Review - The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #1)
Publisher: Scholastic UK (19th Sept 2012)

Blurb:
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve… Either you’re his true love… or you killed him."

Part of a clairvoyant family, Blue has spent sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. So when she meets Gansey’s spirit on the corpse road, Blue knows that either he is her true love – or she has killed him. The boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and he is a student at Aglionby, a wealthy local private school. With three other mysterious and privileged boys, he is on a quest to find the grave of Glendower – a Welsh king buried somewhere on a Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour. Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey really her true love – the one she is destined to kill? Blue never fully believed in the prophecy. But as she is caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

“The only thing was, she didn't really want to see the future. What she wanted was to see something no one else could see or would see, and maybe that was asking for more magic that was in the world.”

That’s it, folks! I finally lost my Maggie Stiefvater virginity. I’ve seen and heard so much about Maggie Stiefvater’s books, even back in 2010 when she released the Mercy Falls trilogy. But it took me so long to pick up her books, I am almost too ashamed to admit it. I just finished the Raven Boys last night and I am still reeling from the after effects of it.

“She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.”

I think I am one of the few ones who hasn’t read The Raven Boys but if you’ve not read it, I will hold a knife to your throat and force the book into your hands and I’ll only back down once you’ve finished it. I devoured Maggie Stiefvater’s writing like the lushest, delicious morsel one can find in a book. It’s imaginative and her writing is captivating to a point that I was flying through the book without knowing it. Maggie Stiefvater allows her readers to imagine and her use of literary devices and unique, out-of-this-world expressions enable the readers to interpret the different layers of her story.

“She recognized the strange happiness that came from loving something without knowing why you did, that strange happiness that was sometimes so big that it felt like sadness.”

The storytelling element of the book is just cleverly written and the plot twist towards the end had me floored. With her unusual, poetic prose, it molds a very haunting and mysterious feeling of the book, much like the enigma of ravens in the story, which I really liked. If you’re still wondering if you’d enjoy The Raven Boys, think of it as The Covenant (Oh, the level of testosterones in the film!) meets Practical Magic!

“He'd chosen his weapon well: only the truth, untempered by kindness.”

The book follows a psychic’s daughter, Blue and the four Raven Boys who go to Aglionby, an elitist high school for the rich and privilege. The opening line of the book immediately enticed me to dive right into the story. A story where Blue will kill her true love if she kisses him. I liked that the story focuses on every character, including the Raven Boys, especially their background stories that added more depth to the story, as a whole. The characters’ nuances were unique and the way Maggie Stiefvater wrote them, intrigued me to read on.

“It had been a long time ago, but also, it was no time at all.
Sometimes, Gansey felt like his life was made up of a dozen hours that he could never forget.”

Since The Raven Boys is the first book of the Raven Cycle, there’s still quite a lot that has been eluded in the first book. However, Maggie Stiefvater ended the book with such a cruel, yet creative way that has kept me wondering since I finished it last night. I don’t wish to spoil it for you because it’s actually a very pleasant and interesting surprise when you find out the mechanics of the story and the underlying plot. I do look forward to reading The Dream Thieves because Ronan was the only character that intrigued me the most when I was reading The Raven Boys and the spotlight in on the mysterious, brooding Ronan Lynch in The Dream Thieves!

I’d like to thank Pansing Singapore for sending me a copy of The Raven Boys in exchange for an honest review.