Wednesday 1 April 2015

Book Review - The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Boys #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 19th September 2012
Publishers: Scholastic
No. Pages: 454
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey's spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why – either he is her true love or she has killed him.

Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower – a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour.

Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can’t imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them?

I believe I may have found the book that leaves me lost for words - it's not to say that this book blew me away, as it didn't, it's to say that because of the complexity that is this book and I dare say, the entire series, it would be nigh on impossible to find the right words to review this book with. The Raven Boys, to me, is a complete oxymoron in a number ways, from it's pacing to it's characters, but I shall say this, there is no writing more beautiful, more fluid, more comforting than Stiefvater's, and for that, this woman is already a genius.

The Raven Boys is already unique when it comes to books I've read because it took me around two and a half weeks to read from start to finish. Once again, that's not down to the novel having a lot of depth, which it does indeed have, but because I feel my expectations were too high and the beginning itself was a little, slow, and groggy. This could be because it'd been a while since I'd read anything else by Stiefvater, but I doubt that's the reason because I could read her writing all day. It could be because this is a vast series with a huge amount of characters, each of them needing introducing, each of them with a background that had to explored, each of them needing a starting point for which they could later develop from, and while I can't dismiss that reason either, it doesn't feel quite right. It took me a good 150 pages before I really felt The Raven Boys got anywhere interested, before the novel really picked itself up and went for a rollercoaster ride, taking me along with it, and it's a shame, because this could have easily been a one-night affair.

Another thing I struggled with a little, which is frustrating, because it's also one of the things I adored about The Raven Boys, was the Welsh Kings area of the plot. I confess, I am absolutely lost when it comes to history, I can't name historical events or dates and names, lets not go there, so I was surprised when this feature was heavily pressed on in The Raven Boys. I felt lost sometimes, even within Stiefvater's writing which you could seriously bathe in, it's that beautiful, I felt as though I couldn't and would never understand the slight subtle information dumps flitted and dropped within the novel. Don't get me wrong, once I got going with The Raven Boys and found myself interested and intrigued and seriously invested, I was hooked, the whole aspect was brilliant, it was haunting and thrilling but so utterly mesmorising in all the right ways, I may have completely forgotten that I'd ever struggled with the start.

I really did love The Raven Boy, especially it's characters and their relationship with one another. I thought The Raven Boys themselves had a wonderful relationship with one another, in a not always wonderful way. I loved that there were many different backgrounds, many different character defining moments between them all, whether it be Gansey's development in seeing the value of something through feelings rather through money, or Adam's development with his bravery and courage, not to mention his sacrifices, of Ronon and his absolutely terrible temper but delicacy towards fragile things and people, and relationships, or Noah and - Noah and everything he lost. Not to mention Blue who was such a central part of this novel and will be throughout the entire series. Even the more secondary characters within the cast, Blue's family, her mother and sisters and their world of physics, power and magic, or Whelk and his hungry power drive, each of them, so beautifully written about, came to life n The Raven Boys, and I so honestly adored it.

There's so much more to the Raven Boys than I could find time to talk about, nor find the words, from the really really really subtle romance aspect, which I can tell already is going to seriously drive me crazy, to Stiefvater's inclusion of what seems like actual events from the future within visions which have already driven me crazy. I loved the wonderful paranormal aspects from The Raven Boys, I really enjoyed taking a look at the meanings behind the card reading, with huge thanks from Kelley at Oh, the Books! and her insightful tarot posts, hot damn, I seriously fell in love with how eerie the whole damn mystery and magic of the Welsh Kings was, it was so enthralling, it would so easy to forget that I ever had issues at the start, but I did, and because it ultimately made me reserved and wary of continuing, and made the beginning feel slow and lacking, I can't give it anything more than I have. We should deal with the matter at hand now though, that matter of continuing the series.

15 comments:

  1. I actually picked this one up before but ended up putting it back down because of the slow start. But I've heard such amazing things about this series that I plan to try it again soon. I'm glad to see you enjoyed it, it just reinforces my decision :)

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    1. The slow start is the thing that puts a lot of people off, BUT, once past it, it gets damn good!<3

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  2. OMG the history thing was legit me. I was like "what am I reading" and I had to go back and read it again. i'm a fast reader and for this book, I had to take it slow because otherwise I wouldn't understand. I didn't like the personalities too much until after halfway or something. It didn't feel right to me initially but this was a book I had to ease into.

