Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (Spoiler Free)

Title: The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA Fantasy/Paranormal

Number of Pages: 416 pages

My Rating: 5 stars.

“It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is 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 has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, 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 never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.”

My Review:

I’ll start off by saying that this is one of my favorite series of all time. I love everything about it: the mythology, the mystery, and especially the characters. I recently re-read The Raven Boys, as I am marathoning the series so I can finally read Blue Lily, Lily Blue.

I think the best part of this book (and really, the whole series) is the characters. Maggie Stiefvater has managed to make me fall in love with all four of the boys and their different personalities. They are all very different people, yet there’s something about each of them that just tugged at my heartstrings. Aside from the boys, Blue and her family are a riot. When all of the women at Blue’s house are together, it’s basically chaos. They’re all very eccentric, including Blue herself.

As for the story, I’ve never read anything quite like it. Most of the story line is heavily influenced by Welsh mythology, so it’s an interesting break from the usual suspects of paranormal YA (vampires and werewolves). Though the mythology isn’t something that I’m familiar with, I didn’t find it hard to follow at any time. Maggie Stiefvater explains things quite well, in my opinion.

Like I said, this is one of my favorite books (and series) of all time, so it’s pretty obvious what my rating is going to be: 5 stars. It still hasn’t lost it’s magic for me, even after a few re-reads.