Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Blue Lily, Lily Blue

This book is another amazing addition to The Raven Cycle series. There are even more plot twists and more questions are answered about Glendower and the strange things happening with the leylines in Henrietta. We finally get to meet Gansey’s old friend Malory in person and the Murder Squash Song is basically this universe’s version of Baby Shark. We also discover who Blue’s father is and we’re introduced to Colin and Piper Greenmantle, the new antagonists. Gwenillian is such a funny character but she’s terrifying at the same time.

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grimmdark's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

well ok so as always with these books i enjoyed myself thoroughly because i love the world and the characters and the story, so much! and i have about 3 million quotes i loved that i've kept, because maggie stiefvater's style is so rich. besides the humor (top notch), so many times i found myself reading descriptions of feelings or small moments that my mind could barely grasp as i lived through them. but there they were, laid down so accurately on the page! this sentence barely makes sense but yeah.
THAT SAID, out of the three books in this series that i've read thus far, this is my least favorite. again, it was really good! just not my favorite. there's so much happening everywhere all the time with everyone and everything felt kind of scattered? so all the elements of the story kind of just... float aimlessly towards the ending? i don't know. i felt i was kind of grabbing at too many strings at the same time, and it made the story feel perhaps longer than it was. could be because this is also the book that's taken me by far the longest to finish cause i've been busy!
can't wait to dig into trk!

i'm beyond heartbroken about persephone and jesse dittley. i loved them both so much
also, i was half expecting neeve to make a comeback sooner or later, but i wasn't expecting that ending! she knew piper's name but the latter hadn't ever told her what it was. so either she guessed it with her powers somehow, since she's such a powerful psychic, or she was there the whole time and overheard it when blue, the gray man, etc... were still there. creepy. why does she even make an appearance such a long time after they escape? like did she just stand there watching piper fading in and out of consciousness for however long that was???
i don't know how i feel about gwenllian! and i'm having trouble believing the guy blue found with maura actually is THEE artemus???? guess we'll see.

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andromeda_1998's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I’ve been really enjoying this series so far but I’m not sure if I like how the story is progressing. For me book 1 was the strongest of the three books I’ve now read and I hope that the last book wil be as good as the first. Book two and three are good books as well but I don’t like the extra characters that were introduced. The grey men is growing on me tbh. And some of the extra chapters from Colin Greenmantle’s view are entertaining but I’m not really into them.

Characters
Like the first 2 books, I love most of them! The characters are well put together and they feel very real.

Storytelling
Some chapters in bllb feel a bit sticht together. Like blue’s midday with the garden of Jesse. We hear that the boys where really worried about her but it would have been better to also read about it from there point of view. Some time we are just thrown from one chapter to the next without really getting context. Which makes the bridges between the chapters unstable but overal it’s a really good book.

Plot
The plot is good but this book suffers from the same feeling the second book has. They feel a bit as filler episode (to me) and I don’t really understand why. I’m really curious about the last book of the raven cycle, maybe it makes me understand some of the choices Maggie Stiefvater made in these books.

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alyssadavis's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It should have been impossible. No one should have been able to dream any of these thing, much less all of them. But Adam had seen what Ronan could do. He'd read the dreamt will and ridden in the dreamt Camaro and been terrified by the dreamt night terror.
It was possible that there were two gods in this church.

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carlyisnotliterate's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

boyfriends who frame their Latin teacher for unspeakable crimes against children together, stay together <3

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ramiel's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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