The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater Overall rating: 4,5/5 “Whatever Maggie writes, [Libellus] reads.” That was the beginning of my review for the third installment, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, in Maggie Stiefvater’s brilliant series The Raven Cycle. I continued by saying that it was the 5thbook of hers that I read and that I didn’t plan on stopping. While The Raven King, the final piece of The Raven Cycle, is now my 8thStiefvater novel, making her one of the most popular authors on my shelves, I still can’t get enough of her. In this review, I will be focusing on the whole series instead of going through each volume like I did with To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Hopefully this will be more straightforward and save us both some precious time reading and writing. Let me know if you like this new format or prefer the old one! For full reviews click on the links below. The Raven Cycle #1 The Raven Boys: 4,5/5
The Raven Cycle is easily one of the most original Young Adult series out there. Everything from its subject to its characters differs from the classic Hunger Games-y trope. Rick Riordan made mythology a popular topic for YA with his ground-breaking Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He launched a new “Renaissance” by bringing back the study of Greek and Roman Gods in fiction literature, and others followed. However, nobody ever saw Welsh mythology as a possibility, probably since it doesn’t have the same approachability as Greek or Roman mythology. That is, until Stiefvater came along. The Greeks influence is everywhere around us, even today. In class, we still study Plato and Aristotle, we still read Sophocles and Homer. Welsh mythology is unheard of. It is a complete mystery, especially to those of us not living in Wales or in the United Kingdom. Learning about ley lines and dead kings was like travelling to a windy, rainy, cold and ominous new universe where magic seems to be a person more than a thing. Stiefvater starts from scratch in the minds of her readers and carefully builds the world using the sheer force of imagination. It seems British mythology is Stiefvater’s playing field. In her other novel, The Scorpio Races, she uses Celtic mythology, in her most famous series, Shiver, she bases herself on werewolves, another European myth although they are not of British origin. In The Raven Cycle, I cannot attest to how much she sticks to the traditional myths Welsh, but if it is anything like Shiver, she definitely doesn’t. Whatever Maggie does, she adds her own twist to it. This time, the twist comes in the form of four boys with an affinity for magic. Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah. Apart from the fact that YA rarely has male protagonists, let alone four of them, they are all wonderfully unique. Looking back at the character growth after four books, it is fair to say they are some of the most well-rounded and well-conceived characters in the YA-verse. We have come a long way since her Shiverdays where it was all about hot and heavy romance. It is funny reading back on the reviews I wrote three years ago for the first and second novel. I used to adore Gansey, and I still do, but now, I think that Ronan and Adam hold much more merit as characters. They are both so beautifully troubled, so hurt and psychologically interesting. Every layer of their behavior can be peeled to reveal a more complex truth, which can then be peeled back two or three more times. They all carry some sort of magic in them, a force that is incomprehensible and stronger than a typhoon. It is truly hard to describe that turmoil that seems to be brewing within them at all times. It is as if you tried to bottle a storm, an angry and violent storm, in a glass jar. As time passes, the pressure augments gradually and makes the cork turn inch by inch, until it all explodes. And when it does, Stiefvater is there is poeticize it. The Raven Boys aren’t the only characters. There is obviously a girl, Blue, who also has magical abilities. She embarks on a quest without knowing what she is about to get into. While she is not as interesting as the boys, she holds her own. She is a strong girl in a man’s world. She also has an amazing family, an aspect often neglected in YA. Persephone, Calla, Maura and the other psychics of 300 Fox Way were especially entertaining in the first volumes where the story is more lighthearted. As the story progresses, it gets darker and darker every time to the point where the sass is still present, but it hides pain that was not there before. Obviously, great plot progression, singular characters on top of an original topic are all markers of a great writer. However, what keeps me coming back to Stiefvater is her wistful writing style. I often mentioned so far that this book holds a magical quality, and there is truly no better way to describe it. However, it is not the kind of magic featured in Disney fairy tales. It is an unruly dark force. As you read descriptions of Cabeswater, it seems like the place can simultaneously grant you your every wish and destroy you until you’re only a pile of ash. It is this slight balance between dream and nightmare that gradually transgresses from Cabeswater to the characters psyche to the real world that makes Stiefvater’s writing extraordinary. If you did not guess already, The Raven Boys is one of my favourite YA series. Actually, scratch that, it is one of my favourite series period. It stands apart from usually urban fantasy stories with its unique topic and its approaches, there’s nobody that can do telekinesis or read minds in this story nor is the romance overpowering for nothing. The Raven Cycle is truly a beauty that does not get enough hype. Understandably, the market for fantasy is particularly saturated since Game of Thrones and Outlander, but The Raven Boys will transport you to another world, one where dreams and reality are interwoven, where boys can feel pain, where truth lies between an imaginary world and deep caverns. Three years and four books later, The Raven Cycle will forever be imprinted on my mind and make me wonder what if dreams were actually a reality. If you liked The Raven Cycle, you will love… The Mara Dyer series by Michelle Hodkin Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein series by Kenneth Oppel
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