The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4)
By Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Recommended For: 16+, fantasy lovers, those intrigued/obsessed with magical folklore
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love’s death. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
The Gist:
I LOVED THIS SERIES! I’m sad it’s over. This series was very unexpected for me. It wasn’t like the normal constant-action, romance saturated YA I’m used to reading, but that almost made it refreshing. What this series does best is relay an absolutely fascinating story with elegant words and rich descriptions. The characters have grown near and dear to my heart and I was excited to finally see how this enriching story would end. If I’m being honest, the ending wasn’t quite the spectacular finale I had hoped for, but it wasn’t a bad ending either. I still highly recommend the series.
What I Liked:
A lot of the side characters got ramped up in this final installment of the series. They had bigger roles and louder personalities. They added a lot to the story for me. Also, the main characters went through a lot of character development in The Raven King. Adam was able to throw away some of his pride, Blue and Gansy grew more courageous, and we got to see a gentler side to Ronan.
Maggie is one of the best writers I’ve read in the last few years. My gosh the way she describes things leaves me speechless sometimes. It makes her story feel so much more alive and I find myself thinking about things in ways I never have before. Like I start seeing the world differently and seeing beauty I didn’t before because that’s what Maggie does with her writing: reveals beauty in everything.
Ugh. The romantic tension between Blue and Gansey is so deliciously, wonderfully agonizing! I’ve never been so into a couple that couldn’t even kiss! I think this is again a testament to Maggie’s skilled writing.
What I Didn’t Like:
I’m getting used to each book starting slow and taking a while to get interesting. But I still wish we could just jump back into the action where the last book left off and wish it didn’t take so long to get vamped up again.
I felt a real lack of a villain in this book. This was mainly due to how book 3 ended. It seemed like it was setting up for an epic villain to be every present in the final book, however we don’t really see or hear much from this person until at least halfway through. Having a present villain makes stories more exciting for me, so I definitely felt that villain-shaped hole in the first half.
All this time the series had been building to this great finale, this ending that I’d been so curious and anxious to get to. And when we finally got there, it had a lukewarm effect on me. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have the excitement I was anticipating. It felt like a tad bit of a let down compared to what my heart wanted as an ending to this fantastic story.
LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas
