Background artwork created by Maggie Stiefvater – I’m just borrowing it. Find out how you can own it here!

As some of you know, I am a huge fan of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s actually the only hard paranormal/supernatural series I’ve ever really full-on loved, which is a testament to Maggie’s amazing writing.

I was lucky enough to receive my pre-order of The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater super early, so I read and review it (spoiler-free!) for today, release day! And because I hadn’t yet reviewed The Dream Thieves or Blue Lily, Lily Blue, I’m doing that here, too. If you’re a newbie to the series, you MUST check it out. And if you’re just looking for my thoughts on The Raven King, scroll down – I’ve also got my series wrap up of favorites!

Disclaimer: Even though I’m pretty sure I’ve stuck to broad strokes in my reviews, if you’re a person who doesn’t like to know ANYTHING about your books before reading, stop right there. Come back when you’re finished the books!

SERIES REVIEW: THE RAVEN CYCLE BY MAGGIE STIEFVATER

The Raven Boys

Goodreads
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Find the author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication date: September 18th 2012

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her. His name is Gansey, 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 is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

I reviewed The Raven Boys back in 2013 – check out my review here!

The Dream Thieves

Goodreads
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Find the author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication date: September 17th 2013
Format: Audiobook
My rating:
Buy It: Indigo.ca | Amazon.com | The Book Depository | iBooks | Google Books | Audible

If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take? Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself. One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams. And sometimes he’s not the only one who wants those things. Ronan is one of the raven boys — a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan’s secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface — changing everything in its wake.

Of THE RAVEN BOYS, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote, “Maggie Stiefvater’s can’t-put-it-down paranormal adventure will leave you clamoring for book two.” Now the second book is here, with the same wild imagination, dark romance, and heart-stopping twists that only Maggie Stiefvater can conjure.

Unlike The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves is very much a single character’s book. While the other characters continue to develop their relationships, this book steps back from the Glendower quest to look at the otherworldliness of one of their own: Ronan Lynch, a guy who is able to pull things from his own dreams.

In this book, we also meet The Grey Man, a hitman who’s been sent to find a mysterious magical object in Henrietta, and we begin to understand that there are other forces who are interested in the ley lines. It’s important to note that this is the book where we really begin to understand how much reality, dreams, and the paranormal bleed into each other in Stiefvater’s world.

We also delve a lot further into the Lynch’s family life, and Ronan’s (metaphorical and physical) demons, whether it be frustration with his family, grief at his (and other people’s) tortured home lives, or frustration at not being normal. As a book, this one feels the most focused and the most cohesive of the series. I wonder if it’s not also the most divisive – if you like tough guys with (possibly?) softer interiors, or just people who are irreverent and unafraid to be risky or push boundaries…Ronan will probably be your favorite character and this will probably be your favorite book. It certainly feels like he’s Stiefvater’s favorite character. While I enjoyed the slipping into the darkness of Ronan for awhile, and the book was strong, I felt a bit of a disconnect with Ronan because he’s so different than who I am as a person. That said, even if this isn’t your kind of character, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more well-developed one in YA. A strong character book with an explosive ending.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Goodreads
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Find the author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
Series: The Raven Cycle #3
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication date: October 21, 2014
Source: Purchased at Chapters Indigo
Format: Hardcover, Audiobook
My rating:
Buy It: Indigo.ca | Amazon.com | The Book Depository | iBooks | Google Books | Audible

The third installment in the mesmerizing series from the irrepressible, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost.Friends can betray.Mothers can disappear.Visions can mislead.Certainties can unravel.

In a starred review, THE BULLETIN called THE DREAM THIEVES, the previous book in The Raven Cycle, "a complex web of magical intrigue and heart-stopping action." Now, with BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE, the web becomes even more complex, snaring readers at every turn.

For me, Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the pinnacle of this series because it is the first book where the characters acknowledge that there is a future beyond what’s happening in Cabeswater and with Glendower and start to look at what they need to do. I loved how that dynamic played out between the characters and the stakes got higher. The relationship and character developments in BLLB deepened so much that by the end of the book, the group learns to work seamlessly to do some pretty amazing things.

