Being honest, it took me a very long time to get sucked into The Raven Boys. The Raven Cycle has been on the edge of my periphery for the past seven years – give or take – and it’s always been a series I thought I’d read someday, despite never making any moves to learn what it was about, or find a copy to actually read. After finishing All For The Game, I decided it would be the perfect time to rectify that. Many people compare the two, and there is a great overlap in the fanbases for reasons that are still unclear to me, even after finishing this book. It did not go as smoothly as expected.
I was immediately endeared to Blue Sargent, the only non-magical member of her all-female, spiritual, close-knit family. I was entranced just by the world being built inside the walls of her home, her mother and aunts and dogs and life so beautifully coming off the pages and becoming real. It took me much longer to take to the titular boys. It wasn’t until I was faced with an hour-long bus journey that gave me time to make it halfway through the book that I found myself caring for them, and then it came all at once.
The first half of the story moves slowly, introducing plot-points and characters and weaving webs between everything being introduced to us. We watch as backstories establish themselves, relationships develop, secrets make themselves known, all while the town of Henrietta fills in as a quaint backdrop for our characters. The second half of the story seems to move a mile a minute, and I almost couldn’t look away. Suddenly, you find yourself invested in these characters lives, even ones you thought you barely knew. I was genuinely moved by some events, and angry when the book ended and there was no more.
I will immediately be moving to the next book in the series, and hopefully loving it much faster than before. I’m so glad I decided to stick it out.