The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal Fantasy, Fiction. 

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Year: 2012

Ranking: 4 / 5

  

Synopsis

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, 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 Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

The Author

Stiefvater was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After being home-schooled from sixth grade on, Maggie Stiefvater attended Mary Washington College, graduating with a B.A. in history. After graduating, she worked as a portrait artist, specializing in equestrian art, which is collected internationally. At 16, she legally changed her first name from Heidi to Margaret.

Stiefvater published her first novel, Lament in 2008. Before Lament had been released, she sold the rights to Ballad, the sequel to Lament, and to Shiver. Shiver was embraced by independent booksellers and overseas publishers. The Shiver Trilogy spent more than 40 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Personal Experience with This Book

I read this book in only 4 days. Although it does not sounds like a very small number, for me it is because I have little time to read lately.

At first, the plot of the book seemed too strange. I could not understand or get into this world. I begin to see a pattern in Maggie’s books of unusual stories that are difficult to understand at first glance but at the same time in the midst of all this weirdness has something that captivates.

As the story progresses the reader will tucking into this world and it begins to make sense of what "the raven boys" seek. Everything comes into place and each character has its own story. This is another thing I noticed when reading books of this author; she has an excellent way to write her characters. She can make them so real your heart will feel for them.

My favorite of the 4 guys so far is Noah. This guy is the world's cutest little thing. I am in love with him, in a no romantic sense. Noah gives the feeling that must be protected at all costs. You want to take care of him and lock him in a glass bubble so that nothing bad happens to him. Gansey, the group leader, is more like that worrywart mother. He has a giant heart and this is what sometimes makes it somewhat annoying for his friends. He is always getting into personal things only because he cares for them, even though they have not asked for help. Adam will be a problem in the future. Adam is a boy who has many virtues but its biggest flaw is his great pride. I just hope that does not lead to something bad. Finally, Ronan, who has many problems. He is the guy who is typically lost. He has experiment so many bad things in his life that, he finds life has no meaning and so he does not worry about how to live it. He is the most reluctant to Blue of all the boys.

Blue meanwhile is a girl that inspires a lot. I liked her attitude, her desire to investigate, to get out of that situation in which she is located. She wants to see for herself what they have told her all her life and wants to prove that even without powers she can get to do much more with her life that helping strengthen her mother’s power. Her relationship with Gansey is quite slow. I think this makes the romance more interesting because it is not the kind of romance you can see in young adults novels, very slow. Blue builds a bond with these guys that moves. It is amazing how she adheres to this group and becomes part of it in the way they complement each other.

Now I just have to see where the story goes. The characters, I am in love already and I have only read a book, so I still have to see If I will fall in love with the story as well. The paranormal atmosphere is something that I personally do not read much but from what I have seen of this book, it looks good. Let us see how it goes. At the end of this book, we have the indication that the next in the next book we will getting to know Ronan more, which intrigues me.