The Raven Boys

From the publisher:

The Raven Boys
by Maggie Stiefvater

"“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before."

I enjoy the writing of this author - it just flows. I haven't read "The Scorpio Races" yet, but I have read the Mercy Falls series, and they had the same beautiful flow of words - however, there is more about the language of this book below.

The story of this book was a little strange, but it was supposed to be. It had kind of a haunting feeling (which you will learn later is very real). The characters were all fascinating, and I would hope that the author will delve more into each or their back stories in succeeding books in the series.  By reading the synopsis of this book, you would think it was going to have a big romance. It doesn't. What it does have is a captivating look at the relationships between the different personalities. It is chock full of eccentrics and off-the-wall people who somehow manage to be endearing. I'm quite sure this book will garner many awards this year, and if it wasn't for the bad language I would really recommend it.

Areas of concern:  This book contains an enormous amount of cussing and crudities.  Usually when a book has this much bad language in it  (the "f" word abounds) I just stop reading it, but we have this in the Blevins library so I thought I should know what is in it. While reading, I kept picturing Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory when someone wakes him up.... "Danger! Danger!".    I put tiny pieces of tissue in the pages that have bad words so I could remember how much there was. This book couldn't close properly by the time I was finished. We now have parental advisory stickers on CD's that have horrible language, why can't they do that with YA books as well?  I read many reviews before ordering this book, and nowhere was the bad language mentioned.  There was also a lot of teenage drinking and unfortunate teenage behavior.  No sexual situations.

Suggested ages:
School Library Journal - Grade 8+
Publisher's Weekly - Ages 13+