Book Review-The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven Boys

 Author: Maggie Steifvater

Series:  The Raven Cycle #1

Published:  18 September 2012 by Scholastic

Length: 409 pages

Source: Publisher

Other info:  Maggie has also written the Wolves of Mercy Falls and Books of Faerie series, as well as the Scorpio Races.

Summary : 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.

Review: Blue is the only non-psychic in a house of psychics. This is not a problem. They all tell her that if she kisses her true love, he’ll die. This is. One night, she’s with her mother, watching spirits of the dead-in-a-year-people pass by. And she sees Gansey. This means she either murders him, or he’s her true love. She decides to stay away away. Soon, Gansey shows up. He wants to know where all these leylines are, as he wants to find more about the Welsh king, Glendower, who disappeared. With Adam, Ronan and Noah, boys from Aglionby Acadamy and the titular raven boys, they investigate.

I have Shiver on audiobook, and never got through it. I have gotten Scorpio Races from the Library and I quite enjoyed it.

The Raven Boys starts quite quickly. We get the gist of Blue’s situation  the Raven Boys, their quest, and what Whelk, the antagonist, wants. Then it slows down. A lot. Not just because of all the detail, but because there was so much going on, that I didn't really care about. The first threequarters or so, I was vaguely sure of what was happening, but not so much about the direction we were going in, or when it might come to a nice end. Then there’s a big reveal at the end of chapter 28, that was a little bit predictable, where it picks up majorly, and everything comes together and things start happening.

All the characters were nice enough, apart from Whelk, who was a downright......*self censors*...... I didn't connect to any of them though. They all have rich backstories, especially Noah. Blue is a good protagonist, but not that standout. All the Raven Boys were sweet. The psychic women were all quite similar. There’s a lot of characters involved in The Raven Boys.

The plot, I didn’t really care for much of it until the reveal. It’s annoying that we don’t find out if Gansey actually is Blue’s true love, or whether she murders him, or whether she murders him because he’s her true love and they kiss. I suppose it would cut the story a bit short if either of the latter two happened, but still.    

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that I couldn’t really get into. I probably won’t read the next in the series.

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