Book Club Report #11: The Raven Boys
Nov. 29th, 2022 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruleanhailDiscovery:
It's been a long time coming. The Raven Cycle series is adored by my good friend/beta, Crystal. She has been trying to get me into reading her favourites, and the surefire way to do so is adding it into our book club collection pool. Her wish came true: The Raven Boys was chosen for September's reading.
What's It About?:
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is book 1 of the The Raven Cycle quartet with 3 spin-offs. The story revolves around a girl named Blue Sargant who was told by her fortune telling aunts that her true love will die because of her. The summary is fairly deceptive as it portrays the book to be a "Will They? Won't They?" between Blue and Gansey (a charming and rich Raven Boy), but it centers around Gansey's Supernatural Quest, Newfound Family, and Unfortunate Circumstances and Conflicts of Personalities that eventually leads to Conflict.
General Thoughts (Mild Spoilers):
Book Discussion:
(To be added)
It's been a long time coming. The Raven Cycle series is adored by my good friend/beta, Crystal. She has been trying to get me into reading her favourites, and the surefire way to do so is adding it into our book club collection pool. Her wish came true: The Raven Boys was chosen for September's reading.
What's It About?:
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is book 1 of the The Raven Cycle quartet with 3 spin-offs. The story revolves around a girl named Blue Sargant who was told by her fortune telling aunts that her true love will die because of her. The summary is fairly deceptive as it portrays the book to be a "Will They? Won't They?" between Blue and Gansey (a charming and rich Raven Boy), but it centers around Gansey's Supernatural Quest, Newfound Family, and Unfortunate Circumstances and Conflicts of Personalities that eventually leads to Conflict.
General Thoughts (Mild Spoilers):
- Was admittedly intimidated by this book because it's a friend's top fav, but Chapter 1 makes it easy to get into because I'm a sucker for fortune telling and premonitions.
- Despite strong inclinations that there would be romance ("the person you fall in love with will die!"), there is NO romance AND love triangles! In fact, the focus seems to be more on the conflicts and relationships between Raven Boys, with Blue slowly getting to know each of them.
- Characters are varied and established pretty strongly, though the boys feel overhyped. Probably because they're presumably rich kids going to rich school from Blue's POV...?
- Enjoyed some of their banters and specific sentences on how a character feels about the other.
- Have a soft spot for Blue's fortune-telling aunts.
- Starts off slow and confusing especially when it comes to the boys' POV (because they are introduced together), I'd initially mistaken Gansey as one of Ronan's sibling only to realize later they're not related at all.
- Gets slightly better in the middle, with a climax that feels both exciting and personal between characters.
- Love the twist on Noah!
- Ronan seems to be setting up to be a popular character despite his mystery, no wonder Crystal like that bad boy.
- Gansey and Adam seems to have the most focus in this book. Stronk shipping potential!
- There are still a few unanswered questions that are probably left to keep reader's interest, but it doesn't give me a strong urge to continue the next instalment ASAP. Maybe someday.
Book Discussion:
(To be added)
