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btwnprintedpgs's Reviews (1.3k)
Since the final book just came out, I decided to give this series a chance.
A friend was the first person to tell me about this series - how did I miss the absolutely stunning cover? Well, I didn't really, but I saw Maggie's name on it an walked away.
No offense to Maggie Stiefvater, but her Shiver/Linger/Forever series bored me to tears. I read all of them, despite becoming greatly disinterested about 25% way through. The series was just too cheesy and repetitive and cliche for my taste.
That being said, I really enjoyed The Raven Boys.
The novel's synopsis really doesn't do the book justice. It's not a dumb book about love, it's more of a paranormal mystery.
Blue is from a family of psychics, except all she can do is act as an amplifier to her powers. Otherwise, she's about as useful as a stool (when it comes to paranormal oddness). As such, she finds herself an accessory when it comes to her aunt seeing the dead, or her mom doing a particular difficult reading. That is, until she's recording dead spirits into a book, and suddenly sees one for herself.
His name is Gansey, and though she's never met him, her aunt tells her that if she can see his spirit, then she either kills him, or is his true love.
Cheesy right? Not really.
Because once she meets Gansey, they do not really mesh - instead it's his friend Adam that courts her.
Now on to Gansey and friends. The Raven boys are the "privileged" - identifiable by the school crescent on their sweaters. They're the sort of people whom you can smell money rolling off them. Except Adam, but we'll come back to him.
Gansey is the leader, generally chill and level headed, and hell bent on finding Glendower - an ancient king who supposedly possesses enough power to have lay in a sort of stasis since he disappeared hundreds of years ago. Due to this Gansey has an odd interest in ley lines and magic things.
Then there's Ronan, generally rough around the edges, and in the edges, and everywhere else for that matter. He actually became one of my favourite characters simply because he was such an enigma. Throughout this book, you never really find out much about him, but still find yourself loving his character.
Adam's next. While he goes to the richy rich school, he's actually not rich - just smart. And he words damn hard to be. But his life isn't easy as pie, and he finds himself resenting Gansey for the money he has (and sometimes flaunts). Adam is determined to escape his circumstances on his own, without anyone's help or charity - i.e., his pride is surprisingly bigger than all the richy rich people.
And lastly, there's Noah. Oddly my favourite character, despite the fact that he rarely speaks. I love him so much, and I can't even tell you why 'cause spoilers.
Overall, this book sets up the rest of the series - we learn a lot about what they're looking for and how they're going to find it, and about all those who tried to do so before them. While there was a lot of information, I didn't find it totally overwhelming, likely because it was spread out throughout the entire novel. That being said, there were times where I had to read sections over again 'cause it just didn't process the first time.
The book also has a lot of background for characters, and I actually felt like much of the storyline was Adam's, instead of Gansey's and Blue's. Although they presented a lot of background information, Adam really stood out in this novel for a great number of reasons. Also helped that both Blue and Gansey thought about him a lot.
Overall, this novel was more of a mystery than a romance - there was actually very little romance in it in general. There's a lot of intrigue and surprises, and it honestly kept my interest the entire time. Definitely would say to give it a chance, it might surprise you.
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Writing: 4/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.04/5
-review by Between Printed Pages
A friend was the first person to tell me about this series - how did I miss the absolutely stunning cover? Well, I didn't really, but I saw Maggie's name on it an walked away.
No offense to Maggie Stiefvater, but her Shiver/Linger/Forever series bored me to tears. I read all of them, despite becoming greatly disinterested about 25% way through. The series was just too cheesy and repetitive and cliche for my taste.
That being said, I really enjoyed The Raven Boys.
The novel's synopsis really doesn't do the book justice. It's not a dumb book about love, it's more of a paranormal mystery.
Blue is from a family of psychics, except all she can do is act as an amplifier to her powers. Otherwise, she's about as useful as a stool (when it comes to paranormal oddness). As such, she finds herself an accessory when it comes to her aunt seeing the dead, or her mom doing a particular difficult reading. That is, until she's recording dead spirits into a book, and suddenly sees one for herself.
His name is Gansey, and though she's never met him, her aunt tells her that if she can see his spirit, then she either kills him, or is his true love.
Cheesy right? Not really.
Because once she meets Gansey, they do not really mesh - instead it's his friend Adam that courts her.
Now on to Gansey and friends. The Raven boys are the "privileged" - identifiable by the school crescent on their sweaters. They're the sort of people whom you can smell money rolling off them. Except Adam, but we'll come back to him.
Gansey is the leader, generally chill and level headed, and hell bent on finding Glendower - an ancient king who supposedly possesses enough power to have lay in a sort of stasis since he disappeared hundreds of years ago. Due to this Gansey has an odd interest in ley lines and magic things.
Then there's Ronan, generally rough around the edges, and in the edges, and everywhere else for that matter. He actually became one of my favourite characters simply because he was such an enigma. Throughout this book, you never really find out much about him, but still find yourself loving his character.
