The Raven Boys
Ratings408
Average rating4
not me who actually ordered and bought all books in the series but ended up only reading this one and giving away all of them lolol. I'm sure the series' great! I mean I enjoyed this one, so why wouldn't I like the others? Anyways
Good characters, but a little hard to get into, since there were so many perspectives, but once I got into it, it read really fast. I really wanted to know what happened on the next page for like half the book.
4.5.
Disfruté mucho este libro, pero tuve algunos problemas con su desenlace.
En cualquier momento leo el que le sigue.
I totally get it now guys lol. This book was awesome! I had so many revelation moments and I loved how everything came together in the end while also opens up for the next adventure. Also wtf Ronan lol
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 :)
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.
I don't know exactly when it happened, but maybe nearly halfway through this, I started caring about these kids.
The story starts off slow, and I didn't really have much that made me want to keep reading it, other than that I had bought it and it's not very lengthy, but then at a certain point, maybe as soon as Blue starts interacting more with the Raven Boys and more of it gets explained, I had trouble putting it down.
I like the story, I like the potential of the story, and I quite like the characters, which are all things I honestly didn't quite expect when I first started reading it. I'm pleasantly surprised. And am now very interested in the rest of the series.
This took me so long to read as I was moving house at the time and just had very little reading time. I did enjoy it although don't feel like I gave it my full attention so was a little confused and missed some details. Will need to reread at some point!
I really struggled to get through the first half... It was slow and seemed pointless,even though I was enjoying the writing. Thankfully things considerably pick up later in the book as the supernatural takes up more and more space. The romance did not bother me, and the gang made me feel like I was a teenager again.
I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. For once, it was worth believing the hype!
OH (RAVEN) BOY(S)
Second read: I was afraid I wouldn't love this book as much as I did four years ago, but I think I loved it even more this time. These books certainly have their flaws, but all those flaws pale in comparison to the soaring, glorious magic and friendships in this series.
second read - 2019 4.5 returning to the magic and strangeness of this world is familiar and fantastical at the same time. spooky month is really upon me with this reread in the works/first read - 2016
I checked this book out from the digital library. I didn't love it, but I liked it enough. I enjoyed the mythology parts the most. I didn't lose interest. And now that I've gotten to the end... I'll need the next book right away.
I Can't believe that it took me two months to finish this book ! i really enjoyed it i dunno why that happened >.<
The Raven boys follows a story of a girl name's Blue , she lives in a psychic family and she's the only normal one between them . since For ever , the psychic family have been telling her that if she kisses her true love , he'll die .
In some day , Neeve , Blue's half Aunt comes to blue's home to stay with the family and tells her : “ This is the year you'll fall in love.” and yup, that's when she meets four of the Raven Boys ! Adam , Ronan ,Gansy and Noah , and the story takes off from here.
I Loved the Atmosphere of this book , it was full of creepiness and spookiness . i also loved the relationship between Blue and the boys , they were too cute , even though they didn't always get along with each other , you get the feeling that they care .
What i didn't like about this book was Blue and Adam's relationship, blue met Adam when she knew that Gansy (His friend) was the boy she saw in St. Mark's Eve ! she could have avoided him at least for a short amount of time , she knew that if Gansy was really her true love she'd hurt Adam sooner or later , so why she agreed to go out with him and stuff. i feel sorry for him already :/ . hope something happy will happen to all of them in the following books !I Didn't really decide if i'm team Gansy or team Adam yet lol :p but i kinda like Gansy more cuz of the fact that it could be written , that he is Blue's true love. other than that i really like Adam , he's so sweet and smart and a very caring person , i see why Blue liked him .
Can't wait to read the rest of this series !! :D
Una maravilla, es que no quiero decir nada del libro. Me ha gustado muchísimo. No me esperaba que me gustase tanto. Y tengo ganas de seguir con la aventura de los chicos del cuervo... Y mi queridísima Blue.
At its heart, The Raven Boys is about five high school students who are searching for the long lost tomb of an ancient Welsh king. There's a lot that happens around this goal, but that's to be expected from a series that is 100% character driven instead of plot driven.
One thing that really pains me about this series is that it's marketed so heavily as a YA paranormal romance. While this series has each of these individual elements, there is just SO MUCH MORE that sets it apart from other books in this subgenre (and other books in general). The blurb for the first book, The Raven Boys, focuses almost entirely on two characters. The series really has four or five main characters, and all of them are pretty much equally important to the story and compelling as a reader.
Most of the story takes place in Henrietta, Virginia, a rural town with an expensive private high school. There's no vampires or werewolves, so the story almost feels like it could happen in real life. The way magic is handled almost makes me want to label the series as magic realism, though I'm pretty sure it's actually closer to mythic fantasy. There's an air of mystique that makes the magic feel, well, magical, but you always have a pretty good idea of what is and isn't possible. This gives the series a grounded feel.
Maggie Stiefvater has pretty much mastered the art of show vs. tell. The characters quickly immerse you in the story and behave as if they are real, complex people. You find that you have a pretty good idea how most characters will react before they do, not because they are predictable but because you feel like you know them as real human beings. The main characters also encompass many of the key struggles teens go through. Issues like gender, sexuality, money, abuse, love, grades, extra jobs, and a desire to make a difference in the world are all important to the series.
Honestly, this is the weakest element of the series. The plot is always moving forward, but at times its progression is so subtle you don't realize it. This is not a fast-paced, action-packed series. The drive to keep reading comes from the characters and the slowly unfolding mystery. When I finished the first book, the plot almost made me leave the series. I loved everything about the first book, but it was slow. I'm glad I stuck with it (and book 2 has drag racing, so yeah). One thing I noticed is that the “forbidden romance” trope is not so much a plot as it is an added complexity in the relationship between two characters.
The pacing for this series is a bit slow, especially in the first book. I almost didn't continue the series, but I am so incredibly glad that I did.
One of the best parts of Maggie Stiefvater's writing is her prose. I don't mean purple prose or long-winded descriptions. Stiefvater consistently drops line after memorable line that leaves you thinking long after you hear them.
If you like thoughtfully written characters, slowly unfolding mysteries, and realistic romance, you might love this series. Plus, there's some really cool stuff along the way, like talking trees, time travel, and dragons. There's also a TV series in the works!
On the other hand, these books can be slow. The characters steal the show, but that happens at the expense of plot and pacing. If this is a deal-breaker for you, you might want to avoid this series.
If you enjoy audiobooks, I can't recommend this series enough. Will Patton has an incredible voice and masters the art of making each POV instantly recognizable, even without dialogue. Plus, the author even composed and performed original music for the series.
Slightly creepy, but really interesting. Keeps you on your toes. Had a great ending, and was very well written. Lots of questions to be answered in the upcoming books.
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.
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.
The writing is a bit awkward in places, but once the plot picks up, the slow burn becomes worth it. Recommended to urban fantasy fans who want something more substantial than ‘elves in the subway'. The book has a social conscience, which adds incredibly to its favor; it never forgets that it's primarily concerned with affluent men, which makes the fact that it's primarily concerned with affluent men far, far more tolerable than it would be otherwise.