Book Review: The Raven Boys

  The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater


   Review by Janine

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve.  Either you're his true love ...... or you killed him.".               - The Raven Boys


Blue Sargent lives in the little town of Henrietta, Virgina.  Her mom and the rest of her family are psychics but Blue herself is not.  As if that wasn't hard enough she has been raised being told that she will cause her true love to die and while she doesn't really believe this she feels that it is no worry as she has never met anyone that she would even consider to be close to her true love.  That all changes however when she accompanies her aunt on St. Mark's Eve to see the souls of those who will pass in the coming year and for the first time Blue sees someone, Gansey.  Gansey and his group of Aglionby boys turn out to not be what Blue expected.  These boys are looking for an ancient ley line and with the help of Blue, they are on their way to quickly discovering its secrets and the secrets of a small town.  As they get closer to their goal not everything is as it seems.... friendships and loyalties will be tested and not everyone is who they seem to be....
  This book is one of those the sucked me in and I couldn't put down.  The story begins in alternating voices between Blue and Gansey, which I really liked because you really got into the different characters heads and could quickly see how their lives would be interweaving.  Blue is such a likeable character... she is the misfit in her family since she herself is not psychic so while she doesn't always feel like she fits in, she isn't whiny about that, she just accepts it and moves on.  I feel that since this is just the first book in the series that there is much more to her than meets the eye and I can't wait to see how that all plays out!! I also loved the Ganesy and his group of friends, Adam, Noah, and Ronan.  Each of these boys who all are so interesting in and of themselves, have bought into Ganesy's quest for the finding the ley line (which Ganesy credits for saving his life).  One of the things that I loved is that each of the boys has his own very strong character and really story.  This for me makes the story so much more developed and really gives you a feeling that you know each of the characters and each really adds so much to the story.  Then as the characters come all together it just...clicks like the missing piece of a puzzle.
   Between the characters, the flow of the story and the story itself, I was not ready for the book to end when it did! However this is one of those rare occurrences where I waited so long to read the book, number two was already out!! *insert happy dance*