Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.
Maggie Stiefvater’s THE RAVEN BOYS is impossible to definBlue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.
Maggie Stiefvater’s THE RAVEN BOYS is impossible to define. It exists in contradiction. It’s dark, yet warm. Creepy, yet magical. Funny, yet somber. Truly, it’s a book that only Maggie Stiefvater could write.
To put simply, THE RAVEN BOYS is a Practical Magic x Goth Harry Potter mashup. Since birth Blue has been warned that if she were to kiss her true love, s/he would die. Blue--non-psychic--has been raised into a ramshackle family of mystics. When Blue has her first clairvoyant experience, she meets her intended true love, Gansey. Problem is: he’s meant to die in the next year. Love stinks, y’all. A few weeks pass and there’s a knock on her mother’s door. Big shock: it’s Gansey and his fellow “raven boys” who need Blue’s psychic mother’s help. Gansey needs to locate a ley line in their hometown of Henrietta, Virginia. According to legend, somewhere on the ley line welsh king Glendower is buried. Rumor has it, whoever wakes King Glendower will receive a wish. Thus begins a hurtling adventure filled with danger, magic, and a hella lot o’fun.
Teaching latin to Aglionby boys was punishment enough. Teaching it with a hangover was excruciating.
As with all her stories, Maggie Stiefvater’s writing is hypnotic. Upon reading the first sentence you’re immediately lulled into submission. You don’t want to read THE RAVEN BOYS, as much as you’re compelled to do so. Basically: THE RAVEN BOYS is like Pringles. Once you pop, you can’t stop. What’s remarkable about Stiefvater’s writing is the level of detail. It’s reminiscent of J.K. Rowling’s. Just the worldbuilding. Sooooo incredible. I have a serious desire to live within Blue’s Fox Lane house with her ragtag team of psychic “aunties.” Or spend hours exploring Gansey’s Dumbledore-esque sanctuary. BRING ME THERE.
Blue had two rules: Stay away from boys because they’re trouble and stay away from raven boys, because they were bastards.
However, Stiefvater doesn’t neglect plot and worldbuilding for character. Each role, and there are many, receive equal importance and detail. By the end of book one, you’ll fall in love with EVERYONE. Each character is written with their own strengths of foibles. And even the prickly ones will make you wanna suit up in football pads just to give them a hug.
One last note before I end this whole she-bang. TwiHaters, never fear. Romance isn’t the name o’ the game here. While there’s Blue’s defining prophecy, romance is low on the radar.
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