The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary

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?

Paperback, UK, 496 pages

Expected publication: September 19th 2012 by Scholastic

My Review

I simply adored The Raven Boys, it is a fabulous kick-start to a brand new series from Maggie Stiefvater. The only thing that prevented me from giving it 5 stars was I found it a little hard to get into, mainly because of the 4 complex characters Ronan, Gansey, Noah and Adam! But I think that one negative at the start for me ended up being the biggest positive in the book, once you get to know who's who these boys will become highly addictive, complex and fabulous characters that you really won't be able to get enough of. Maggie Stiefvater always manages to make me fall head over heels in love with her male characters, first Sam and Cole, then Sean, now Gansey and Roman, yes I'm being greedy! Roman is my favourite though, he is broken, dangerously twisted and the most interesting out of the 4 boys, he has lots of hidden depths waiting to be discovered. But enough with the swooning over the boys, LOL! The storyline is so fabulously different than everything out there in the YA genre at the minute and as I've come to expect from the author the writing style is wonderful, not to mention the fantastic world building. The Raven Boys is definitely not to be missed and I really can't wait to read the next book.

Blue lives in a family full of women with physic abilities but to her frustration she doesn't share their abilities, but she does have a talent for making other peoples talents stronger, so she is always useful to have around. And that's why every year on St Marks eve Blue goes along with her mum to the old cemetery where the soon-to-be dead will pass through. Blue has always been told that if she kisses her true love he will die! So when for the very first time she sees a spirit walk by it can only mean one thing - she either kills him or he is her true love!

Blue quickly finds herself hanging out with 4 Raven Boys, who she always thought were the worst sort of boys. They make up quite the team and Blue is helping them on their quest to find Glendower! There is a legend that whoever awakens him will win his favour. But there ends up being so much more to the story than that, it quickly becomes much more twisted, dangerous and adventurous!

The lead up to the ending is action packed and the ending itself is brilliant, it has left me on the edge of my seat waiting on the next book. Something that I also loved was all the women in Blue's house. It is jam packed with odd women and they are hilarious, a real mix of personalities. I really enjoyed the parts of the book with them in it. This really has such a complex storyline that is full of action, twists, turns, intrigue and great friendships. Not forgetting characters that are very edgy and easily to connect to early on. A must read book!!

4.5/ 5 Stars

*Special thanks to Scholastic for the review copy*

Carly