Stiefvater has a very subtle style where she will say a lot but with very little words making almost every word you read vital. I like this because it kept me focus on what I was reading and kept my mind whirring as I worked out what a character was doing or not doing. I also had to be careful though because when I got caught up in a scene I would need to slow down, re-read it and make sure I understood what just took place, which I didn't mind because I loved reading this book.

In my opinion this is Maggie's best novel yet, not only is her writing wonderful but the story is unique and the characters intriguing. I've heard there will be four books total in The Raven Cycle series and I know it's going to be torture waiting for each one of them.

WOW.

This series has been in my TBR for the longest time and now that I've finally picked it up I am so annoyed that I hadn't sooner.

There's something so immersive and special about this book. The characters, the plot, the world building... Everything about this book is just perfection and I can't begin to express how excited I am to read the rest of the series.

Blue is so special to me and I cant wait to read more about her. I am still trying to fathom how this is my first time reading this series and just from the first book, I love all of these characters.

I can already tell that this is going to become a comfort series for me.

First five star read of the year. We are so back

I can't say that I didn't like this book, but I didn't love it either. It was enjoyable, but it took me more than the first half of the book to finally understand what was going on and things are still a little bit blurry. All I can say is that this book was weird. Right now I don't even know if I want to continue reading this series, but I do want to give it a chance, maybe it gets better.

Freaking fantastic. This story had me hooked and emotional all over the place. Blue is a fantastic white room character and every other character was so interesting and full of nuance. I loved how certain things are just plunked down on the table and only later on do you find out just how baldly stated they'd been.

And I love a good finish and this one... the last sentence was such a great teaser. Can't wait to listen to the next one.

Speaking of listening, I normally hate Will Patton's accent when I see him in movies. And it irritated me for the first few hours, but he does really great character voices, so I forgive him. Ha.