409 pages
English language
Published Dec. 25, 2012 by Scholastic Press.
Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger. When she meets Gansey, one of the boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as "raven boys", they can only mean trouble. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the raven boys, she's not so sure anymore.
Eeeeeh.
It was fine, but there was nothing special. I didn't love it and I'm not gonna bother getting any of the other books in the series.
Swift and strange and delicious. I love a good ghost story, and the way this one winds in and out with king-under-the-hill folktales and complicated, painful teenage friendships is impressive. I was a little sad that Blue lacked the strong, funny female friendships that Grace had (her family is terrific, but it's weird how little we find out about her school life), and the exposition is really slow going for the first 100 pages or so... But again and again Stiefvater proves how amazing her characterization skills are. You really get the sense of whole, complex people in her stories, which really is what ties it all together even in the slowest or most improbable passages. You can't put it down, because in trying to do so you realize that the characters have worked their way under your skin.
I am incredibly perplexed by the last paragraph of dialogue in …
Swift and strange and delicious. I love a good ghost story, and the way this one winds in and out with king-under-the-hill folktales and complicated, painful teenage friendships is impressive. I was a little sad that Blue lacked the strong, funny female friendships that Grace had (her family is terrific, but it's weird how little we find out about her school life), and the exposition is really slow going for the first 100 pages or so... But again and again Stiefvater proves how amazing her characterization skills are. You really get the sense of whole, complex people in her stories, which really is what ties it all together even in the slowest or most improbable passages. You can't put it down, because in trying to do so you realize that the characters have worked their way under your skin.
I am incredibly perplexed by the last paragraph of dialogue in this book, however. I look forward to some elucidation in the sequel!
