The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Goodreads Rating: 4.49
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 408
Reviewed By: Nicole

I got this book from BEA because I've heard good things about Stiefvater, and although I never read The Wolves of Mercy Falls, I was excited to read this new series. I had a little trouble getting into it at first, but this four book series is going to be a hit for sure.

Goodreads Synopses:

“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.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
Reading this book made me realize that I dont like third person very much. Thats not to say that I'll stop reading in third person, I just realized that it takes me a little longer to really get into it. I started this book while BEA was still going on and then I wound up putting in down for other books that I had to read. I was really glad that when I picked it up almost two months later that I was able to remember what happened in the first 50 pages I read without having to go back.

I really liked the magic that was included in this book along the ley line and this family of witches. I loved how they would play off each other for power and how they would have Blue sort of amplifies their powers. The relationship between Blue and her mother Maura was perhaps the most interesting of them all, their was total trust and I loved that. At first I also really liked Adam, but then the more paranoid he got about "belonging" to people, the more irritating he became. 

As much as the third person through me, I liked that I was able to get the view of a lot of other characters such as Whelk or what was going on with Gansey when he wasn't with Blue. As jarring as it was to change around a lot, I did like that. I really liked all the characters in this book and I'm looking forward to the rest of this series.

This was my first Maggie Stiefvater book, and I for sure can't wait to read her other books.