Make way for the Raven King!

"The head is too wise. The heart is all fire."

I don't even know where to start with "The Raven Cycle" by Maggie Stiefvater. If you know anything about my taste on contemporary literature or follow my twitter account, you may know that I adore Stiefvater's works. Specially, this saga. 

I did not, however, discover Maggie's works through this story, but through the Shiver trilogy a couple of years ago by now. In my opinion, there's not much not to love about Stiefvater's writing, to be honest. Her characters are fresh and credible, her stories aren't predictable (which I find rather rare in the modern fantasy genre, unfortunately), her tone is always perfectly adequate to each scene with a very-much-appreciated humorous tinge and, well, her storytelling as far as style and structure go: are enviable. 

You may think I'm simply trying to adulate Stiefvater because of some hidden reason (I don't know if you're into conspiracy theories or not). But, I have never kept secret the fact that Maggie Stiefvater is one of my all-time favourite authors. So, yes, I do have a right to flatter pompously one of my favourite living (sorry, Fitzgerald) writers and I will do so if I please.

So, onto the actual review of the Raven Cycle. I'm going to make things easy for you in case you don't have much time to read this post, or you'd rather know if starting it is more worth your time than reading my words: read it.

Now, for those who do care about a more in-depth explanation of why these books are worth reading... The story follows Blue Sargent as she discovers she doesn't hate the posh boys she thought she'd hate. Also, there's a lot of magical stuff, dead kings, undead weird people, living but soon-to-die youngsters, cool rebels who are so cool that they're getting their own novel (see: Mr Ronan Lynch for further reference) and more magic that's actually science or pseudo-science, but MAGIC. Knowing all of this, who could resist? 

Other incentives include the fact that Maggie Stiefvater wrote this, so you basically are assured that it's going to be the kind of book that you take everywhere to, even though you know you're probably not going to be able to read any of it. But, still, what if you are? You must take it on the slimmest chance, of course. 

This saga belongs to the kind of book with which you can't stop yourself from reading as fast as possible to find out everything, but at the same time, you're enjoying reading it so much that you feel guilty you're doing it too fast. It's that sort of torture that most bibliophiles, like myself, search for continuously. And, sweet mama, this saga was painfully beautiful.

Another reason why you should give these books a chance: the characters. They're so well constructed. Every single one of them is unique. As the story goes, you slowly fall in love with each of their personalities just like Blue does (spoiler alert? Meh. Not really, her initial rejection and posterior love for them is probably the only cliché/predictable aspect of the novels). But, even Blue... thank God for Stiefvater, seriously. At first, she seems like such a cliché, but she just efortlessly turns out to be such a wonderful, complex female heroic but-still-very-human character. I love Blue. I don't know if I love her more than I love Noah, but I love Blue a lot. 

Finally, I'd like to say that I have never been to Virginia but thanks to Stiefvater, I feel like I've already lived there: so that's how visually astounding her narrations are. 

Conclusion: please, go buy yourself the first installement to the Raven Cycle Saga, "The Raven Boys". I can pretty much guarantee, you'll love and hate me for the piece of advice.

I hope you have a wonderful day!