The Raven Boys

This story set the stage for a very different kind of supernatural YA tale. There are no vampires, fairies or werewolves. The main character is the one without any special gift and she meets up with a group of school boys on the hunt for an ancient king. There are psychics and magic but all told in a very different sort of story.

Maggie Stiefvater is going to be at MY LOCAL BOOKSTORE THIS WEEKEND!! So I thought it warrented a re-read and maybe final completion of the entire Raven Cycle. :D
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I know I'm a little late on the bandwagon for this one. However, I couldn't resist starting the series after seeing all the Instagram hype over the last book coming out a few months ago, so here we are! I was very reticent about starting this series. I absolutely loved the idea of it – set in Virginia, Arthurian legend mixed with modern-day paganism, characters with...issues. However, the YA trappings worried me, as I couldn't help but think that the idea could very well be ruined by trying to force it into a YA style writing and or setting.

The opening of The Raven Boys (2012, Maggie Stiefvater) drops you right into a world that, at first, I wasn't entirely sure I was familiar with. 16-year-old Blue Sargent has grown up in a household where clairvoyance is taken for granted and psychic abilities accepted as normal. The rest of the world though, isn't so sure – the modern day Virginia depicted is quite typical of the current America, complete with attitudes toward spirituality outside the realm of mainstream Christianity. Blue is the only one of the family to not be gifted some type of clairvoyance herself, but she is still incredibly perceptive and intelligent as a person. She definitely marches to the tune of her own drum, regardless.

She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.

Hello and welcome to the first installment of a new review series I'm calling “Retrying Books That I Didn't Give A Fair Chance To In My Youth (Because I Was Influenced By The Bandwagons Of Their Time, Or Simply Because I Was A Stupid Teen).” Today's review is on Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, which I had previously DNF'ed at 30% in 2018. I decided to try this again with OwlCrate's The Nest community for their The Raven Boys read-along. It's a great community and you should check it out if you're into books!

I feel scammed. But I'm not entirely upset about it?

When I read the blurb of this book, I thought that this would be a young adult fantasy romance about a girl who can't kiss her true love, featuring plenty of angst and mutual pining galore with magic/supernatural elements. What I got? A borderline educational story about said girl, boy, and some friends of this boy going on a supernatural adventure to find some dude named Glendower and ley lines with maybe a teeny tiny smidge of romance.

And here's the thing- I liked this. Not as much as I probably would've if this book had been anything like I thought it would be, but I still enjoyed this. Now, onto the meat of the review...

To start with the characters, I found it strange how much I can relate to Blue. We almost have the same mom, they're so similar in both their actions and behaviors. I could definitely relate with her on the absent dad thing (lol) as well. My family's also super spiritual like the Sargents, so I wasn't new to the psychic elements in this book. This was definitely my favorite parts of this story.

Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah reminded me way too much of the Marauders from the Harry Potter series. Their personalities and physical appearances are very similar; Gansey is like James, Ronan is like Sirius, Adam is like Remus, and Noah is like Peter (minus all the betrayal... stuff)- there's even a confusing plot twist where Noah turns out to be a ghost kinda like the plot twist were Peter turns out to be Scabbers. Hell, even Ronan has a brother he has beef with just like Sirius and Regulus. Blue isn't much like Lily outside of being Gansey's love interest, but everything else is too similar to consider as a coincidence. If you had told me this was originally written as a Marauders fanfiction, I would believe you.

All of this aside, these characters weren't very well characterized. For example, I found myself frequently wondering whether these Raven Boys were high schoolers or college-age kids because Stiefvater never made it clear within her character's actions. These characters are somewhat barebones, given a small hint of personality and prematurely pushed to the stage similar to the Thirteenth Doctor's companions from Doctor Who. It was almost as if Stiefvater was trying to be mysterious but just ended up being confusing.

Plot-wise this was very slow- not as slow as I remember when I originally DNFed this, but not as fast-paced as I usually like when I read a book. The plot was set up in the first three-ish chapters, then the story didn't really pick up until a bit over the halfway point for me. Everything between that was just filler that I managed to push through.

My main problem with this book, though, is Stiefvater's writing style. It's comparable to Holly Black and Alex Aster's writing styles (or so I've heard for the latter). For example, “April days in Henrietta were fair, tender things,” “Mornings at 300 Fox Way were fearful, jumbled things,” and “Robert Parrish was a big thing” are comparable to quotes I've seen tossed around from Lightlark- quotes that were quite the opposite of praised.

I also found the dialogue pretty confusing at times, considering the dialogue practically carried this story. One of the raven boys would say something, and another would reply with something completely confusing, complex, and/or off topic that didn't make sense. I found myself more and more confused over these scenes but trying to ignore them as I continued. I think this adds to the case of Stiefvater trying and miserably failing at being mysterious. Overall, the writing of this book is very poor quality in my opinion, but it's definitely not the worst I've seen. Though it's much worse when you realize this is far from the first book she's ever written.

In the end, this was an okay book. When reading this, if I was not bored I was confused, and vice versa. I believe I would've been less bored if this had focused more on romance than the adventure and if the pacing issues were fixed. Or maybe if it had been advertised as what it actually is, I may have entered with a different mindset and not have been so thrown off. Yet somehow this was still enjoyable overall despite feeling scammed by that description, and I do want to continue on with The Dream Thieves. 3 out of 5 stars.

3,5/5

Начинала читать на английском и кажется из-за этого почувствовала магию, о которой все говорят. Язык Стивотер чудесен, метафоричен и временами саркастичен. В русском же остроумие и атмосфера абсолютно исчезают, открывая глаза на проблемы истории.

А именно слабый сюжет и удобные совпадения. Понимаю, что жанр мистический, но это не должно быть оправданием. Персонажи просто перемещаются из локации в локацию, получают маленькие кусочки информации и больше ничего не делают. Автор через главного злодея - пустышку, связанного с прошлым еще одного персонажа, - подталкивает их к действию, но только в последних главах. В них же персонажам начинает дико вести без всяких усилий - Ронан сдает экзамен, Адам съезжает от родителей, Пуп (господи, что за имя) сам умирает.

Возможно, в этом виновата завязка сюжета - Ганси всю жизнь ищет то, не зная что, а на Блу висит “проклятье”, связанное с любовью. И ничего из этого не выстреливает в первой книге. Зато есть надоевший троп как бедная девочка встречает группу элитных мальчиков и они внезапно начинают дружить. Серьезно, внезапно - Ганси хотел получить предсказание от ее мамы, а Адам кажется влюбился в ее внешность. Еще внезапно всплывает ирландская мифология, с которой этот клубок прочно запутывается.

Сама себе не могу объяснить ЧТО такого в этой книге меня зацепило. Я не люблю такой медленный темп, но именно будничные главы были моими любимыми. Может это то самое глупое желание оказаться вместе с этими персонажами?
Моя любовь - это Адам. Небогатый парень, пробившийся в элитную школу, пропадающий на трех работах, с семейными проблемами, принципиальный и верный.
Еще есть эксцентричная Блу. Ее семья - потомственные ясновидящие, никакого мошенничества. Но ей достался другой, незаметный дар - увеличивать силы других. Нравится, как она не боится быть собой. За ее тетушками также интересно следить. Хотя по началу мне так не казалось.
Ронан показан типичным бэд боем с добрым сердцем, в кожанке и с желанием почесать кулаки, но пока он для меня вообще не раскрылся. Знаю, что про него есть отдельные продолжения, и очень надеюсь, что мне зайдет, потому что связано это с моей любимой способностью - сны!
Ганси - с большими амбициями и большим кошельком, но хрупкий внутри. Он неназванный лидер их небольшой компании, потому что с него все и началось - поиск Глендовера, его даров.

Удивительно, как в книге может быть столько моих “нет”, но все равно мне понравится. Возможно, на следующей части мои глаза раскроются. Но пока я хочу получить еще этой магической атмосферы и дружбы странных ребят. С вороненком!

just had such a hard time getting into this book. Although this book was good, I expected a lot more from it. I had such high expectations and it fell very flat for me. It was hard to follow a lot of the times and the magic was so imprecise and unexplained it confused me more than intrigued me. I did thoroughly enjoy all the characters though. I'm hoping I like the next one more.

I tried to listen to the audiobook of The Raven Boys. But I just could not get into it. IDK if it is just because I wasnt fully paying attention (I usually listen to audiobooks while I craft) but it just didn't keep my attention, and I had to keep rewinding. Its has such good reviews that I know I will give it another shot, but I just need to actually read it. So for now, it is DNF and back onto the TBR. :(

Es un no, puedo entender porque a tanta gente le gusta pero personalmente se me hizo eterno y casi que no acabo con el. Debo decir que si le cogí cariño a tres personajes Blue y Ronan me cayeron bien, pero Noah me terminó por matar con lo poco que salió.
¿Lo recomiendo? No sé, creo que no es para todos, en especial si no es alguien que le guste tanto monólogo interno, que de eso sí había de sobra, pero tiene una trama bueno e interesante en cierto sentido pero eso sí la historia avanza lentamente.