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A review by colleenmarie_
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
3.0
This book took me much longer to read than the rest. Certainly, the last 100-150 pages felt like we were on a road trip to somewhere very exciting, but we were getting stopped at every red light. The company was good and the music was good, so the ride was not terrible, but the anticipation had been built before we even got in the car and the drive was just kinda bothersome. The pace of the ending was entirely too slow for me, until all of a sudden it was entirely too fast. I wasn't entirely sure of the ending and needed to reread it and pause to make sure I had some understanding of what was happening. (And to be honest, I'm not sure I even have that. These books are for dreamers like Ronan, which I am not.)
The thing Stiefvater did wonderfully was her descriptions of romance. I know this is a long way from being a romance novel, but her words had my heart melting.
I was both pleased and annoyed with how everything tied together. While I enjoyed The Dream Thieves, I bored a bit of Ronan's story and wanted to get back to the quest of finding Glendower. I didn't care for Neeve's comings and goings. Gwenllian and Artemus felt like extraneous characters and I wanted so badly to skip their chapters. Even Henry seemed like excess to me, a distraction from what really mattered: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Blue on their great and terrible quest for Glendower. So while it was satisfactory to see everything come together, it still felt like there was too much. Too much icing on the cake or what have you.
This series is not the type I typically go for. It was fun, I would recommend it to people who enjoy more fantasy than I, but I cannot say that it in any way swayed me to pick up more by Stiefvater or more mystical, magical books.
And a side-note: I'm still confused by this triangle symbol. I get that it's a map of ley lines, but you cannot honestly expect me to believe that a line from Boston to the South, one from New York through Washington DC, and one from Virginia west towards Kentucky can cross in such a neat, triangular manner. That just doesn't work. (See? I'm an analytical person, the farthest you can be from the type of dreamer that would fall in love with these books)
The thing Stiefvater did wonderfully was her descriptions of romance. I know this is a long way from being a romance novel, but her words had my heart melting.
Spoiler
Seeing Adam through Ronan's eyes and vice versa, Blue and Gansey's secret hand-holding and nuzzling close, all of it, just was written so carefully. Each word she used filled me with emotion and made me understand exactly what kind of love and affection these characters shared.I was both pleased and annoyed with how everything tied together. While I enjoyed The Dream Thieves, I bored a bit of Ronan's story and wanted to get back to the quest of finding Glendower. I didn't care for Neeve's comings and goings. Gwenllian and Artemus felt like extraneous characters and I wanted so badly to skip their chapters. Even Henry seemed like excess to me, a distraction from what really mattered: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Blue on their great and terrible quest for Glendower. So while it was satisfactory to see everything come together, it still felt like there was too much. Too much icing on the cake or what have you.
This series is not the type I typically go for. It was fun, I would recommend it to people who enjoy more fantasy than I, but I cannot say that it in any way swayed me to pick up more by Stiefvater or more mystical, magical books.
And a side-note: I'm still confused by this triangle symbol. I get that it's a map of ley lines, but you cannot honestly expect me to believe that a line from Boston to the South, one from New York through Washington DC, and one from Virginia west towards Kentucky can cross in such a neat, triangular manner. That just doesn't work. (See? I'm an analytical person, the farthest you can be from the type of dreamer that would fall in love with these books)