Tuesday 24 May 2016

Review on The Raven Boys [The Raven Cycle #1]



Every year on St Mark's Eve, Blue Sargent has waited in the churchyard with her mother to discover who was going to die within a year. However, despite being part of a family of psychics, Blue has no psychic abilities herself, and has never been able to see the spirits. However that all changes when she sees Gansey's spirit, a boy from Aglionby, an all boys private school. Blue discovers that the only reason she is able to see Gansey is that she is destined to either kill him or fall in love with him. However, despite warnings from he family to stay away from Gansey, Blue finds herself wrapped up in his plans to find Glyndwr, a Welsh king who has been presumably dead for thousands of years. With the help of Gansey and his friends, Blue must discover and reawaken the ley line before anyone else finds it first.

I decided to read this book as my best friend would not stop talking about this series, and as always she peer pressured me into reading it. I'm so glad that she did as I absolutely adored this book! The first thing I noticed however was that the marketing was really bad, as the blurb on the back of the book focused on the plot point of Blue's true love dying if she ever kissed him. It made it sound like the book was extremely cliché and full of a cheesy romance, and honestly I would never have picked this book up from the blurb alone. However, this is not what the book is about at all, and the romance is extremely minimal which I was surprised at, seeing as it seemed to be marketed as a romance.

I did initially feel as if I wasn't going to like the book as much as my friend seemed to, as I thought that it was a little slow at the start and there wasn't enough going on to keep me fully interested. Blue didn't grab my attention from the start as much as I thought she would. I felt that her character development was a little on the slow side, and I didn't start to really like her as a character until she started interacting with the boys. Blue is a no nonsense character, and I loved that she was never intimidated by the boys, and easily put them in their place. I especially loved her relationship with Ronan, as Ronan initially didn't like her and tried to intimidate her, but once he realised it wasn't working he started acting a lot nicer towards her. I also loved that although a romantic relationship was forming between her and Adam, there was little hints that her destiny was to be with Gansey. Although Adam is extremely sweet and I love both him and Blue, I wasn't too keen on a romance forming between them and enjoyed Blue's interactions with Gansey a lot more.

I absolutely adored the strong friendships between the boys. I find that there is a severe lack of lasting friendships between boys in YA, and that they usually tend to argue with each other over a girl. I loved that this was not the case with these characters, and you could tell that they all really cared for each other and would never let a girl come between them. I loved that although they had all been friends for a few years, Blue easily fitted in with them and quickly caught up to where they were up to in their search for Glyndwr.

I have to talk about the character's themselves, as they were all so perfect and I loved them all. Although I hate picking favourites, I have to admit that Ronan Lynch stole my heart. I'm always trash for cocky characters with a tragic back story, and Ronan definitely did not disappoint in this aspect. I loved that although he looked intimidating and was an all round bad boy, he was also extremely caring towards his friends, and helped Adam with his problems at home without questioning him or putting any blame on him. I also loved how gentle he was towards his pet raven, as it showed a completely different side to him.I adored Adam, as although he is the only one out of the boys who isn't rich, he tries to fit in with them as best as he can. I loved how independent he was, as although it would have only been too easy to accept hand outs from Gansey and Ronan, he worked multiple jobs to pay for his tuition alongside trying to keep up his good grades and helping Gansey in his search. Adam was extremely sweet and although I didn't enjoy the romance forming between him and Blue I could definitely understand why Blue liked him. I loved that non of these boys were the typical perfect, brooding YA male protagonist, as they all had their faults, from having severe allergies to doing badly at school. I always feel as if characters who have some sort of fault always seem more human and relatable, as no one is ever completely perfect in real life.

I loved that although this book focuses on ghosts, psychics and ley lines, it also included some important themes, the main one being child abuse. I was absolutely heart broken that Adam's father physically abused him, and I wanted so badly for him to get out his parents home and be somewhere safe. I felt awful for him and the fact that he believed that he deserved to be abused. I also loved how Ronan's sexuality was brought up in an extremely subtle way, and that Blue didn't react to it in any way. I feel as if a character's sexuality being revealed as anything but heterosexual causes a huge stir in most YA, so I loved how the approach to it in The Raven Boys was completely different to anything else I've experienced when it comes to gay characters. Ronan was treated exactly the same as the straight characters, which is exactly how it should be.

Although it was pretty obvious who the villain of this story was, there was still some major plot twists that I was not expecting at all. I also loved that the plot focused on a Welsh king, as being a Welsh person myself I feel that it is extremely rare for YA authors to even realise that Wales exists. As there is a University in my home town named after Glyndwr, I was already vaguely aware who he was and of the legend, so I loved learning more about it from this book. I also loved that the magic was mixed perfectly with contemporary. I feel as if once a YA character makes a huge discovery such as magic existing, their previous life disappears entirely, so I loved that although finding Glyndwr was the most important thing to the boys, they still had to make time to study for school and go to classes. I am extremely excited to continue this series and can not wait to get my hands on The Dream Thieves!





6 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed it! I honestly don't care about who Blue ends up with (sorry!) but the friendship between the boys really hit the feels! Great review!

    Tasya // The Literary Huntress

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    1. I think she's inevitably going to end up with Gansey but I honestly don't care about the romances too much there's way more exciting things happening! The friendships are what I'm living for tbh they are now all my sons

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  2. People rant and rave, and rant and rave, and then rant and rave some more about this one. I do have this on my TBR and I really hope I wind up enjoying it. Glad you did. :)

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    1. It really does live up to the hype in my opinion! I've just picked up the next two books from the library so I'm really hoping I enjoy those just as much

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  3. This review sums up this book pretty perfectly! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the rest of the series!

    ~Riv @ Forever Obsession

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    1. Thank you! I'm going to start The Dream Thieves tomorrow so I should be posting a review on that in around 2 weeks :)

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