Synopsis:
There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. 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 Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. 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 warned that she will cause her true love to die. 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.
Review:
Okay. Where to start?
I went into this book really sceptical and worried to be honest. If you haven’t seen my review on Shiver then go watch/read that and it will explain why. But basically I didn’t have a lot of love for Stiefvater and I don’t know if that has changed much since finishing this book…. Maybe a little?
The Raven Boys is a complexed and odd story to say the least. I won’t tell you a bit about it because frankly the plot wasn’t a massive thing for me in this book. It was a more interesting plot line then Shiver but not enough to get the popcorn ready. Basically it follows a group of 4 boys that believe in the supernatural and are finding something. The girl by the name of Blue kinda tags along. See not that interesting.
I can see why this book has high ratings, I truly do but at no point of the book I wanted to know what happened. Mostly cause I guessed the ending but I didn’t have the need to know if I was right or not which usually happens. What I was more interesting in knowing is if any of the Raven Boys are single? And where can I get there numbers?
Should I start with the negatives? Get that over and done with? Yeah..
I didn’t like Blue. Which is odd since we share the same name and you would think I would be pleased or excited about that. But I simply was not. Blue was a dull character a nothing character. I thing the only reason she was in the book was so that there would be a little bit of optimistic hope for readers of a love triangle or something gross and lovie dovie. Did she do much? Mehhh not really. Honestly if you gave her ‘power’ of enhancing spirits to one of the Raven boys it would have made her obsolete. Other than her power she was useless and really nothing character who thought too much and wore the weirdest clothes. I really hat mehh characters.. can you tell?
The story line wasn’t anything more interesting, the start of the book was drawn out and dull and I constantly wondered where it was going? Was there even going to be a plot? Probably not? You could honestly pick this book up from the middle of the book and instantly know what was happening as well as find out all you needed to know about the characters.
The ending? It was okay. Can an author over describe but not give you any true idea of what actually happened? Yes, they can and this is one of those books. The ending was over described but yet not a whole lot actually happened. I don’t not need a page of fluff to get the details that could have been said in one paragraph. Maybe this was just leading up the next books in the series? Maybe.. there needs to be more action to back up all this details.
I’m going to have to break down the details of this book two. There were two kids of details used. One: the overbearing and over thought details. Basically this is the details that we could have gone without and were not curial to any part of the plot or story. EXAMPLE: I do not need a page full of details on Gansey’s fathers cars and what movies they were in and blah blah blah. Not needed.
Two: the interesting details. These are the kind of details that are useful and descriptive of character and places. EXAMPLE: Instead of saying the boys rolled up in a car… The boys rolled up in the loud Camaro.
The number two details are brilliant and I always recommend that they get used stead of everyday words, chair, car, boat. They start creating a picture for the reader which invites them to keep reading the story. The number two details on the other hand make the dialogue of the story too busy. In some instances authors may need to over describe but in this story I honestly have no idea why Blue talked about walking the dogs for money as often (or at all) like she does. Where they important to the story? No. Did she bond with them? No. Where they part of the ritual to bring back scrooge from Christmas past? No. They were usually descriptions.
What I did like (which explains the rating) was the Raven Boys. You can tell that Stiefvater dedicated a lot of time into these characters. They are complex, unique, bold and I was smitten from day go, even if they do come from a private school. Let me break it down..
Gansy, the self-appointed leader of this rabble and looks out for them in more ways than imaginable. Feeds them, gets them out of trouble, and protects them. Someone get this main an apron because he is natural mother and I LOVEEE IT. Not to mention his formal manner of speaking and finding all things vintage cool
Adam. I really want to stand up and protect Adam, no matter how much sass he gave me. He has a trolley full of baggage, including the abuse but he carry’s himself well. His determination to strive on his own though is just everything.
Watch out we have a bad ass over here. Ronan. Dark, mysterious, rebel but then looks after a baby bird. Every bookworms dream.
Noah we don’t get a lot of Noah but I adore him just the same.
Will I be reading the rest of the series? Yes. Is it purely for the Raven Boys and nothing else? Yes.
Rating: 3/5
ISBN: 9781407134611
Publisher: Scholastic
Blue Fairy Tales 
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