Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy
Published: September 18, 2012 by Scholastic, Inc.
Series: #1 (The Raven Cycle)
Length: 416 pages
Source: bought (at Amazon)
“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.”
Okay I’m still bouncing whether I should give this a 2.5 stars or a 3 stars out of 5. This book was definitely NOT my cup of tea. Honestly, the first 150 pages could’ve fit into 50 pages. The pacing was too slow which made me bored and fall asleep a couple of times. The only reason why I forced myself to finish this book was because I’m participating in a challenge and I HAD to finish it. I’m a bit glad I did though because it kind of gotten better at the 2nd half of the book. I’d say I liked 30% of the book and disliked 70% of it.
It’s written in 3rd person point of view and the p.o.v. randomly switches to our main characters (Gansey, Blue, Noah, Ronan and Adam and sometimes to Blue’s family). Blue is the female protagonist and some of the members in her family are psychics. The Raven Boys are Ronan, Adam and Noah who attends in a school called Aglionby. I really don’t understand the whole “raven” thing and with Chainsaw (Ronan’s pet raven). Was that supposed to be a metaphor or something? I DO understand why they’re called the raven boys (it’s because of their school) but is there any deep meaning to it? I’m thinking it’s a symbol for death because of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem and the stuff that happens in the book, but what do YOU think?
Besides the pacing, I didn’t really liked the characters. They were just so FLAT and I didn’t find them realistic or memorable. They didn’t have a distinct voice so I would get confused at times (except for Ronan’s character). The romance was just BAD too, and adding the love triangle didn’t made it any better for me.
What I did like is the mysteries and little twists that happened in the 2nd half of the book. I also like how we got to know more of Adam’s life a little bit. Overall this book was “ehhhhh *right eye twitches*” and I know some of you LOVED it and I’m really glad you did. I wish I loved it too as much as you did, but unfortunately, this book isn’t for me.
