“Gansey, that’s all there is.”
– Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys
- Release Date : 9/18/2012
- Genre : Urban Fantasy
- Publisher : Scholastic
- Length : 11 hours 18 minutes
Synopsis: It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them-not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all-family money, good looks, devoted friends-but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys
Going in to The Raven Boys I heard a lot of good things from other bloggers and based on Kat’s review I had pretty high expectations, all of which were met. The Raven Boys reads like a modern-day fairytale. In the small town of Henrietta, Virginia three boys who attend the elite Aglionby Academy and a psychic’s daughter embark upon a clandestine quest into the mystical, occult and magic; lead by the enigmatic Richard Gansey III.
In short, this story has an amazing sense of setting and eccentric characters you find yourself rooting for.
This isn’t just a story about boy meets girl, so this was way differentfrom what I’d read of Stiefvater’s Mercy Falls series.
I grabbed the audiobook from my local library’s Overdrive. Will Patton’s low slightly accented performance lent itself well to the characters and third-person narration. I live in Virginia and went to college with a few people from the real “southern” parts of Virginia and I think Patton’s accents are spot on.
I also noticed in this audiobook that when 2 or 3 characters would say the same things at once, the recording would talk over itself. It was a nice touch and gave a jarring effect.
For some reason, the character of Gansey was such an enigma to me. I had a hard time trying to figure out if he
was supposed to be a likable character or not. He is always described as this larger-than life put together guy. He is cool and confident, so confident that at one part of the book he doesn’t have to worry about looking back to see if his friends will follow him because he knows they will.
I suppose what got me is I didn’t get any indication that he would do the same for them. I think on some level Gansey is aware of this and as one character always notes “he doesn’t mean to be”.
I liked Gansey for the complex character he was and what I’ll be looking out for in the sequel Dream Thieves
is if there is any indication that he reciprocates the respect he is given.
The Raven Boys is a great audiobook and just an all-around unique story that will amaze, frighten and make you believe.
Maggie Stiefvater performed and wrote the music that plays at the beginning and ending of the audiobook. You can listen to “Henrietta” here
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.