The Raven Boys by Maggie Stievfvater

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
by Maggie Stiefvater
Hardcover, 409 pages
5 Stars
Amazon | Barnes and Nobel | Book Depository
Published September 18th 2012 by Scholastic Press
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

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.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

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My Thoughts

OH MY GOD... This book was so good. I don't know how to formulate my thoughts right now. This book. This book was sooooo good. I sort of regret putting it off for so long. But I feel like that happens to a lot of people. I blame this on that synopsis. So I want to bring you around to the synopsis that Stiefvater wrote after the book was published:

A host of co-dependent teens with a battery of psychological issues comb rural Virginia for a dead Welsh king with dubious magical powers. Trees talk; hitmen put down roots; dead people live; living people die. Cars are described in loving detail. Fuckweasel. A house full of psychics tells everybody the future and drinks a lot on-page considering it’s a young adult series. Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody. There’s rich boys! Poor boys! Sad boys! Angry boys! Raven boys! Collect them all!

This description much better suits the books. These characters are so flawed but so lovable. they make decisions that you hate, but can back. It pulls at your heart strings and makes you want to scream at the characters. It is perfect. One of the things that I loved about it the most was honestly how missleading the synopsis is, because since you go in thinking it is more of a romance the desire to follow the mythology, and the paranormal elements were surprising but pleasing. Stiefvater, created such vivid scenes that I actually got creeped out at time, got chills. If you have read it, Noah, the scene with Noah I read that as I went to bed... so creepy! It was great!
I would suggest this book to so many people, but know there are heavy  themes in it. Including: Poverty, verbal and physical abuse, death, and a possible hint at suicide.  But I feel like these theme were approached well and in a believable way. I feel like because of these themes it leans to the higher end of the YA range, but not anything I am opposed to. 
GO GET THIS BOOK!
Katelyn Costello
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