The Raven Boys #review

I know you've all heard me rave about Maggie Stiefvater. She is an amazing author, and while I'm not always 100% satisfied with all her books, I AM enthralled with them. Maggie's voice is so strong, so poetic and magical. The Raven Boys was no different. She has this soft way of telling a story, and I will gladly read everything she writes.

Now that I've raved a bit about her...the book.

The Raven Boys started out slow for me. I had trouble settling into the POV shifts between the characters, at first. But as I pressed on, this beautiful world unfolded before my eyes and I was left wanting to devour. Unfortunately, I've been really busy this week so it seems it took me forever to actually, you know, devour.

Blue is the daughter of a psychic, and every psychic she's ever met has told her that if she kisses a boy, her true love, he will die. Pretty grim, right? You'd think Blue would be raving mad and kicking things to protest this horrible fate, but she handles is pretty well. 

Even when she and an "aunt" are monitoring the Corpse Road and she sees--yay! because Blue doesn't possess psychic abilities--a young guy her age passing through. Blue finds out his name (Gansey) and knows this must be him, the boy she's destined to kiss and kill, and now that she's seen him on the Corpse Road, she knows he'll be dead within a year.

Gansey, having a strange interest in all things magical, was out monitoring spiritual activity on that same night, and he has the conversation with Blue on tape, though he remembers none of it.

When the two meet, it's definitely not love at first sight. Heck, I'm not even sure it's friendship. But their worlds collide, and Blue and Gansey, while nothing romantic happens between them, work together toward his unusual goal of finding a dead king on a magical line. But they're not the only ones after magic and wishes and freedom. And what started out as a simple search turns into a game of solving murders, wondering who's after them, and being betrayed by those they thought were close.

There were very powerful undertones in this book, tones that I appreciate greatly in young adult literature. I applaud Maggie for this, but I cannot tell you what they are. You must read this yourself. :-)

Solid 4 Stars!