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The Raven King - Maggie Stiefvater 
Publish Date: 26th April 2016 
Publisher: Scholastic
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, New Adult, Magic
Pages: 439
Format: Hardback

Goodreads // BookDepository

SYNOPSIS:
Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted.
​
For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey…and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.


WARNING: Spoilers!                                                                                

The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater, was probably my most anticipated release of this year. Being the conclusion to the Raven Cycle series, I had high hopes and had been both longing and dreading for what it had in store.

Sadly, I was disappointed.

The thing I love about this series is the characters, how they act with one another and how they grow and continue growing throughout the books. This, thankfully, wasn't what disappointed me. Stiefvater ensured they all stayed relatively true to themselves, whilst still providing them with strong character arcs. Adam, however, had great development throughout the series until the Epilogue. I'm not sure I like the fact that he "invited" his abusers back into his life. I don't feel he would do that, after all the horrors he's been through because of them.

The addition of Henry Cheng was a bit late. If he had been a more prominent character in the other books, or perhaps just in BLLB then i wouldn't be so skeptical, but he felt like an afterthought, and just thrust into the story last minute to make everything seem more connected than it probably needed to be. He was expected to be a fifth protagonist of the series, but you can't do that in the last book. I doesn't work. You just can't.
I did, however, like that Declan Lynch took over his father's business, but again, it would have been nicer if that was at least hinted at in the other books. Just like Henry it feels like an afterthought.

The overall vibe of the book was different. Since the apex that was The Dream Thieves, the feel of the series has been going very downhill. I've seen some attributing this to the 'dark' and 'horror' action sequences because of the demon, but I don't agree. I feel like Stiefvater didn't properly plan out the books, or perhaps the fact that it was a four-book series. It's disjointed and doesn't fit in with the vibe of the other books in the series, and with the additions of random characters and annoying "Depending on where you began the story" (the most INFURIATING chapter beginning chain i have ever had to deal with, even more so than the 6.21 beginning) it felt sloppy, unpolished and underwhelming.

The story began to twist from being about the Glendower Gang to being about random characters. I didn't care for Piper, nor Laumonier, Henry's mum or Greenmantle, not even Neeve. And Stiefvater claiming at the beginning of chapters that when we began the story it was about those character infuriated me further. And the demon. Was that even needed? It felt like another afterthought addition to verify the outrageous plot switch the last two books undertook.

Also: did everyone just forget about Noah at the end? Did they have a funeral for his passing to the other side? Did Stiefvater forget about him completely in the epilogue or was it done purposefully? I don't know, and it bothers me. Noah was a central character to the story, especially after the events of TRK, and there's no trace of what happened to the Glendower Gang after his passing. Like???? And what happened to Maura? The other psychics? Did they know that Neeve was killed? What about the Gray Man? Too much was left unfinished and unexplained.

The only thing I grew to care about in this book was Adam and Ronan's relationship. They didn't have to confess their love over and over again like Bluesey did, and it felt like the beginnings of a relationship, because that's what it was, unlike how bluesey are assumed to be soulmates because of Blue's "Kiss your true love and he'll die" curse.

Tree Dad. That's when I almost put the book down. A tree? Really? Far-fetched, even for the raven cycle, and again disappointing.

THIS BOOK HAD SO MUCH MORE POTENTIAL.

I was waiting for a massive plot twist, perhaps a reveal of an un-thought of villain or a gut-wrenching decision that had to be made. (Kavinsky and Persephone should have been dreamed back by Ronan tbh.) But no. Nothing. it was somewhat predictable and left me feeling unsatisfied and angry.

The more i think of it, the lower I want to rate the book.

★★★☆☆ - 3 STARS

Natalia,
xx