The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Dec. 30th, 2012 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
If you kiss your true love, he will die.
Every year, Blue stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be-dead walk past. Blue can’t usually see them, but this year is different. When she sees a boy emerge from the dark there are only two explanations as to why she can see his spirit – either he is her true love or she has killed him.
The boy’s name is Gansey and Blue soon discovers that he attends the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from those students. Known as Raven Boys, they only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey in a way she can’t explain.
There’s something magical about Gansey. Something powerful. And as Blue becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s determined to keep him alive …
Blue’s always known that if she kisses her true love then he will die. Although raised by a psychic mother, she’s never had a psychic experience until she meets the spirit of a boy called Gansey on the corpse road on St Mark’s Eve and realises that she’s going to kill him.
Gansey’s attends the local and exclusive Aglionby school (whose students are nicknamed Raven Boys) with friends Adam (a scholarship boy who fears his abusive father), Ronan (an angry rebel who discovered his dad’s suicide) and Noah (an unobtrusive and quiet boy). Gansey’s on a quest to find a lost Welsh king who’ll supposedly grant a wish to whoever finds his body and although Blue loathes the privileged and arrogant Raven Boys she agrees to help. But it soon becomes clear that others are also seeking the king and will do anything to be first while Blue will do anything to keep Gansey alive …
Maggie Stiefvater’s paranormal romance (the first in a new trilogy) is a beautifully written but oddly slow and un-engaging novel that draws on Welsh legend and has strong themes of loyalty and friendship.
Having enjoyed Stiefvater’s other paranormal romance novels, I found this difficult to get into. Blue wasn’t on the page long enough to make much of an impression and the inevitable love triangle with Gansey and Adam made me yawn. Gansey’s casual attitude to his money and privilege (evidenced through his driving a battered Camaro) irritated me given that without it he couldn’t indulge his quest. Adam’s actually the most interesting character with his drive and determination to become a success his own way at his own pace - I understood Blue’s attraction to him more than her attraction to the blander Gansey and Adam’s arc is such that I’m interested in seeing what happens to him next. Ronan’s like every other troubled bad boy in YA fiction while Noah is underdeveloped for reasons that didn’t (for me) justify it.
The plot unfolds at a snail’s pace, hampered by a lot of exposition early on and didn’t really get going until the final quarter, by which point it’s really all set-up for book 2 - a shame because Stiefvater’s writing can be beautifully lyrical, especially her description of nature.
Although I’ll probably read book 2, I won’t rush to do so as this didn’t match Stiefvater’s other work for me.
The Verdict:
Maggie Stiefvater’s paranormal romance (the first in a new trilogy) is a beautifully written but oddly slow and un-engaging novel that draws on Welsh legend and has strong themes of loyalty and friendship. Although I’ve enjoyed Stiefvater’s other paranormal romances (despite not being a romance fan), I found it difficult to engage with most of the characters here while the plot unfolded too slowly (and relied heavily on exposition early on). As such, although I probably will read the sequel, I won’t rush to because I don’t find this to be on a par with the author’s other work.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
Every year, Blue stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be-dead walk past. Blue can’t usually see them, but this year is different. When she sees a boy emerge from the dark there are only two explanations as to why she can see his spirit – either he is her true love or she has killed him.
The boy’s name is Gansey and Blue soon discovers that he attends the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from those students. Known as Raven Boys, they only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey in a way she can’t explain.
There’s something magical about Gansey. Something powerful. And as Blue becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s determined to keep him alive …
Blue’s always known that if she kisses her true love then he will die. Although raised by a psychic mother, she’s never had a psychic experience until she meets the spirit of a boy called Gansey on the corpse road on St Mark’s Eve and realises that she’s going to kill him.
Gansey’s attends the local and exclusive Aglionby school (whose students are nicknamed Raven Boys) with friends Adam (a scholarship boy who fears his abusive father), Ronan (an angry rebel who discovered his dad’s suicide) and Noah (an unobtrusive and quiet boy). Gansey’s on a quest to find a lost Welsh king who’ll supposedly grant a wish to whoever finds his body and although Blue loathes the privileged and arrogant Raven Boys she agrees to help. But it soon becomes clear that others are also seeking the king and will do anything to be first while Blue will do anything to keep Gansey alive …
Maggie Stiefvater’s paranormal romance (the first in a new trilogy) is a beautifully written but oddly slow and un-engaging novel that draws on Welsh legend and has strong themes of loyalty and friendship.
Having enjoyed Stiefvater’s other paranormal romance novels, I found this difficult to get into. Blue wasn’t on the page long enough to make much of an impression and the inevitable love triangle with Gansey and Adam made me yawn. Gansey’s casual attitude to his money and privilege (evidenced through his driving a battered Camaro) irritated me given that without it he couldn’t indulge his quest. Adam’s actually the most interesting character with his drive and determination to become a success his own way at his own pace - I understood Blue’s attraction to him more than her attraction to the blander Gansey and Adam’s arc is such that I’m interested in seeing what happens to him next. Ronan’s like every other troubled bad boy in YA fiction while Noah is underdeveloped for reasons that didn’t (for me) justify it.
The plot unfolds at a snail’s pace, hampered by a lot of exposition early on and didn’t really get going until the final quarter, by which point it’s really all set-up for book 2 - a shame because Stiefvater’s writing can be beautifully lyrical, especially her description of nature.
Although I’ll probably read book 2, I won’t rush to do so as this didn’t match Stiefvater’s other work for me.
The Verdict:
Maggie Stiefvater’s paranormal romance (the first in a new trilogy) is a beautifully written but oddly slow and un-engaging novel that draws on Welsh legend and has strong themes of loyalty and friendship. Although I’ve enjoyed Stiefvater’s other paranormal romances (despite not being a romance fan), I found it difficult to engage with most of the characters here while the plot unfolded too slowly (and relied heavily on exposition early on). As such, although I probably will read the sequel, I won’t rush to because I don’t find this to be on a par with the author’s other work.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