Adam's next. While he goes to the richy rich school, he's actually not rich - just smart. And he words damn hard to be. But his life isn't easy as pie, and he finds himself resenting Gansey for the money he has (and sometimes flaunts). Adam is determined to escape his circumstances on his own, without anyone's help or charity - i.e., his pride is surprisingly bigger than all the richy rich people.
And lastly, there's Noah. Oddly my favourite character, despite the fact that he rarely speaks. I love him so much, and I can't even tell you why 'cause spoilers.
Overall, this book sets up the rest of the series - we learn a lot about what they're looking for and how they're going to find it, and about all those who tried to do so before them. While there was a lot of information, I didn't find it totally overwhelming, likely because it was spread out throughout the entire novel. That being said, there were times where I had to read sections over again 'cause it just didn't process the first time.
The book also has a lot of background for characters, and I actually felt like much of the storyline was Adam's, instead of Gansey's and Blue's. Although they presented a lot of background information, Adam really stood out in this novel for a great number of reasons. Also helped that both Blue and Gansey thought about him a lot.
Overall, this novel was more of a mystery than a romance - there was actually very little romance in it in general. There's a lot of intrigue and surprises, and it honestly kept my interest the entire time. Definitely would say to give it a chance, it might surprise you.
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Writing: 4/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.04/5
-review by Between Printed Pages
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THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I ENJOYED ABOUT THIS BOOK.
-.5 for Adam being a pain.
4.5 stars for everyone else.
-.5 for Adam being a pain.
4.5 stars for everyone else.
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This story was a wild roller coaster, oh my goodness...
Review to come~
Review to come~
Did I pick this book up because of its intriguing cover? Maybe… But did I stay for the story? Definitely.
I saw this book and thought of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, and thought I’d give it a shot. To be perfectly honest with you, the beginning of this book took me about two weeks to get through. It was difficult getting into the story – Rhea begins as a curious, but fairly bitter character – she’s an orphan and has been scorned by the only family she has left, it makes sense. However, this is probably where the story loses a few points for me. As it was so hard for me to get into, a fair amount of the first third of the book was something I had to push myself through.
That being said, as time went on – as she met new people, gained better influences, and got back into the world – Rhea really began to grow on me as a character – I actually began to like her!
This book really depicts how people can change people – given the right opportunities and the right support, anyone can come back from the darkness they’ve shrouded themselves in. This book was a roller coaster of emotion. It made me love her family, and then hate them for backstabbing her. Then I loved a few of the other characters, and again trust was broken. Scorned, betray, distrustful – I understood all these emotions through Rhea and I felt for her – as new characters began popping up, I approached them with the same distrust she did. It’s hard to be let down so many times without becoming jaded.
The story unfolds slowly, but very well. While I believe the pacing could have been better (i.e. this book could have been a lot shorter), I liked that I got to know Rhea so well. I liked that they really dug into her history and what made her her, but also put focus on the future – who she was, how she could grow, and who she could become one day.
Of the novel, there was one point in particular that surprised me – mainly because it wasn’t advertised, and it was done so well – it was so subtle that I felt it was natural. Of course that was it, of course that happened – why wouldn’t it?
As a whole, How Many Letters Are In Goodbye was very well crafted and very well done.
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World Building: 4.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.46/5
eARC obtained via Flux via NetGalley
-review by Between Printed Pages
I saw this book and thought of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, and thought I’d give it a shot. To be perfectly honest with you, the beginning of this book took me about two weeks to get through. It was difficult getting into the story – Rhea begins as a curious, but fairly bitter character – she’s an orphan and has been scorned by the only family she has left, it makes sense. However, this is probably where the story loses a few points for me. As it was so hard for me to get into, a fair amount of the first third of the book was something I had to push myself through.
That being said, as time went on – as she met new people, gained better influences, and got back into the world – Rhea really began to grow on me as a character – I actually began to like her!
This book really depicts how people can change people – given the right opportunities and the right support, anyone can come back from the darkness they’ve shrouded themselves in. This book was a roller coaster of emotion. It made me love her family, and then hate them for backstabbing her. Then I loved a few of the other characters, and again trust was broken. Scorned, betray, distrustful – I understood all these emotions through Rhea and I felt for her – as new characters began popping up, I approached them with the same distrust she did. It’s hard to be let down so many times without becoming jaded.
The story unfolds slowly, but very well. While I believe the pacing could have been better (i.e. this book could have been a lot shorter), I liked that I got to know Rhea so well. I liked that they really dug into her history and what made her her, but also put focus on the future – who she was, how she could grow, and who she could become one day.
Of the novel, there was one point in particular that surprised me – mainly because it wasn’t advertised, and it was done so well – it was so subtle that I felt it was natural. Of course that was it, of course that happened – why wouldn’t it?
As a whole, How Many Letters Are In Goodbye was very well crafted and very well done.
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World Building: 4.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.46/5
eARC obtained via Flux via NetGalley
-review by Between Printed Pages