The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Review + Giveaway

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
(Raven Cycle, #1)
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 408 pages

“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.

I want to start out this review by saying that Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors.  Her Wolves of Mercy falls series is one of my favorite series that I read last year.  Her writing is just so captivating.  I could probably gush about Maggie's writing all day.  She has this ability to make you really feel for her characters.  Even characters that you just know are rotten, she somehow makes it so you feel sympathy for them.  Needless to say I was really excited to read the Raven Boys, and this book did not disappoint.

The Raven Boys starts off introducing us to is teenage girl named Blue.  Blue's mother is a psychic, and together they live with other female psychics.  Psychics interest me.  But I've always been a little bit too afraid to actually go and visit one.  I worry that the psychic will be spot on, or that it will be a big sham and I'd be out of money.  Blue's mother and her friends are definitely not impostors.  They are real psychics, but Blue is not a psychic.  Even though Blue is not a psychic, she has the ability to make a psychic's ability stronger just by being near them.

In the prologue it is mentioned that it was predicted that if Blue were to kiss her true love, he would die.  This caught my interest immediately, and I knew that this book would be good.  I simply adore Blue.  I love how she doesn't take nonsense from anyone.  I just love strong female leads in young adult books.

You're also introduced to Gansey, who I call "the guy every teenage girl wants to date".  Seriously Gansey has everything that most teenage youth wants in a guy.  He's good looking, athletic, smart, and he's wealthy.  And that's just the materialistic things about him.  As the book progresses we get to see how incredibly loyal and dependable Gansey is.

The beginning of the book is a little slow because that's when you are getting to know the characters.  But it's necessary because character development is important.  But once Blue and Gansey meet  the book really picks up and the pace is set.  In fact the first real exchange between Blue and Gansey is hilarious.  I actually went back and reread that scene because I enjoyed it so much.

One of things I really did enjoy is the foreshadowing.  As you read this book, you can just feel that something major is going to happen.  And it's not just foreshadowing for this book, it's foreshadowing for the later books as well.  As a reader you think you know what's going to happen, but you wonder how can this possibly happen?  And that's what makes this book so amazing.  Along with a really good paranormal story. A story where you are rooting for the characters to succeed.  Gansey is on this quest, this journey, this obsession of his that as a reader you want to see accomplished.  And you're given just enough at the end of the book that will hold you over till the next book, but makes you want to come back for more!

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