The Raven Cycle Series Review
Recently, I marathon-ed all four books of Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle. I had planned on reviewing each book individually, but I ended up reading them so quickly that they basically all ran together into one book. So, I thought why not just review the series as a whole? If you feel unsure about reading this series, maybe this review will help you decide if it's worth it.
The Raven Cycle is a magical realism series surrounding a group of eccentric young people on an Arthurian type of quest in southern Virginia. First, we have Blue Sargent: non-psychic teenage girl living in a house full of psychics. On St. Mark's Eve, Blue and her aunt go to an old church to chronicle the spirits traveling along the "corpse road". These spirits are supposedly the spirits of all those who are going to die within the year. Blue usually cannot see the spirits walking and acts kind of like a battery for the psychic who accompanies her. This year, however, Blue sees the spirit of a teenage boy wearing the uniform for Aglionby, the local private boys' school. This is rather portentous because the psychics in Blue's life have told her countless times that if she kisses her true love, they will die. Then we have Gansey. Gansey is an impossibly wealthy son of Viginia aristocracy who is scouring Henrietta, Virginia for a lay line. He believes that the dead Welsh king Glendower was buried on a lay line in Virginia, and is obsessed with finding him. Then there are Gansey's best friends: Ronan, Adam, and Noah. The five of them get tangled in this quest for Glendower and produce one of the most magical, captivating, and creative stories I have read in quite a while.
I personally loved The Raven Cycle, however it is definitely not for everyone. The beginning of The Raven Boys is a little slow, and I know some people who either have or have almost put it down because they found it boring. I would implore you to just push through until page 150, and put it down if you don't enjoy it by then. You just have to know going into the series that it's not so much about the what's or why's of the story, but the how's. Some of the plot points are definitely predictable, but how the plot points come to fruition is not. I hope that makes sense.
The character development in The Raven Cycle is absolutely incredible. There were some characters that never stopped surprising me, right up until the last page. That, my friends, is quite a feat because I am generally very good at figuring out plot twists before they happen. The development of Ronan Lynch's character in particular is very exciting to read about. I didn't really care for him too much in The Raven Boys, I found him a little too angry and moody, but he slowly became one of my favorite characters in the whole series. I also loved the development of Noah's character. His backstory is incredibly unique and heartbreaking, and I just love him.
I just want to take a second here to talk about my favorite character from this whole series: Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey III. We know from basically the summary of The Raven Boys that Gansey is going to die. But, no matter how hard I tried to not care about his character in preparation for the imminent grief, I could not help but love Gansey. He is just an adorable dork, and impossible to dislike. He is elegant, oblivious, kind, passionate, nerdy, easily awed, and just an overall wonderful character. As much as I love the dark, handsome, and broody trope, sometimes I need to read about a genuinely sweet, polite, quirky, guy like Gansey who loves his friends (and a dead welsh king?) more than life itself. I both love and hate Maggie Stiefvater for creating Gansey becuase he simultaneously filled and broke my heart.
Reading this series feels like going on an adventure with your best friends. It is hilarious, exciting, scary, and an all around wild ride. These books made me feel absurdly happy, even though they can be quite tragic. Maggie Stiefvater does an amazing job balancing whimsy and real life, so you might like it even if you generally steer clear from the fantasy/magical genre. There is a dreamlike quality to the books, which I think is part of the reason they work so well. Not everything is explained in a complicated fantasy groundwork, which I really appreciated. Maggie Stiefvater also left enough room at the end of The Raven King for possibly more to the story.
I rated every book in this series five stars on Goodreads, and I am usually pretty stingy with five stars. I usually give books I really liked 3.5 to 4.5 stars, 5 stars are reserved for books that I most ardently admire and love.
The Raven Cycle is a magical realism series surrounding a group of eccentric young people on an Arthurian type of quest in southern Virginia. First, we have Blue Sargent: non-psychic teenage girl living in a house full of psychics. On St. Mark's Eve, Blue and her aunt go to an old church to chronicle the spirits traveling along the "corpse road". These spirits are supposedly the spirits of all those who are going to die within the year. Blue usually cannot see the spirits walking and acts kind of like a battery for the psychic who accompanies her. This year, however, Blue sees the spirit of a teenage boy wearing the uniform for Aglionby, the local private boys' school. This is rather portentous because the psychics in Blue's life have told her countless times that if she kisses her true love, they will die. Then we have Gansey. Gansey is an impossibly wealthy son of Viginia aristocracy who is scouring Henrietta, Virginia for a lay line. He believes that the dead Welsh king Glendower was buried on a lay line in Virginia, and is obsessed with finding him. Then there are Gansey's best friends: Ronan, Adam, and Noah. The five of them get tangled in this quest for Glendower and produce one of the most magical, captivating, and creative stories I have read in quite a while.
I personally loved The Raven Cycle, however it is definitely not for everyone. The beginning of The Raven Boys is a little slow, and I know some people who either have or have almost put it down because they found it boring. I would implore you to just push through until page 150, and put it down if you don't enjoy it by then. You just have to know going into the series that it's not so much about the what's or why's of the story, but the how's. Some of the plot points are definitely predictable, but how the plot points come to fruition is not. I hope that makes sense.
The character development in The Raven Cycle is absolutely incredible. There were some characters that never stopped surprising me, right up until the last page. That, my friends, is quite a feat because I am generally very good at figuring out plot twists before they happen. The development of Ronan Lynch's character in particular is very exciting to read about. I didn't really care for him too much in The Raven Boys, I found him a little too angry and moody, but he slowly became one of my favorite characters in the whole series. I also loved the development of Noah's character. His backstory is incredibly unique and heartbreaking, and I just love him.
I just want to take a second here to talk about my favorite character from this whole series: Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey III. We know from basically the summary of The Raven Boys that Gansey is going to die. But, no matter how hard I tried to not care about his character in preparation for the imminent grief, I could not help but love Gansey. He is just an adorable dork, and impossible to dislike. He is elegant, oblivious, kind, passionate, nerdy, easily awed, and just an overall wonderful character. As much as I love the dark, handsome, and broody trope, sometimes I need to read about a genuinely sweet, polite, quirky, guy like Gansey who loves his friends (and a dead welsh king?) more than life itself. I both love and hate Maggie Stiefvater for creating Gansey becuase he simultaneously filled and broke my heart.
Reading this series feels like going on an adventure with your best friends. It is hilarious, exciting, scary, and an all around wild ride. These books made me feel absurdly happy, even though they can be quite tragic. Maggie Stiefvater does an amazing job balancing whimsy and real life, so you might like it even if you generally steer clear from the fantasy/magical genre. There is a dreamlike quality to the books, which I think is part of the reason they work so well. Not everything is explained in a complicated fantasy groundwork, which I really appreciated. Maggie Stiefvater also left enough room at the end of The Raven King for possibly more to the story.
I rated every book in this series five stars on Goodreads, and I am usually pretty stingy with five stars. I usually give books I really liked 3.5 to 4.5 stars, 5 stars are reserved for books that I most ardently admire and love.
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