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    1. I think each installment feels a little like that too, it's hard sometimes with some books, these need you to take it slow and I can't do that properly.. Such struggles with lovely books!

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  3. I definitely get the slow start, because you kind of have to get all this background info on the mythology. It's weird to think about the beginning because I've been immersed in the series for so long. It absolutely gets better with the next book, so I hope you love that one like I did! And then the third one. It just kills me.

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    1. Oh I know Zoey, I've already read Dream Thieves and just - my love for it, it speaks volumes!<3

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  4. I totally know what you mean, Amanda! Even though I gave this book 4.5 stars in the end, it took me a while to really get into it. I'm a fairly impatient person when it comes to books, so I like them to pick up fast, and that was exactly what The Raven Boys didn't do. And yup, the whole Welsh kings mythology. I'm more familiar with Greek and Roman myths -- heck, even Egyptian -- but Welsh? NOPE. So that made things more confusing than they needed to be.

    Eventually, though, the beautiful writing (Stiefvater is a goddess when it comes to words *O*), the complex plot (which still confused me at times; I'm still confused even now), the characters and the originality of the storyline won me over, and like you, I found myself really enjoying it in the end! And I think because of how complicated and intricate the plot is, The Raven Boys is one of those books you can re-read over and over and find out new pieces of info with each reading. Just adds more to its magic. :D

    Like Zoey said, the series gets better. I loved The Dream Thieves so much more than this one. The characters get so much more development, and things get so much clearer. It's awesome. I haven't gotten to the latest one yet, though. I'm glad you ended up enjoying this one, so I hope you continue on! Great review! :)

    Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day! ^_^

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    1. You're welcome Megan! I totally agree, Stiefvater is a goddess, her words are just magical, and the series does get better, I've read Dream Thieves (and my review goes out soon!) but not Blue Lily just yet, and I know I'm a huge fan of the series now, it's just SO GOOD. Thank you for stopping by!<3

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  5. Oh, I listened to this on audio last year and I do agree! It's so complex that I sometimes feel the book is way too smart for me lol. I had to rewind a few times to fully understand everything and it's not one of those audiobooks where you multitask why listening. This one requires your whole attention! I do agree that the writing is absolutely beautiful and entirely original. I also love that the romance didn't overpower the storyline. In fact, there's almost no hint of romance! I've yet to listen to the next book, I'm not too fond of the narrator but I'm one of those types that if I started on audio, I have to listen to all the series on audio. Lovely review Amanda, for someone who was lost for words...you shared your thoughts quite beautifully! :)

    Amir @ Not So Literary!

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    1. Thanks Amir! I wasn't quite sure how I would find the words for this book, but they came eventually! :)<3

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  6. I felt exactly the same way, and I struggled to write my own review just a few days ago. You hit the nail on the head --- lovely review! There was so much of me that just wanted to push it along in those earlier bits and try to get it to move faster -- I don't think it would have worked as well had that been sped up just because of, as you mentioned, all the wonderful character development. But I WANTED for it to be sped up a bit.

    Incidentally, I just read this too!
    http://classycatbooks.com/2015/03/the-raven-boys-the-raven-cycle-1-by-maggie-stiefvater-takecontroltbr/

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    1. Thanks lovely! I SO wanted it to be quicker, but even now, I can understand and appreciate it being a slow burner, there's so much to know about in that first half, so so so much! I'll check out your post really soon, thanks for the link! :)<3

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  7. I still haven't picked up this book and I really want to! I can totally understand where you're coming from when you say you had high expectations but the start was groggy and slow, I've had that feeling with too many books recently so I've just been looking for something easy to read and doesn't take much brain power so maybe I'll wait a little while before I start reading this book...

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    1. I do think you have to invest fully in this book and not go into it thinking it'll be a quick read, because it won't, but it is fabulous and worth the wait :)

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  8. I can understand where you come from regarding the beginning and the Glendower aspects of this novel. I'm lucky that I absolutely LOVE slow books, especially slow books that are the first in the series because I love getting to know the characters, and really sinking into the book like a warm bath. It's my favourite feeling in the world, and I think that's one of the reasons why second books actually often let me down. But even so, if you're one for pacing, I can tell why the beginning of TRB might not have been for you.

    Oh gosh the subtle romance will slowly slay you. Seriously. It's just SO SLOW. And I love slowburn romances but hot damn can we have something, PLEASE?

    I thoroughly recommend you continue with the series! A lot of people's favourite book is the second one, though I find the third one to be my second favourite (after this one). :D

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