Book Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA fantasy
Date Read: 23/12/2015 – 26/12/2015
Rating: ★★★☆

Review:

This was a tricky book for me to rate, and I wavered between three and four, before deciding to split the difference. It was a very easy read, and didn’t take me long to get through, but it did feel like I was reading a lot of set-up for future books.

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, though she has no psychic ability herself. When she sees the spirit of a boy named Gansey on St Mark’s Eve, it sets into motion an association with a group of boys from the local private boy’s school, and a search for the grave of Owen Glendower, a Welsh King that Gansey believes is buried in America.

The characters are all have very individual personalities. Gansey is wealthy and privileged and puts his foot in his mouth a lot because of that; Ronan has a lot of baggage and a lot of secrets; Adam comes from an abusive household and resents the privilege around him; and Noah, the quiet observer. Blue’s character is primarily linked to her psychic family; she was a fairly standard teenage girl character, and something of a means to an end-type character (while not psychic herself, she can amplify psychic energy for others).

While there was some interesting world-building based on the idea of magical ley lines across the world, it was sometimes a bit patchy. Big revelations never really felt particularly huge, or they were easy to predict.

Overall, it was an interesting enough read that I stayed up quite late to finish it, and I actually am still interested enough to continue with the series, but this wasn’t quite exciting enough to be plot-driven, and the characters weren’t quite stand-out enough to carry it as a character-driven one.

 

 

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