Review: The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was absolutely wonderful! I was worried it wouldn't live up to the hype, but I had nothing to worry about. The characters are fantastic, the plot is incredibly unique, and the writing is addicting. I've read some of Stiefvater's work before, and I think The Raven Boys is even better than her other works.

The Raven Boys follows Blue Sargent, the non-psychic daughter of a psychic; Gansey, who is using his obnoxious wealth to go on an insane quest for a dead Welsh king in the Virginia countryside; Adam Parrish, a boy from a trailer park who finds himself at a school for the disgustingly rich; Ronan Lynch, enormous and constantly angry; and Noah, the quiet mysterious one. Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah are all "Aglionby Boys", meaning they attend Aglionby Academy in Henrietta, Virginia. Gansey has recruited them to search for a dead Welsh king he believes is buried under a ley-line in Henrietta.

Without giving any more plot away, I'll relay some of my thoughts while reading this book. Once again, I loved this book. It constantly had me guessing, flipping back to other parts of the book to find connections, and raising my hand to my mouth in surprise. There were probably three or four moments where I had to stop reading and just sit there, letting what I had just read sink in. Stiefvater, apparently, is the master of surprising her audience while also making them feel incredibly stupid. This book was probably all the more exciting because I read it in one sitting of about five hours.

I would recommend The Raven Boys to anyone that wants to read about an adventure. It's like reading a modern day tale of King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail. There is some fantasy, whimsy, mystery, humor, romance, action, basically every genre is squeezed into this awesome novel.

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