Antonia Bernardin

So this series made up books number 52, 54, 56 and 59 of this year’s total reads, if you were paying attention to the number count so far and noticed some missing, this is why! I wanted to review them all in one go.

This series is comprised of The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lilly, Lilly Blue and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater.

A plot summary attempt (spoiler free)

Set in the town of Henrietta, our main character’s are four boys who go to the local private school, Raven, and Blue, a Henrietta local who is the only non- psychic in a family of psychics but she amplifies their powers.

Blue has been told her whole life, by the myriad of psychics that come and go from her home, that when she kisses her true love, he will die. Every year her family completes the church watch, seeing the spirits who pass over the spirit road, which tells them who in the town will die this year. Blue goes with them because she makes it easier to see the ghosts but usually she doesn’t see them, until this year. She meets the ghost of a boy called Gansey, who her creepy psychic aunt shortly informs her is the boy she will love and who will die from her kiss. Shortly after that, Blue meets Gansey and his friends at the diner she is the waitress at, where he immediately offends her simply by being a rich boy. However, he leaves behind a journal which portrays a completely different boy to the entitled one she met and it makes her curious.

Gansey is hunting for ley lines, supernatural roads that are supposed to eventually lead to an ancient Welsh King, who is being held magically in stasis until he can be woken and will grant a favour to the person who does. This search has lead him to Henrietta and to his friends: Ronan: fellow rich boy who acts more like a caged animal and recently witnessed his father’s death, Adam: local boy putting himself through private school and comes from abusive family and Noah: a strange, smudgey, quiet boy who comes and goes as he pleases.

As the boys become friends with Blue, Gansey starts to feel his little search party is finally complete and they quickly adopt Blue into their group and the search for the King. With Blue around and with some reluctant help from her psychic family, the search begins to happen faster than he had anticipated. They discover supernatural forests where time works strangely, ley lines that need reviving and slowly the supernatural begins to affect his group in more ways than he could have dreamed. Two of his friends were already tied to the strange magic of this place but in different ways, Blue is inherently magical because of her family and the events that take place have unforeseen impacts on the other friend.

The books follow his search and the fall out from it, as they barrel towards Gansey’s and Blue’s fate.

My review (also spoiler free)

I didn’t expect to enjoy these books as much as I did, the blurb they come with does not do them justice and I absolutely think they’ve stood the test of time. I listened to them as audio’s and they managed to make my commute something I looked forward too. The world is so rich, the magic system in it is mysterious and epic feelings, it creates the otherworldly picture of things bigger than ourselves. I loved the found family-ness of it, the author is very clever in making you fall for these people, even Ronan who is, objectively, a dick. They all have really authenticate character arcs and the relationships that develop feel so real and natural.

And the ending?! SO GOOD. The author does some really clever plot things and stuff that has been foreshadowed right back to one tie into the ending – the reveal is so good because it was a real ‘oh fuck’ moment, as you the reader suddenly see all the ways this has been hinted at throughout the series. I really liked how the conclusion to the search for the King is done, I thought that was really clever and how it tied into the resolution of the events that occur and Gansey and Blue’s fate.

If you are looking for a genuinely good YA series, with no spice, I would 100% recommend these books. I think I will actually go and buy the physical copies of this series because I do think I’d happily re-read this one.

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