09 April 2015

[Review] The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater






Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Raven Cycle #1







Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them — not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is 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 has it all — family money, good looks, devoted friends — but he's looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, 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 never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. [Scholastic]

I do not really know what to say right know. My feelings are clear, but I’m a bit afraid to express my opinion about this well loved book - because I didn’t like it.

At first it seemed to be good - nothing special but at least it was good. I was not really sure what the story is about, my expectation were high nonetheless - thanks to Kuecki, by the way, who really liked this book.
My first problem became the writing style. It’s not bad - definitely not! But there are too many descriptions. And they stop the story from happening. At least for me, The Raven Boys is a really slow paced book!
And that’s a big problem. Nothing really happens for a long time. You get to know to the characters and you get a basic idea about the storyline. However there is nothing happening which could create tension, which could force you to continue reading. 
I preferred Blue’s perspective since I like her the most - that doesn’t mean I loved her, though. I had no real connection to any of the characters. Adam is too stubborn and Gansey is just unsympathetic. He was constantly annoying me. Moreover, they always felt like book characters and not like real people, if you know what I mean.
And then the THING happened. I cannot say more than „the problem around Noah“ without spoiling anything. But it threw me off so, so much I actually wanted to put the book down afterwards. That I would ever finish it - I highly doubted it at this moment.
Reading it was now a real struggle. Surprisingly I finished it, though. On the contrary I wasn’t surprised by the ending. Even if it isn’t predictable it couldn’t astonish me. I was just too numb at this moment to feel anything beside boredom. 

To sum it up: The Raven Boys was not my cup of tea. Even though so many other people liked it, I didn’t enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t exciting and I couldn’t build any real relationships to the characters. Mostly they were annoying me, only Blue I liked at least a bit. And then what has happened to Noah threw me completely off. It was too bizarre, and too unrealistic for me. I couldn’t handle it in the way I wanted to. Right now I’m not sure if I continue on with this series. Definitely not right now, but maybe after some weeks/months (?).



1 comment:

  1. I also had my difficulties with that book. Or should I say I have them with the author? The thing ist I appreciate that she puts a lot of effort into her characters. But I wish she would do the same with the plot! Most of the time it's just kind of boring and I need more than funny dialogues. That is why I won't continue this series and won't read more from that author at all.

    Greetings Tina

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