The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Imagine being told your whole life that if you kiss your true love, he will die. What would you do? I, for one, would run to my bedroom and cry my eyes out until I'm nothing except an empty shell of a human. Then imagine that one day a relative you've never met shows up at your door and the first words she speaks to you are 'This is the year you'll fall in love'. Blue Sargeant doesn't cry, she doesn't scream, she doesn't run away instead she goes on an adventure with the very same boy who might well be her true love and whom she might well kill one day. And that is why you should read this book.

If there is one thing I need to start this review with it's this: I cannot find a single fault in this book. From the description it might seem like a typical paranormal/supernatural romance*, but holy hell that could not be any further from the truth. Instead of talking about what this book doesn't have - let's focus on what it does have: magic, psychics, a forgotten king, magic, a magical forest with TALKING TREES, wonderful characters, magic, rich boys, a dead language, rituals, a raven, magic, a road called 'corpse road' I mean if that doesn't make you want to read it then?

*which I actually love quite a lot, don't get me wrong.

Yes, the pacing of the book is a little slow. It can get confusing and overwhelming at times but that doesn't matter in the long run. No. What The Raven Boys really comes down to is the characters. We have eccentric Blue who has been brought up in a house full of wacky psychics, the sophisticated and insufferable Gansey, shy and quiet Noah who barely utters a word, damaged sarky and aggressive Ronan and possibly the most annoyingly independent boy in the universe Adam. All of the characters are so well developed throughout the book and each character has their own story to be told. Also, I can't forget the aforementioned wacky psychics (Blue's family) who really bring a touch of humour and an added spark to the whole book. 

The story behind The Raven Boys is absolutely ashtonishing. Gansey has a bit of an obsession, and well you could say he really, really wants to find the ancient King Glendower. The book follows Gansey and his friends as they recruit Blue into their mission and then try and find the ley line that runs through Henrietta, Virginia. With witty lines such as 'you're the table everyone wants at starbucks' and twists and turns within the story that I don't think anyone aside from Steifvater herself could come up with it's no wonder that this book is so highly acclaimed.

The Raven Boys made me laugh, The Raven Boys made me snapchat lines of the book to my friends, The Raven Boys very nearly ripped out my heart and then trod on it like a fucking marshmallow. The Raven Boys is the first book I read in 2015 and probably one of the best books I'll read in 2015 and it made me fall in love with Steifvater's works even more.