“Adam had once told Gansey, "Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done.”Halfway through writing this I discovered this is going to be completely and utterly difficult to understand, purely because I feel like I have to talk about everything because the plot is so full on and so important. However, this website does it far more justice than my attempt will be, so if you find yourself interested, visit here. What the description does not tell you is that it is hugely based around supernatural, physics, ley lines and a quest to find a Welsh King Glendower, so when I started to read I found myself confused and therefore had to google about it. If I had known that this was a huge platform which the book would be set around, parts of me doubts I would have gone out of my way to read it. But I'm really glad I did.
The characters in this book are my dream team. I want to be friends with them all, and just tag along in their friendship circle. We have the Raven boys; who go to the pristine boarding school and then we have Blue, the daughter of a physic who also lives with a bunch of them.
One of our protagonists is called Blue Sargent. I really admire Blue, it's not often you find such a strong female lead so early in the series, in some of the other series' I've read it's took the character quite a long journey to become so strong and independent. Which is why I think I really like Blue. She's incredibly witty, sarcastic and intelligent, my favorite characteristics in a person.
The next character is Gansey, full name Richard Campbell Gansey III. I really like Gansey. I love that he is self-conscious of who he is—he doesn't wanna be that rich kid that everyone assumes is stuck up and conceded. He doesn't want to be that, and he isn't. He's very intelligent and incredibly mature, he's almost like the parent of the group. Gansey is very passionate and I love to see a character who is passionate about something. I feel that Gansey can be quite insecure at times; when he speaks of how his friends are pushing him away, I don't think he fully understands how much he means to every single one of his friends, which saddens me. Oh, it also saddens me a ridiculous amount that Gansey will be dead within the year, but I'm hoping that won't happen.
Noah has to be my favourite; he is so innocent, cute and quiet. I love how he gets along with Blue, probably because Blue gives off energy that helps make Noah visible. Oh, yeah, Noah is dead, he was murdered when he was seventeen. Then we have Ronan who is this mysterious character, he's—well I would say he's—Gansey's best friend, Gansey is the only person who knew Ronan before Ronan's dad died and back then he is described as a different person. Ronan looks dangerous and is quite dangerous, he's very abrupt which I kinda love, he curses a lot and is vulgar in that way but it just makes it all the more real. Underneath this exterior though, you know that there is a caring side to Ronan which is proved throughout the novel. Then we have Adam Parrish, there are certain characters you just want to give a hug to and I feel as though Adam is one of those, after coming from a completely different background to his friends, growing up in a trailer park, being physically abused by his dad; he's even more determined to go out and prove what he is capable of.
Okay, now on to the stuff I wasn't such a fan of. Unfortunately what I disliked is something very unavoidable. It was the writing style. Maggie Stiefvater's writing style in this book is very verbose, and I found myself drifting off because there was far more that was being said than needed, so it was fairly easy for me to drift off when there was no dialog. It took me quite a while to get used to her writing style, I was even going to put the book down and stop reading, but I refused to do that because I had already purchased the second one too. If you're going to read this book I recommend sticking it out until at least hundred pages, that's where I fully got into it and found myself up at ridiculous times. I think as readers you have to adjust to the writing style, if like me it's not one I usually read. This was exactly the same for the second book—The Dream Thieves—I felt it took just as long to get into it, even though I read it straight after the first book. I can say, honestly I preferred the first book so much more, the second was a struggle in honesty.
I will continue to read the series, of course I will, because it's so interesting—though confusing—to not continue reading and these characters like I've said are my dream team, they're pretty awesome. Just yesterday the third book cover and name was released, which is Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which comes out in October and the following year the fourth will come out.