Thursday, April 18, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater




The Raven Boys is the first in a YA Urban Fantasy series - The four book "Raven Cycle" - by author Maggie Stiefvater.  It is also very much the first book in a quartet, with a substantial part of the book being dedicated to setup for events that won't occur in this book - so if you're looking for a single book to pick up to enjoy, this isn't it.  Still, as a fan of urban fantasy settings, I was very willing to give this a try when I saw it available from my hoopla elibrary.

And I enjoyed The Raven Boys, despite some reservations early about a few characters and the fact that the ending isn't really that satisfying.  The characters, despite at least two coming from rich snooty backgrounds that made me predisposed to dislike them, are excellent, and the central fantasy mystery is excellently done.  It's a book that definitely takes aspects of other stories (there's an element of the setting that seems directly taken out of Empire Strikes Back) but makes these elements its own and the result is an interesting plot that I finished rather quickly for an audiobook. 

Note: I read this as an audiobook.  The reader is very solid, so it's definitely worth a shot in that format.

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
In the town of Henrietta, Virginia, Blue Sargent has long gotten used to being the non-gifted daughter of a psychic - the only person living in her house unable to see or use the supernatural.  Still, she's been told that her presence amplifies the psychic abilities of others, so she's used to going every year to an old church on St. Mark's Eve with her mother and seeing absolutely nothing as her mother apparently sees the spirits of those who are going to die within the next year.  Except this year she does see someone: the spirit of a boy, who gives the name Gansey.....and it seems the reason she can see him is either because he will be her true love - or the cause of his death.  Unwilling to accept this, she decides to seek out Gansey to try and save him.

But Gansey turns out to be a boy at Aglionby, a rich boy's prep school whose students are known as the "Raven Boys" - who Blue has always felt better staying away from.  And at first he seems like the stereotypical Raven Boy, spoiled rich and naive about how the world looks to those who aren't wealthy, going around like he owns the place.  But underneath that exterior, Gansey is very different, and he and his friends - scholarship student Adam, delinquent Ronan, and shy Noah - are each searching for something more: the magical leylines that lie beneath Henrietta and the legend of an undying Welsh King possibly buried under the town.

Against her better Judgment, Blue finds herself getting caught up in the boys' quest, and even falling possibly in love with Adam.  But the Raven Boys aren't the first to be searching for the leylines, and if they're not careful, the same fate will befall them all - a potentially fatal end.
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The Raven Boys jumps around between four characters' points of view - Blue, Gansey, Adam, and Whelk (the antagonist) and uses each of these characters to show different perspectives on the situation in Henrietta - both normally and paranormally.  For me, the book had to overcome a bit of a prejudice I have - I'm not particularly a fan of books involving rich spoiled kids as protagonists, so I was prepared to really dislike Gansey and Ronan in particular.  Yet the book is aware of this and smartly plays around it, with their doucheyness offputting to the other characters as well and each member of the duo having enough elsewise in their characters to keep them interesting to read about, even if they're never really relatable.

Again, for those of you new to my reviews, the biggest thing I usually look for in books I read are good characters, and The Raven Boys certainly has those in spades.  Blue is really well done as one of our two (or three if you count Adam) main characters, and not in the way you'd expect: she isn't jealous or bitter about not having psychic talent of her own, but has long since accepted it as part of her life.  Meanwhile she just sort of wants to live her own life, but can't help but get caught up in Gansey's search once she finds his journal - the idea of a quest being too captivating for her.  Gansey as noted above is somewhat of a spoiled jerk - but you can see why his enthusiasm for his search would be infectious.  Adam - being the only one of the Raven Boys who isn't rich - has a chip on his shoulder that he'll make his own way himself, but faces the twin problems of an abusive father on one hand and Gansey, who doesn't understand why Adam won't take hand-outs, on the other.  And the minor characters, particularly the psychics who Blue has grown up with as her essential family, are each well done and interesting in their smaller page time.

As for the plot, well it's a bit slow honestly, with about 75% of this book being setup, and things start moving only in the final quarter.  Still, the setup is very well done, and takes some interesting twists and turns - some predictable, others not - and never had me confused or jerked out of the suspension of disbelief.  Again though, this is quite clearly a first novel in a longer series, so the ending isn't really satisfying, with the actions one character takes to drive that ending kind of being unclear in their ramifications.  I liked the setup and characters enough to overlook this to continue with this series, but I could see someone else not doing so, and I suspect you need to be committed to reading all four books if you want to start this series.

I figure I'll get to this book's sequel after finishing my next audiobook, so this won't be the last you hear of this series for long on this blog...




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