The Raven Cycle
A beautiful paranormal character drama
As a lover of fantasy and supernatural settings in any form, I have spent far too much of my time finding series/books that do not subscribe to the average fantasy YA book format. I’m pretty sure most of us are weary of the usual cliches, as was I nevertheless I succumbed to the rather unique premise and cover.
I read the first chapter, then the second and then the whole book within just a day-and was I hooked. Just the first chapter had painted a vivid, eerie and mystery laden image and I was strapped in for the journey.
Set in a small town located ( I presume) somewhere in middle America which just so happens to be a center of paranormal activity due to a ley lines-energy pathways - passing though the town. Here in the middle of the dust and generally grungy population is Aglionby Academy a place where the richest send their boys to develop into the “finest gentlemen”. In the same town a psychic family has taken root with just one non-psychic member who will also end up killing a Aglionby boy by the end of the year- how’s that for a premise?
“He was a king. This was the year he was going to die.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King
The first thing I really enjoyed about the book was the lush descriptions of just about everything, the air about the story was immaculate and I was intrigued by the magic in this world and not a speck less by the characters. More than the plot the place where Maggie Stiefvater shines is the characterizations and inter/intra personal drama. I cannot sing enough praises about how perfectly each and every character is built up- each one with more layers than a crepe cake. In fact the character arcs- sections focusing more on a singular character from their/ a narrators perspective are no doubt the best part of the book. From the cliche “rebel” Ronan who turned out to be anything but ,to Adam a boy fighting to hold his place in a prestigious school all while being pulled down by his parents and heritage. Then comes Gansey - a king of both school and his group of friends- set on finding a dead king’s bones then finally to Blue a misfit in her psychic family. Yes I too rolled my eyes at this but I assure you the plot does not in the least revolve around her and the boys- ok well it kind of does but not in the way you’ll be expecting it.
“How right it had felt at each moment he had met them all. How certain that they plunged towards something bigger than even this moment.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King
Over the four books almost each character of the main 4-5 has a large portion of the book from their point of view and dealing with their story, it’s great to see the characters outside of the action and how they are with the group- the drama between the characters and mostly with themselves is some of the best. Over the books many new characters are introduced and usually it’s very easy to get lose interest and not care one bit for the majority of the cast yet this never happens. Sure some are weaker than others but all treated with the same care and depth. And this is without me talking about the heart-wrenching slow burn in the books between just about everyone, I definitely was not expecting any romance let alone any of this caliber.
“Adam pronounced love very carefully, as if it were an unfamiliar element on the periodic table.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King
Even the side characters and side side characters are developed beautifully, I have absolutely no idea HOW the author squeezes in encyclopedia’s worth of information, idiosyncrasies and complexities in just four books for every character. I was genuinely rooting for all the characters and for my ships to sail ( which happened eventually yes ).Another aspect I like is the fact that all the character’s have a life outside this mystery business , I rarely had to suspend my disbelief because yes everyone was going to school and yes everyone had present parents ( or not) that got affected by their antics. This is usually a minor detail but helped the characters feel lived in.
I genuinely love the magic system if you can even call it that- it’s by far some of the most realistic magic setting I’ve ever seen .I can quite literally imagine living in a world like this the secret trade of “magic” artifacts, the gifted psychics and the power of the forests and energy pathways that have run for time immemorial preserving histories but it’s all at a scale so small and natural that the world doesn’t even pause and notice. It’s a world I would delight in living in, a perfect mixture of serene, wonderous and real. What happens when this power goes a bit haywire? When the natural balance of the world is disturbed ?
The mood throughout is perfect- heavy and ominous building such a clear realm of magic that it was beyond difficult to believe it wasn’t real .
Moving on to the I wish this was better bit of this article-
One thing that irked me was Blue’s character despite it being otherwise well done was the cliche of it all , she’s the usual quirky girl who doesn’t being a loner and outcast. And yes she basically hates the Aglionby boys with a rather infuriating passion for the first two books with no concrete reason behind it, like really? In some scenes I could hardly bear to read what she was doing just because how she was acting seemed so pointless to me. In fact I believe that she’s probably the least developed/complicated character out of the main cast. Still a delight to read.
Another thing was the world building, while the magic system and history had so much more potential I wish we got more of it. The magic/history of Glendover ( you’ll know what it is later) is hardly explained like ever. Personally the story would have been somehow more gripping and interesting if Stiefvater explored the artifacts/history/magic spiritual energy aspect of it. So take this as a character drama with a solid serving of paranormal on the side.
Another thing is that we do get kind of sidetracked ( though you may agree there is no main plot anyway in which case you are right) as in completely new characters are introduced for no reason when we could be spending this time learning more about the world or literally anything else. The ending did feel quite underwhelming and as if they had found a band-aid for the major problem but don’t mind me.
Also this isn’t a bad thing or anything but the amount of times I read the lines “Depending on where you begin the story it was about…….(insert X character) …) is genuinely more than the amount of times I should have.
I enjoyed I would say all the four books about equally, though I did get slightly bored somewhere between the mid second one to the third. However the general consensus seems to be that the second and third book were better than the first and last by a league.
All in all this is a pretty good YA series ( those are rare ) which I think can be enjoyed by most people as long as you’re up to watch soap- opera levels of drama and an albeit interesting world.