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A review by xeyra1
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
So, I have some mixed feelings about parts of this book even though I really liked others. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this book. But as a conclusion, it's both a fitting and a confusing one, with some threads hanging and some issues not explored enough but it does resolve enough stuff to be satisfying even if somewhat frustrating.
The writing style continues to be great. I really do love the way these novels have been written and the amount of parallels in them. I continue to love the women of 300 Fox Way, Blue is still my girl (really, it's been a while since I have liked a female YA protagonist quite this much, I always love her POVs), I really came to love Adam and Ronan a lot more than I did in the first book - that's great character development for those two across four novels - and even some of the new characters introduced or further developed were great, like Henry Cheng. There are particular relationships developed further in The Raven King that are a joy to watch and I loved a lot of the events going on as related to the unmaking being perpetrated by the sleeper that should not have been awakened. There were a lot of tense and thrilling moments in the novel, which is really all I ask in a book that I'm enjoying.
However, there were some issues that diminished my enjoyment a bit.
First of all, I think the introduction of a host of new characters, both here and the last novel, that didn't really lead anywhere (mainly Greenmantle, who basically had zero involvement with anything, Piper's father and his twins, the idea of a group of mystical artifact buyers...). I liked Henry Cheng's development, but he basically came into the story as if dropped in and became immediately important and relevant enough to be part of the 'group'. Who, to be honest, have been less of a group and more of a combination of duos and/or trios instead of a real group. Up until the end, when they united together to get shit done. And save Gansey.
Noah was so under utilized this time around. And the way the events with him ended up... I needed a lot more closure than what we got. Closure is actually part of what I feel was missing. The epilogue, in fact, was disappointing to me. I wish either the book had ended at the last chapter or the epilogue had been different, instead of little snippets of things that didn't really satisfy my need to know what happened after the last chapter. I understand the author ended the book in a way that made us want something more, even if we can't explain it, but all I wanted was at least some answers that we never got, some immediate reactions to events or at least reference to them...
Overall, this has been a great series and I'm really glad I got around to reading it because I did fall in love with a host of characters as I didn't think I would, and I'm looking forward to exploring more works from this author.
The writing style continues to be great. I really do love the way these novels have been written and the amount of parallels in them. I continue to love the women of 300 Fox Way, Blue is still my girl (really, it's been a while since I have liked a female YA protagonist quite this much, I always love her POVs), I really came to love Adam and Ronan a lot more than I did in the first book - that's great character development for those two across four novels - and even some of the new characters introduced or further developed were great, like Henry Cheng. There are particular relationships developed further in The Raven King that are a joy to watch and I loved a lot of the events going on as related to the unmaking being perpetrated by the sleeper that should not have been awakened. There were a lot of tense and thrilling moments in the novel, which is really all I ask in a book that I'm enjoying.
However, there were some issues that diminished my enjoyment a bit.
First of all, I think the introduction of a host of new characters, both here and the last novel, that didn't really lead anywhere (mainly Greenmantle, who basically had zero involvement with anything, Piper's father and his twins, the idea of a group of mystical artifact buyers...). I liked Henry Cheng's development, but he basically came into the story as if dropped in and became immediately important and relevant enough to be part of the 'group'. Who, to be honest, have been less of a group and more of a combination of duos and/or trios instead of a real group. Up until the end, when they united together to get shit done. And save Gansey.
Noah was so under utilized this time around. And the way the events with him ended up... I needed a lot more closure than what we got. Closure is actually part of what I feel was missing. The epilogue, in fact, was disappointing to me. I wish either the book had ended at the last chapter or the epilogue had been different, instead of little snippets of things that didn't really satisfy my need to know what happened after the last chapter. I understand the author ended the book in a way that made us want something more, even if we can't explain it, but all I wanted was at least some answers that we never got, some immediate reactions to events or at least reference to them...
Overall, this has been a great series and I'm really glad I got around to reading it because I did fall in love with a host of characters as I didn't think I would, and I'm looking forward to exploring more works from this author.