Told in Maggie Stiefvater’s trademark, dreamy, imaginative prose, Blue Lily, Lily Blue is intensely weird, evocative, and epic. Switching back to Blue Sargent’s POV (for the most part), this book, I felt, advanced the quest for Glendower significantly, making us see some of the strangest magic we’ve seen throughout the series. All of the characters sink deeper into their relationships, but they all also develop their individual strengths. Gansey becomes a bolder leader. Blue continues to develop her bravery, her cunning, and her feminism. Adam discovers his magic. Ronan strengthens his loyalty. And the most magnificent thing about this development is that it is so ingrained in the book that you hardly notice it happening until you realize – yes, these characters are not who they were a the beginning of this journey. That is Stiefvater’s talent – creating characters who really grow in subtle but important ways but without bonking you over the head with it.

Also, this is the book with ALL the ships. Blue and Gansey. Adam and Ronan. Maura and the Gray Man.

For this book, I started on audiobook, but found it very difficult to follow as I needed to be intensely focused to not only understand the plot, but the characters and their complex arcs. This is not a book for the simple-minded. The threads and stories are complex, the relationships get tangled and intertwined, and it all ends with disaster, magic, mercy, and a lot of unanswered questions.

The Raven King

Goodreads
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Find the author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
Series: The Raven Cycle #4
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication date: April 26th 2016
Source: Purchased at Chapters Indigo
Format: Hardcover
My rating:
Buy It: Indigo.ca | Amazon.com | The Book Depository | iBooks | Google Books | Audible

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

In a starred review for Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Kirkus Reviews declared: "Expect this truly one-of-a-kind series to come to a thundering close."

The Raven King begins with the psychics at 300 Fox Way reading tarot cards together and discovering that Gansey, Adam, Blue, Ronan, and Noah must work together to find Glendower and protect themselves from evil people and forces around them. I can’t say much else about the plot because MAJOR SPOILERS, but I will say that if BLLB is about recognizing the future beyond, then The Raven King is about making it happen. Moving forward. Growing up.

With Blue Lily, Lily Blue in mind, I do admit that for me, The Raven King wasn’t as strong a novel – it felt like a denouement instead of a book with a beginning, middle, and end. But if you’re going to have that, then I feel that the choice that Stiefvater makes to focus on the core characters more than plot is elegant and beautiful. This is a book about moments and relationships.

I read an interview with Stiefvater where she said there were four books to correspond to each of the boys and Blue (I don’t think Noah counts, you can read Maggie’s explanation here). So for me, if Book 2 is Ronan’s, Book 3 is Blue’s (for the ending if nothing else), then Book 1 is really Gansey’s book, and thus, Book 4 is Adam’s. Which seems strange when you think that this whole thing started with Gansey and his quest for Glendower, but obviously, things have become more complicated than that. Each character gets the development he/she deserves in The Raven King, but I would argue that Adam goes the furthest. I’m curious to see if others agree.

There were moments when I squeed, moments when I *almost* cried, moments where I wanted to put the book down to take a break, but I just COULDN’T. Because despite the fact that this is a long YA book, with complex prose, I needed to see it through in one straight shot. I think others will agree – there is a lot in this book, and the revelations just keep on coming.

The entire series is like nothing I’ve ever read, and even with all of the fantasy and paranormal series out there for adults and teens, I just can’t see anything else like this. Stiefvater is a confident and incredibly hard-working author – you can tell by the prose, where every single word matters. For me, this was a fitting end to a dazzling series, bringing full circle all of the themes that Stiefvater explores, especially found families, love, honesty, and growing up. People who love Stiefvater’s signature stunning prose won’t be disappointed, and I think there will be quite a few people delighted with some of the newer characters in the series (I know I was). I’m really looking forward to discussing this one with all of you!

 

WRAP-UP: SERIES FAVORITES

Favorite book: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Favorite character: I think Blue. I’m all about the female characers. But it’s REALLY REALLY HARD because they all grew on me so much.

Favorite couple: Honestly, Adam and Ronan. SO SEXY. View Spoiler »The hand salve! « Hide Spoiler

Favorite moment: I’ve been thinking SO hard about this, and I just keep going back to that part in The Dream Thieves where View Spoiler »Blue and Gansey first drive out to the field and look at the stars together. « Hide Spoiler I just…CAN’T with that scene.

Favorite line: Too many quoteable parts, especially in the last book. But I finally decided on this non-spoilery line from The Raven King: “These days, they all had their hands thrust towards the sky, hoping for comets.”

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Are you a fan of The Raven Cycle series? Or just a fan of Maggie Stiefvater? Have you read or are you going to read The Raven King? Who is your fave character/couple? Let me know in the comments!