The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, Book 1)
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4.5 • 455 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.
His name is Gansey, 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 is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher 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 doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By grounding this new series in what might be called everyday weirdness a rich teenager's obsession with legend and glory, a shabby household of female psychics with a pay-per-minute hotline Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races) avoids the burden of building a seamless alternate world, instead saturating our reality with magic. Haunting, distinctly individual characters are at the forefront: Blue, an outsider in her own home because she isn't clairvoyant; Gansey and his posse of misfits, who lack any sense of home and seek meaning elsewhere; and Barrington Whelk, a Latin teacher with a secret. Gansey and his fellow "raven boys" attend exclusive Aglionby Academy itself out of place in working-class Henrietta, Va. and Blue's goal is to avoid them at any cost. She can't, of course, but Stiefvater doesn't rush this inevitability. Hopes, fears, quirks, and forebodings gather gradually, coalescing as living portraits. It's a tour de force of characterization, and while there is no lack of event or mystery, it is the way Stiefvater's people live in the reader's imagination that makes this such a memorable read. Ages 13 up.
Customer Reviews
Captivating & sets your heart on fire
This book made me more of a dreamer.
It made me explore the world around me more and ask odd questions.
A book about adventure, love, magic, and secrets seems like the ultimate teen book in my opinion.
I finished this, almost 1,000 pages, in around 2-3 days simply because I could not put it down.
It's got a lot of depth to each character and to the plot.
You don't just follow a story line, you follow the lives of Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Blue.
If you want a book where you're simply following one simple plot, this isn't for you.
Maggie captured the big picture but didn't forget even the smallest details.
I am now enveloped into the world of Henrietta, Virginia and the characters in it.
The Raven Boys
So I chose to read this book as a writing project, and it definitely seemed interesting! But then you get into the actual story, and there is no plot structure. It took over 150 pages of the 400 for the characters to meet. As a student, I need a story that is exciting, immersing, and straight to the point. This story was the exact opposite. The structure of the story was all over the place. Maggie tried to thread in extra plots, but it made the story a bust. In the end? I was confused on what Stiefvater was really trying to capture. The summary stated it was true love, the entrance stated adventure, the bulk of the middle indicated fixing family issues and the end said revenge. The book hurt me to read. There was so much filler, only 20% of the story was actually interesting. And I tried so hard to comprehend, to enjoy it. But the more I read, the less I cared. Now, turning in this project, I have a presentation on the importance of a plot structure, and how any good novel needs a balanced one to be successful. So, to those of you who are at an age of fourteen and up, this story is not for you. And any of those at an age of ten or younger cannot read this period. So those of you in the middle? Go ahead. Tell them all what you think of it. Because looking at it from the perspective of a student, this book is an unbalanced wreck.
Both sides (kind of)
I will make this quick. This is probably the last book you would want to read for a project. Maggie Stievater has this amazing talent where she makes reading her books like reading a movie. The plot is a little all over the place which represents our lives. I loved the Shiver Trilogy, the way you could read from the characters point of view was so cool to me and I wish she did the same here but even so, amazing. I don’t think you can even say “point of view”, she TURNS INTO her characters and plays them out so well. Again, it’s like reading a movie. She has a way with words. Even if a character ends up killing somebody you would be able to understand them so well and the reasoning behind it because of emotion within every sentence. Sometimes I forgot I was reading book because of how well the words flow together. You don’t need to have a good imagination because her books will automatically paint an amazing reality in you head. Ok... maybe not so short.
