Grace Cavanaugh ~ Staff Writer
Recently, I finished a book I have had on my “To Be Read” list for a while: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. My aunt bought me this book when I was 16, along with another book that was signed by Stiefvater, but I had not read either in the past four years.
I tried to read it as a 16-year-old, because I liked Stiefvater’s other series, The Wolves of Mercy Falls. Unfortunately, 16-year-old me did not know what was happening.
The book’s main characters are the daughter of a psychic and a group of prep-school boys. There is murder, mayhem, mischief, and magic, and the book is written in a way that it keeps its secrets until it wants you to know about them.
Younger me did not read critically, and the moment I did not understand what was happening, I put the book down and did not pick it back up.
Last week, I decided to finally try it again, and let me tell you: this is one of the best books I have read. It is a bit confusing in certain places, but by the end, you will have everything figured out.
The characters are very real-feeling. The main female, Blue, is quirky while also being relatable. She loves her family, who are eccentric to say the least. She feels too normal because her mother and every woman in the house is a psychic, and she is not.
Enter the group of prep-school boys. Gansey is the leader, and lead he does. He is rich and has a problem of not thinking about the things he says before he says them. Ronan is also a rich kid who has anger issues. Adam is on a scholarship and feels like he is lesser than the others because he does not come from money. Noah is shy and quiet. Together, they are the titular Raven Boys.
The setting, funnily enough, is in the mountains in Virginia. Henrietta is the name of the town and it is on a ley line. For those that do not know, ley lines are lines of energy that run through certain places that hold power. For example, lines can be drawn between, say, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Nashville.
Gansey believes that an old Welsh king is buried in the mountains along the ley lines, and perhaps Blue can help him. The story is well-written and does not seem too implausible. The characters’ relationships are real and the plot is never boring.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that reads Young Adult fiction, urban fantasy, and anything with magic.