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A review by yoanagrg
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
Dream cast
Gansey:
Ronan:
(I WILL BE IGNORING THE FACT THAT HIS HEAD IS SHAVED 'TILL THE END OF THE WORLD)
Blue:
or
(I know, I know she's not blonde but Avril is short just like her and she used to wear similar clothes as Blue's)
Adam:
They even have the same name!
Noah:
The first thing worth mentioning is that the pace was very slow in the first 2/3. Nevertheless, it wasn't the boring kind of slow, because Maggie is too talented to allow this. This was the base for everything that followed. The characters were carefully layered with each new chapter, every page revealing more and more, but not too much. The suspense was killing me! I'm usually able to deduct what's going to happen, because the skeletons of fantasy stories are very much alike - they follow Joseph Campbell's template of the hero's journey. But not this one. The whole plot is built very carefuly, like a spiderweb waiting for you to get caught - and I did get caught. It was utterly creepy, involving all sorts of things like unsolved murder mystery, dark magic, inexplicable (for now) raven symbolism and, uhm.
My favourite character is Gansey. I'm all about medieval history nerds and his most adorable trait is that he's the personification of the mom friend. And that is why I didn't like Adam at all. What's with all this pride, man? There's a border between being friends with someone and feeling like they own you, true, but he's too far away from either. Tilting at windmills, or more like protecting windmills that aren't even there, that's Adam. Just let Gansey help you and get over your trust issues.
Oh, and I really liked the Latin part, but there were some mistakes that I couldn't ignore. The verb always goes last!
I'm giving 4 stars because of the slow pace, other than that the book was amazing, full of symbolism, mysticism and suspense.
Gansey:
Ronan:
(I WILL BE IGNORING THE FACT THAT HIS HEAD IS SHAVED 'TILL THE END OF THE WORLD)
Blue:
or
(I know, I know she's not blonde but Avril is short just like her and she used to wear similar clothes as Blue's)
Adam:
They even have the same name!
Noah:
The first thing worth mentioning is that the pace was very slow in the first 2/3. Nevertheless, it wasn't the boring kind of slow, because Maggie is too talented to allow this. This was the base for everything that followed. The characters were carefully layered with each new chapter, every page revealing more and more, but not too much. The suspense was killing me! I'm usually able to deduct what's going to happen, because the skeletons of fantasy stories are very much alike - they follow Joseph Campbell's template of the hero's journey. But not this one. The whole plot is built very carefuly, like a spiderweb waiting for you to get caught - and I did get caught. It was utterly creepy, involving all sorts of things like unsolved murder mystery, dark magic, inexplicable (for now) raven symbolism and, uhm
Spoiler
GHOSTS (seriously, I got creeped out when I realised that Noah is freaking Czerny)My favourite character is Gansey. I'm all about medieval history nerds and his most adorable trait is that he's the personification of the mom friend. And that is why I didn't like Adam at all. What's with all this pride, man? There's a border between being friends with someone and feeling like they own you, true, but he's too far away from either. Tilting at windmills, or more like protecting windmills that aren't even there, that's Adam. Just let Gansey help you and get over your trust issues.
Oh, and I really liked the Latin part, but there were some mistakes that I couldn't ignore. The verb always goes last!
I'm giving 4 stars because of the slow pace, other than that the book was amazing, full of symbolism, mysticism and suspense.