I’m in a bit of a love/hate relationship with this series by Maggie Stiefvater. This is the third novel in what I understand will be a four-book series. I liked the first book, The Raven Boys, but slogged a bit through the second, The Dream Thieves—for reasons I can’t quite explain though I think it might have had to do with the absence of Blue’s point of view. This third installment was more engaging to me but also frustrating.
So here’s a brief recap, as spoiler free as I can make it. Blue Sargent lives in a small town in Virginia, that is home to a ley line and a private boys school, among other things. Blue lives with her mother, a psychic, in a house that is crammed with psychics of various sorts. Over the course of the first two books, she becomes involved with a group of boys from the private school, who she refers to as The Raven Boys. There’s Richard Gansey III—charismatic, privileged, and obsessed with finding and waking the Welsh king, Glendower. There’s Ronan Lynch, dark and caustic, with the ability to dream things into reality and a hell of a backstory (the second book is really his book). Then, there’s Adam Parrish, the scholarship boy—who desperately wants out of this mountain town, away from his abusive father, and into a better life for himself. Finally, there’s Noah—who just happens to be dead.
A lot has happened by the time this third book opens—Blue’s mother has disappeared, Adam has made a deal that has joined him to a mysterious forest called Cabeswater, and Blue is still haunted by the prediction that the first boy she kisses will die. The Raven Boys and Blue are still on the hunt for Glendower and their search is leading underground. Intrigued? You should be. I was. And this book doesn’t disappoint—we learn more about all the characters and they get closer to their goal. The writing here is often beautiful and atmospheric, but I also find myself distracted by the fact that certain key aspects of each character are repeatedly emphasized. Gansey is smoothly upper class, Ronan glares, and Adam is uncomfortable in his own skin—afraid that his white trash upbringing will bubble up uncontrollably. These ARE important elements of these characters but I wanted Stiefvater to stop winding these details around my neck.
Maybe I’m feeling crotchety precisely because there is so much to like here that I hate being pulled out of the dreamy world that Stiefvater is creating by these relatively minor stylistic choices—choices that I have often ignored in less well-written works. All that snark aside, I am looking forward to seeing how Stiefvater wraps this tale up—there are a lot of interesting balls in the air and I’m curious to see where they fall.
I’ve been trying to write a review for the series for a while but I love these books an unreasonable amount and am finding it almost impossible to write anything coherent. They just hit all of my soft spots. Characters who need hugs (Ronan, my favorite, so I of course adored the second book), people who are good fucking friends to each other, strong female relationships, a sarcastic badass female lead, lots of humor, and as you said, lovely atmospheric writing. These books just fill me with warm fuzzy feels and leave me incapable of writing a even kind objective review. *shrugs* What ya gonna do?
I think that falling in love with a book or a series is a lot like falling in love with a person. You ignore the flaws and focus on what really grabs you and makes your heart sing–and that’s the way it should be. One of the things I enjoy about reading Cannonball Read reviews is seeing the different ways people react to books–somebody hates a book I love and vice versa. I definitely did not hate this book or the series. Actually, the more I thought about this third book, the more I wanted to move it to a four star review because of the characters themselves.
Ah, thanks, I feel better about my incoherence now! Also, yes, that is one of the best things about Cannonball Read.
DO IT, 4 stars, yes! I mean, Gwenllian’s huge hair? Gansey’s attempts at making tea (not to mention the hilarity of the bathroom/kitchen/laundry room combo that is so perfectly spot on for how teenage boys would do that kind of thing)? Ronan and Noah’s love of the Squash Song? Blue telling an old man why catcalling is not okay? Every single thing she says to Butternut? Love, love, love it.
I adore the Raven Boys, Blue Lilly, Cabeswater, etc. so hard that I’m fully capable of overlooking any small missteps in the books. I love her atmospheric writing and the fact thatI actually feel physical dread/fear for the characters. Really, I just love it.
That being said this was the weakest so far. Nobody ever pauses to consider anything. “Don’t wake the third sleeper.” Hey so we can go ahead and wake this person up right? I mean it’s probably not the third sleeper we’ve been repeatedly warned about right? Yeaaah that’ll be just fine – go for it.
Also – did you guys feel the bad-guy couple (pardon my copy isn’t handy) felt a bit slapsticky? I both loved it and felt it was all a little ridiculous.
But these are nitpicks – I adore what Stiefvater is doing here and will rush to buy the next book in hardback as soon as it’s available.