Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: October 21st, 2014
Pages: 391
Song I Played While Reading: Faith and How Deep Is Your Love by Calvin Harris
Rating: 3 stars
There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have became theirs.
The trick with finding things, though, is how easily they could be lost.
Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.
I read the last page in a daze. I have no idea what the hell it was, but it was like my brain just stuttered. And died. Because the second I finished the last sentence? BAM. I forgot everything. I couldn't tell you what happened in the book even if my life depended on it. Like it was some freaky shit. So I frantically flipped through the pages, slowly jogging my memory back to life, then sprinted into the living room and proceeded to walk through the story, chapter by chapter, with my mom and grandma until the juices started flowing. And once they did, I waited for it to happen. I waited and waited for the book hangover. The groaning and moaning of how AMAZING this book was. The explosion of feels because c'mon? IT'S THE RAVEN BOYS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE.
And it never happened. Because I realized there was no explosion of feels. Because I was simply 'meh' about this book.
TALK ABOUT A PLOT TWIST.
Okay, that was super dramatic and I apologize, but seriously? 3 stars? What the hell just happened here? I'll tell you what happened: nothing. This book was like one small baby step towards finding Glendower, with the same storyline from The Dream Thieves and The Raven Boys. The whole thing was so... anti-climatic. From the crazy amazing reviews I saw on Goodreads, I expected some knock-out storyline that would leave me with a cliff-hangar that had me tearing my hair out. Instead, I got a jumbled mess of information that was slightly confusing. Overall, I get what happened, as if I was looking at a pretty picture from a distance, but if I pinpoint something specific, or look closer at this picture, I'll notice there's cracks. It's not perfect. So it just needs some internal tweaking, especially where Adam is concerned.
And then theres this "three sleepers" prophecy, and to not wake the third sleeper (which I'm assuming was the red box, right?), and it bugged me because I didn't see any correlation between that and finding Glendower. I didn't mind straying from the quest in The Dream Thieves because we needed to find out about Ronan's gift and what it contributes to Cabeswater. But now it just seems like Stiefvater is stretching this out and trying to throw in another problem before we deal with Glendower. Which leads to the ending and how THAT is important. The whole red box scenario confused the shit out of me because I didn't see what was so bad about it. What is it? Why is it so dangerous? I wish we got more information on it! Cause with that maybe I would have felt more emotion on the cliff-hanger but instead I felt like a robot. Seriously, it hurts my soul to talk like this about Stiefvater and her amazing series but... I CANT HELP THE WAY I FEEL.
Now, don't get me wrong, this book killed it, as usual, in the character development/romance/funny moments department. Plus Greentmantle. My man. How the hell does she come up with such likable villains? I don't even know why I call them villains because they end up being one of my favorite aspects to the story. They're just so quirky and funny! And, of course, of course, the writing was A++++++++++++. Give this woman a medal, for christ sake.
So it's an evan draw down the middle, and 3 stars it will be. I have high hopes for the fourth and final book, The Raven King, but a small part of me is a little worried cause theres so much that has to be wrapped up. But I have faith in Stiefvater. If anyone can do it, she can!
Quotes
""You can be just friends with people, you know." Orla said. "I think it's crazy how you're in love with all those raven boys."
Orla wasn't wrong, of course. But what she didn't realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn't all-encompassing, that wasn't blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she'd has this kind, she didn't want the other."
""Are you Jesse Dittley?"
"I AM JESSE DITTLEY. DID YOU NEVER EAT YOUR GREENS?"
It was true that Blue was just shy of five feet and it was also true that she hadn't eaten her greens, but she'd done the research and she didn't think the two were related."
"This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
Adam swept the flashlight again.
Blue said, "Ah..." and then changed her mind.
The hair moved.
"Jesus shit Mary fuck," said Ronan."
""I'm going in," Gansey said as Ronan sat down on the step beside Adam. As Gansey shut the door behind him, he heard Adam say, "I don't want to talk," and Ronan reply, "The fuck would I talk about?"
"What an impossible and miraculous and hideous thing this was. An ugly plan hatched by an ugly boy now dreamt into ugly life. From dream to reality. How appropiate it was that Ronan, left to his own devices, manifested beautiful cars and beautiful birds and tenderhearted brothers, while Adam, when given the power, manifested a filthy string of perverse murders."
"Adam finally sat down on one of the pews. Laying his cheek against the smooth back of it, he looked at Ronan. Strangely enough, Ronan belonged here, too, just as he had at the Barns. This noisy, lush religion had created him just as much as his father's world of dreams; it seemed impossible for all of Ronan to exist in one person. Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn't known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him.
The scent of Cabeswater, all trees after rain, drifted past Adam, and he realized that while he'd been looking at Ronan, Ronan had been looking at him." *swoons* *heart eyes* YES YES YES
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