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A review by nannahnannah
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
Out of every new release this year, I was looking forward to this one the most! I love Blue and the Raven Boys. But after reading the epilogue and finishing it all . . . I dunno. I'm so conflicted.
The highlight of the book is definitely the addition of the character Henry Cheng. I am gonna try not to spoil much, but this guy is impossible not to love. He's charming, magical, well-crafted, and everything the Raven Cycle stands for. Plus, his difficulty with words and expressing himself verbally is something that's so relatable and made me want to hug him and (even) Maggie Stiefvater for including him.
Every character in this book is fully fleshed out and as real and lovable as in every other book of the cycle. The book is really about them: Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah, more so than the plot, to be honest. Therein lies the problem, I think. It focuses so much on those characters (except for maybe Noah, who could've had more page time) that the plot is lost, especially toward the last 1/4.
There's also so many characters that even among them all, some of them are lost and have endings that are a little bit unresolved. I wish things came together better for them, or that their arcs were better defined. But with just the sheer amount of people this cycle came to have, it's no wonder the climax and the last book ended up being a little messy.
I think in the end, I just wish the climax had more magic. And yeah, you could argue the entire climax was and involved magic. But what was left out was the magical feeling while reading and the magical feeling after putting the book down. I wasn't left with a contented feeling of closure or wonder. It was just "oh, okay, that's how it ends!" more than "WHOAAAA," which I was really hoping to have. Maybe I came in with too high of hopes, so I could've done this to myself. But there were just so many strands to come together, and I just don't think they did.
The highlight of the book is definitely the addition of the character Henry Cheng. I am gonna try not to spoil much, but this guy is impossible not to love. He's charming, magical, well-crafted, and everything the Raven Cycle stands for. Plus, his difficulty with words and expressing himself verbally is something that's so relatable and made me want to hug him and (even) Maggie Stiefvater for including him.
Every character in this book is fully fleshed out and as real and lovable as in every other book of the cycle. The book is really about them: Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah, more so than the plot, to be honest. Therein lies the problem, I think. It focuses so much on those characters (except for maybe Noah, who could've had more page time) that the plot is lost, especially toward the last 1/4.
There's also so many characters that even among them all, some of them are lost and have endings that are a little bit unresolved. I wish things came together better for them, or that their arcs were better defined. But with just the sheer amount of people this cycle came to have, it's no wonder the climax and the last book ended up being a little messy.
I think in the end, I just wish the climax had more magic. And yeah, you could argue the entire climax was and involved magic. But what was left out was the magical feeling while reading and the magical feeling after putting the book down. I wasn't left with a contented feeling of closure or wonder. It was just "oh, okay, that's how it ends!" more than "WHOAAAA," which I was really hoping to have. Maybe I came in with too high of hopes, so I could've done this to myself. But there were just so many strands to come together, and I just don't think they did.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse