I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I tend to stay away from YA these days, but this one felt substantial enough for me to take it seriously and for it to be a solid read. 

There were some things that annoyed me though: 

- Stiefvater’s seemingly made-up lore about Owain Glyndwr’s body being brought to America just to be able to exploit the myth for the book. It’s actually wild how obsessed American authors are with Owain Glyndwr – just because you have none of your own legends, doesn’t mean to get to steal and bastardise ours. It’s kinda gross. 

- It also pissed me off that Stiefvater (once again, an AMERICAN) wrote that the NHS had 'failed' one of the character’s mothers by not curing her cancer?? Absolutely wild coming from an American, and so unnecessary. Take a look at your own pathetic state of healthcare affairs before attacking ours for no reason. 

- In the boy's chapters it could be pretty difficult to tell whose thoughts were who's - it jumps around all over the place without giving names. 

- Noah. I know his involvement was all part of the big reveal, but the wishy-washy way Stiefvater wrote him really got on my nerves until it made sense at the reveal. 

- The last line was also really weird. It didn't feel like a cool intrigue as author (I assume) intended, it just felt like I’d missed something. And I’d never clocked the raven was called Chainsaw lol. 

But in saying all of this, I do still stand by my 4-star rating – so it must be a pretty solid book!