I have heard so much about The Raven Cycle series. Everyone raves about it. They love it. Ever review I've read loves it.
I recently decided to read this series because the last book came this year, and all I've heard is how amazing the last book is and the book hangover's everyone is getting from it. So I finally decided it was time I gave The Raven Boys a go. After all, I often agree with the hype. I've only disagreed a few times.
Disappointingly so, this is one of the rare times that I disagree.
I don't understand the hype. I just don't quite get it. I mean, I thought I would at least enjoy The Raven Boys, but I couldn't, I found nothing about this book that I enjoyed reading. Here's why:
1. I couldn't connect with the characters.
I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I really liked the sound of Blue when we first read her chapter, I instantly wanted to know more about her. I was intrigued by her psychic family, I wanted to know why she was the only one in her family that wasn't a psychic, I wanted to connect with her. But I found it very difficult after the first few of her chapters. I ended up feeling like she was someone I was watching, like I was a fly that followed her around, instead of actually being invested in her life. If that makes sense?
I didn't get Gansey at all. I wanted to like him but he never really did anything that would make me like him. At first I felt sorry for him that everyone judged him by his money, and that he always said the wrong thing even though he had good intentions, but it never got bigger than that. He never really grew. His character growth was non-existent in this book and it bored me.
Ronan was a sad, disturbed character, he was constantly angry and always ended his arguments with his fist to someone's face. Okay, so the anger issue was more annoying than anything else, but I liked his character growth a lot more than anyone else's. He was the only one that actually had any growth.
Adam seemed like such a push over and it annoyed me! He was also obsessed with being his own person, to the point where he ignored his friends help when they tried to offer it to him. It made no sense! It was incredibly frustrating reading how he thought near the end of the book. At the beginning of the book I quite liked him, he grew rather dark overall.
I just didn't feel like I really connected with any of the characters, nor was I invested in them. I was really disappointed by this!
2. I wanted more investment.
I wanted more investment in the characters and then in Blue's life. The story revolved around the raven boys, which makes sense with the title of the book called that. But I wanted more from her life. After she meets the raven boys, we don't see her anywhere else except with the raven boys. Her life outside of them didn't exist in this book.
I also wanted more investment in the story away from searching for Glendower, even though that is the main storyline of this book, I jut wanted something else to be interested in. There was nothing. This story solely focuses on Gansey's search for Glendower and each of the characters involved in this search, there is no other story really.
Adam kind of has a story but we don't get much of it, Blue's mum also kind of has a story but we also don't get to see a lot of that either. There were bits and pieces but nothing too big to detract away from the main storyline.
3. I was so bored.
Yep. You read right. I was down right bored nearly the whole of this book.
It was so disappointing! I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the moment where I got sucked in to this story. I was waiting and waiting and waiting for that 'Yes! This book IS amazing!' moment. I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the moment that had me furiously reading and reading and reading until the end. I was waiting and waiting and waiting until... I realised I was at the end of the book. And that was it.
That was the end of the book and I didn't once feel like I was really enjoying the story, or the characters, or anything of what was going on. I was just bored the whole way through! I was so surprised since I have heard so many amazing things about this book. The hype monster may have raised my expectations too far.
4. The writing style wasn't for me.
I've read from a lot of people that they loved the writing style in this book. However, for me, I just couldn't get into it. To be honest, I found it incredibly confusing. I had to keep re-reading things because I didn't understand the structure of the sentence the first time or what on earth characters were referring to. Sometimes it took me a while to figure things out and other times I decided just to continue reading and try and get the gist of it as I read on.
So the writing style wasn't something I really enjoyed.
5. Nothing held my interest.
So honestly, nothing in this book held my interest. Nothing. Not Blue (even though I was begging her too), Gansey and the raven boys, Glendower, or even Ronan and his character development. I only pushed through this book because I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the thing that is the reason that everyone loves this book. But I missed it. It went right over my head. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't love this book, and I'm sorry nothing in this book really held my interest.
I'm really just... sorry that the hype raised my expectations way too high.
Will I read the next book? I have no idea. I haven't ruled it out yet because I'm wondering if this is one of those stories that gets better with each book (Like the Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas), so perhaps I will read the second book at some point.
I found it really hard to rate this book. I didn't hate it. I didn't think it was bad. I didn't think there was anything incredibly wrong with it. I simply just didn't enjoy it.
Do you feel the same way as me with The Raven Boys? Or do you love it? What do you love/not like about it?
Always,
Jordon
This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift