The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Taken from Goodreads
“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.

The Raven Boys is the first Maggie Stiefvater book that I have read, and while I enjoyed it, I wanted a little bit more. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but I did have a few issues with the pacing and world building.

My favourite part of The Raven Boys was the characters. I loved the friendship that the boys had and how they welcomed Blue into their dynamic. It felt real and natural without feeling forced, which is something nice to see, and while they are all different, they all support each other. The only thing I would have liked was some more answers to the questions that I have, but I know there are three other books in the series so hopefully I will get my answers.

I can’t work out whether there was meant to be a romance within The Raven Boys or there wasn’t. There were hints that something could develop between Blue and Adam, but I wasn’t really feeling it. It seemed to me that while the book is billed as having a central romance plot, there was no mention of this once the story really started. I hope the romance becomes more prominent in future books, and it begins to become a bit clearer as to what is going on.

The Raven Boys is very fast paced, and I feel like I did miss quite a bit of information due to this. I would have liked it to have slowed down, so I could fully digest the information that we were being given and be ready for the next plot point to come. I also felt like the epilogue was unnecessary and the book could have been quite a bit more dramatic had it not been included, as it would have ended on a cliffhanger.

The other thing I did want from The Raven Boys was a little more world building; I wanted to find out more about Henrietta and what the town itself was like. I think this would have added to my enjoyment of the story and allowed me to understand the plot a bit better from the beginning. I also believe that The Raven Boys is another book that would have benefitted from having a map, as it would have made the town and surrounding area a bit clearer.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Raven Boys, and while I did have my issues, I can’t wait to see where the story is going to go.

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, you can find it at: Bookshop.org — Amazon UK — The Book Depository

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