THE RAVEN CYCLE: Some Thoughts

This is less a review and more of a thought post about my new favourite obsession.

Forget Stranger Things. The Raven Cycle is where it’s at.

I first heard about this series some number of months ago. I really love The Mortal Instruments, and a bunch of people I follow who watch Shadowhunters were currently reading or had read The Raven Cycle. It was somewhat annoying to hear them constantly speak of it, so I decided I wasn’t going to read it. Fast forward to about a week ago, when I spontaneously took the books out at the library because I needed a new series to read and I thought why not? I knew nothing of the series, just that there was *maybe* a gay couple (either that, or it was a fanon gay couple).

I did not expect to like the series, so you can imagine my surprise when I fell in love.

First, let’s get the negative off of our chest. These books are difficult. I don’t mean difficult to read– I zoomed through all 4 of them in a week– but they’re difficult to understand. Maggie Stiefvater has created a world within this world, and while I absolutely love that trope, it does mean at times it’s hard to understand why X happened, or what Y means. You figure it all out eventually, but it’s not as clear as in other series, like The Mortal Instruments for example. Of course, the difficulty means that it’s more sophisticated, which makes the series much more interesting in the end. So it’s not all bad.

Also– Stiefvater likes to build up for the entire novel and then rush to a climatic resolution within the last 50 pages (or less). This is VERY STRESSFUL but I kind of love it. Even the bad isn’t that bad.

All in all, as weird as this may sound about a fantasy series, I feel like the novels are more about characters than plot. Which I adore, because characters can make or break any book. They definitely make this one.

I loved. Everyone. And I mean everyone. The only character I didn’t like at all was Piper, and that’s because she was a total idiot. I love Blue and her feisty sensibility. I love Gansey, and his ability manipulate and the fact that he rarely chooses to do so. I love Adam, and his broken edges and knowing heart. I love Ronan, the most broken of them all, with the softest soul of them all. They’re all masterpieces.

And I love this series. I love how it explores something new, and something I personally had never read about before (psychics and magic and dreams, in case you were wondering). I love the humanity of the characters, and how they’re all broken but hold themselves together. I love the relationships, and I love the heart they all share.

As Blue says, I fell in love with them all.

 

5 ravens out of 5.