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mickraine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Abandonment
sweetjuicee_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
TWs listed below
"You're Maura's daughter," Neeve said, and before Blue could answer, she added, "this is the year you'll fall in love."
I read this book because I remembered how much my friend liked it during COVID-19. I saw her reposting memes and fanart of the series, so when I saw it in my (not so local) bookstore, I bought it on a whim with two other books of a similar price and I can still feel that £30-ish hole in my bank account. This book was worth it, though, and I hope I can say the same for the other two.
~~~
The book follows Blue Sargent, the daughter of a psychic who lives with other psychics yet doesn't have any psychic abilities herself, becoming friends with 4 boys who go to the private school in her small town Aglionby. The school's mascot is a raven, so boys from this school gained the moniker 'The Raven Boys', and together they try and wake the ley lines to find the old Welsh King Glendower, who disappeared after the English took over Wales back in the 13th century.
However, the almost nauseating pacing and emotional changes were not fun. The true mystery where they try to wake the Ley Line and find Glendower doesn't start until roughly halfway through the book.
The same goes for the emotional changes.
Finally, I spoiled myself after trying to look for fanart to understand what the characters looked like, but even before I did that, it was so obvious that something was wrong with Noah. What do you mean none of them could tell that something was wrong with Noah, let alone that he was a ghost? He never eats, he never drinks, he wears the uniform all the time but neither Ronan, Gansey nor Adam share any lessons with him, his bedroom looks untouched, only you, Blue and a select few people can see him and he appears and disappears multiple times a day? Did they just think he was a little quirky like that? If the only signs were the lack of eating and drinking, then sure, but they saw them all and chose to ignore it. When they confront Noah, he says he tried to tell them he was a ghost. This scene just made me question their relationships with each other. If they couldn't figure out that their ghost friend who never tried to hide that he was a ghost was, in fact, a ghost, do Ronan, Gansey and Adam even know each other?
~~~
I like Adam and Blue together. They're cute. They suit each other. They make a good "this is our first relationship" couple. I can't figure out much to say about them, other than that. I enjoyed their relationship,
~~~
This review is far too long, so I'll keep this short.
- Blue: For some reason, I thought her name was Lily while trying to write this. Either way, she suffers from something I've recently called Tumblr Syndrome. Plain enough that she can be a self-insert, and "so different" from others, so "not like other girls". Lucy Carlyle from my favourite book series also suffers from this, less from the characterisation, but she explicitly states that she has no female friends in book 2. I like Blue. She lives a relatively boring life despite her psychic family and truly plays a vital role in the story. One thing I found weird was how she hated the Raven Boys
but had no qualms about helping them with their search for Glendower , but she's a good character, even with slight Tumblr Syndrome. - Gansey: Not a fan. He's not a bad character or even a bad person, but he's definitely not as interesting as I thought he would be
, even though the only reason why he's alive is because of Noah's death . Money's been in his family for so long that he didn't realise how out of touch he is with Adam and Blue, and I hated when he said "I'm sorry your father never taught you the word repugnant. He was too busy smashing your head against the wall of your trailer while you apologise for being alive", it's insane how he thought this was appropriate to say to anyone, let alone Adam. He's old enough to know that words can be just as painful as a punch. - Ronan: Another sufferer of Tumblr Syndrome: edgy bad boy with some sort of parental (father) issues who takes it out on those closest to him (his brothers, Adam and Gansey) and has some sort of unhealthy coping mechanism (alcoholism) which makes his grades suffer in all but one subject (latin, for some reason), aka one of my least favourite characterisations, as a child of Episode. He's better than the rest of the men of these tropes since he does genuinely start changing his attitude and studies.
- Adam: I have a soft spot for characters like Adam. Maybe it's from consuming too much media that suffers from Second Lead Syndrome and mid-story-but-end-of-book-one character assassinations (*cough* War Hour *cough*), but I always looked forward to his chapters and enjoyed reading his thought process much more than the others. He's sweet and thankfully not creepy.
- Noah: Another character I have a soft spot for. Even though his friends are either dumber than they think or incredibly self-absorbed (both seems more likely), his strangeness was obvious from the start.
I left this review for too long, so now I've forgotten a good amount of things I probably could've written if I didn't start this review 1 month or 3 library books after finishing this. Even though this review seems like it's mainly huge complaints, this was a great read and I'm very excited to start book 2.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment
Minor: Vomit, Grief, and Toxic friendship
takarakei's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This gave me definite call backs to The Whispering Dark which I feel like is a lesser known ya fantasy stand-alone that if you liked this you would probably love.
I look forward to continuing the series as I hear it gets better with each book.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Self harm, Vomit, Car accident, and Alcohol
jennylarue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Abandonment
lindseyhall44's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Depsite not loving this book, it does have one of the best opening lines I’ve read to date. “The Raven Boys” by Maggie Steifvater follows Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah on their quest to awake magic sources called Ley lines, in order to reach a coveted treasure that could change their lives forever. Simple right? It would be if they were the only people looking for the ley lines. And if Blues physic family hadn’t foretold that one Kiss from blue would murder her true love… so no, not exactly simple.
This book is definitely a favorite for a lot of people, and don’t let my rating dissuade you from picking it up. It was a fun read with a unique plot and found family trope. All of my favorite things. But I felt like the ending was abrupt, and I really wish that Stiefavter would have gone deeper into the Ley lines themselves, because there were a couple instances that left me was confused.
All in all, I will probably be picking up the other books in this series, but not immediately.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Abandonment, and Alcohol
shreyasingh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment