Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I read this book as a read-along :)

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

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My Thoughts: I've been wanting to read this book for the past couple of years. When the opportunity came, I was stoked. I couldn't wait to get started reading this and understand what the big fuss was about. Plus, the cover kept calling out to me. The Raven Boys turned out to be an interesting read, but it didn't blow me away like I was hoping. 

The plot was slow and confusing. It began describing Blue's prophecy about her true love, which was intriguing, but then the following chapters became a little tedious to read. It was very wordy with not much happening. It felt like the author wrote many character scenes separately and just smashed them together without making sure it flowed well. It had me scratching my head a few times trying to make sense as to what was happening. The majority of it could have been edited out. However, it did pick up the last few chapters and I enjoyed the ending.

The best part of this book was the characters. They were fleshed out very well that I could imagine them being real people. Blue was your average girl who was socially awkward. She came from a family of psychics. Blue didn't have powers other than to amply other's. Gansey was the rich boy who was looking for Glendower and who had a good heart. He was obsessive yet he tried to help people with his money without realizing that many would take offense with his help. Then we had Adam who was a sweet boy despite being abused by his father. It tore my heart reading the scene where his father laid his hands on Adam. Ronan was the angry boy who caused trouble, but he had a good heart. I loved what he did for Adam. Finally, there was Noah. Let's just say I was not expecting to learn who Noah really was. 

In the end, I was happy that I finally got read this book. It was not perfect and I wished I would have loved it more. It was slow and wordy, but I enjoyed the characters tremendously. The ending left me intrigued enough encourage me to read the rest of the series. I might not read them right away, but I will some day. I rate it: