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The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater | Series Review (Spoiler Free)

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This is it guys, I have read the last book of the quartet I have been obsessing over. I know many of you are heaving a sigh of relief (yes, don’t hide, I can see it from here!) that it is finally over, and I know, I know I have been going on and on for the last few months about my love for it, but trust me – this book series completely deserves the adoration it receives (from me and everyone else).

For the uninitiated – The Raven Cycle Quartet comprises of 4 books (duh!) – The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue & The Raven King. I have done plot summary and spoiler free reviews for all of them, you can find them here (The Raven Boys), and here (The Dream Thieves, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue).

I am going to combine my review of the final book with a series review in this post (both spoiler free), but I will begin with the series review, and then include my thoughts about the finale.

4 book covers of raven cycle series with text recommendation

The Raven Cycle Series

I don’t want to draw parallels or compare this book to Harry Potter and other such iconic book series’, because I feel that such comparisons set up a book/series for failure. And I don’t want to do that to this series I love so much.

But the one thing I can say is that – Maggie Stiefvater  is a very skilled storyteller, and has the ability to create a profound depth of feeling for her characters. I loved/cared about all these characters just as much as I loved/cared about Harry, Ron and Hermoine. And I am not the overly sentimental type, so that is saying a lot.

I adored Gansey (but who wouldn’t?) – he was everything good and right about this world wrapped in one self-assured, yet slightly ambivalent package.

And I loved Blue –  smart, sensible, quirky, ever curious, Blue.

I had a love/hate relationship with Adam – poor, broken, stupid, proud, Adam.

And then there was Ronan – This guy! I don’t even know what to say about him! He is repulsive, yet wonderful, obnoxious, yet adorable. Yeah, that kind of sums it up.

I was totally invested in how things turned out for all of them – not just the protagonists, but also the side characters, and even (inexplicably) the “villains”. I am rarely conflicted about how I feel about the antagonists, and this series has made me second guess my feelings about them many many times.

It has also completely changed my mind about character-driven stories. I thought I did not enjoy character driven tales, but I think I just had not met the right characters. Or well written ones. Or lovable ones.

While the characters were clearly the best thing about this series for me, I loved the plot too. It was a very original, imaginative tale, which was executed well too.  I must say that it was relatively slow paced at times, but always very intriguing. The writing was very atmospheric, which was perfect for the kind of setting this story was taking place in.

I will always remember this series fondly because of how much I cared about these strange/awesome people and their weird/wonderful quest.

The Raven King

Coming to this final book and how things wrapped up – I would say that while I found the ending satisfactory, I was also a little disappointed (contradictions, I know!), because I expected more. But that is the thing with a good series, right? No end is a good end. Partly because you don’t want it to end (sigh), and partly because you have ginormous impossible expectations!

See the thing is I always knew that this was the kind of book/series that doesn’t spoon feed you anything. It leaves you with questions, half baked theories, and possibilities – a world of possibilities!

And that is just how the conclusion was – I have questions, and theories, and more questions (which is fine), but I really needed some closure, which was sadly lacking (more on that in the upcoming spoiler-y Book Talk on The Raven King).

In Conclusion –

This is the kind of book/series that infects you with verbal diarrhea, and makes you want to sway anyone with an ear to read this story. But (quite irrationally) it is also something you want to keep close to your heart, and never share with anyone, ever.

It was so good, that it made me bad, very bad – I procrastinated chores, skipped sleep (and meals) sometimes.

When this was over – I wasn’t really ready to say goodbye, but are we ever ready to bid adieu to something we love? No, right? So, I guess, for now we part – until we meet again, and meet again we definitely will, because this is the kind of series that improves on a re-read.

GET THIS BOOK SERIES HERE

The Raven Boys (Book 1) – Amazon One Link | Amazon India
The Dream Thieves (Book 2) – Amazon One Link | Amazon India
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Book 3) – Amazon One Link | Amazon India
The Raven King (Book 4) – Amazon One Link | Amazon India

Have you read this series? I would love to hear your thoughts on the ending. Oh and yes, spoiler-y thoughts are welcome in the comments section. 😀 In case, you are new to this series – Read it! Now! 😛 

On a more serious note (not that I wasn’t serious earlier) – Do you guys feel conflicted when a series you love ends? I pretty much always do. Even with The Harry Potter series – as much as I loved how things wrapped up – I wanted Harry & Hermoine to be together (but of-course now I can’t see them together anymore as Ron & Hermoine have grown on me). But I feel the stakes and expectations are always bigger with a series v/s a standalone book. What do you guys think?

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4 book covers of the raven cycle series

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Comments

  2. Maria

    You know I LOVED Harry Potter… and I would have hated if Harry and Hermoine got together going against Ron… for me it was about friendship plus Harry liked Ron’s sister already(:… the thought that Harry and Hermoine would be together is blasphersy… I love Snape best here and Dumbledore and Harry’s owl and that elf… all chivilious charactors on their own way… What you mentioned about the series you finished now, I felt the same way reading Lord of the Rings… I loved the hobbits there and the peotry and songs… And JJR Tolkien(:

    Reply

  3. Sid

    I started on the ‘contains spoiler’ review and since I haven’t read the books, I skipped that and came over here.
    You make a compelling argument, Shan. Must add it to the list.
    Sid recently posted…AbductedMy Profile

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    • Shanaya Tales

      This is certainly character driven. If you like that in books, you will enjoy this too. However if you are hesitant because of the genre it belongs to, i.e. YA Paranormal Romance, I must say that it is much better than the average YA book, and there is very little of romance (which could be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences). The one thing it is heavy on is the paranormal/magical realism aspect. Hope this helps. 🙂
      Shanaya Tales recently posted…The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater | Series Review (Spoiler Free)My Profile

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  8. Jenny @ Reading the End

    I wanted Gansey to stay dead longer! It felt like we had all this build-up, so much build-up, and then he was only dead for like, what, five pages? We didn’t get to see what a world without Gansey looked like for all these different characters, and I was sad about that. My much bigger complaint was that nobody seemed to notice or care at all that Noah was gone. I thought surely Blue and Ronan, at least, would notice, to be sad about it. Noah had just been being so sweet to Ronan in his time of bereavement, too!
    Jenny @ Reading the End recently posted…LaRose, Louise ErdrichMy Profile

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  9. shubhangi

    Sounds interesting! books can do that to you! I have skipped all my work to lie like a corpse and read books all day!!!
    okay, one question…Is this suitable for 12 yr olds? I mean in terms of adult content and words usage.

    Reply

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