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(I'm finishing up my A to Z Book Reviews - I only have R and S written and then I'm done... and I know it's not April anymore...oops.)
How many times have I seen Maggie Stiefvater books recommended? Well, a lot, to the point where it is not even an option anymore NOT to read a book of hers. However, I could never quite bring myself to read her books on werewolves unfortunately since I'm not huge into paranormal. But a Melina Marchetta fan recommended The Raven Cycle, so of course I had to read it. :)
The Raven Boys is basically about this girl, Blue, who is the daughter of a for-real psychic. She lives in a house with a bunch of relatives, all of whom are also psychic. In fact, she's the only one in her family NOT psychic, however she is an amplifier for her family's psychic abilities.
On the other side of the story is a group of four boys, Gansey, Noah, Adam and Ronan who go to a school for rich boys and thus invoke hatred from everyone in their small community for being rich. They are involved with this crazy scheme that their group ringleader, Gansey, is obsessed with that involves waking up a long dead or sleeping king and getting a favour from him.
Of course, the boys and Blue's lives get intertwined and things get interesting from there.
As I said, I'm not huge into the paranormal and I'm not really one for psychic stuff. It makes it a lot harder for me to get into the story. However, for The Raven Boys I did my best to push that aside and let the story prove itself to me. It did.
The plot didn't really pick up until the last handful of chapters, but that was completely okay because the majority of the book was spent on the characters. If you've followed me anywhere online, you know that if there are good characters in a book, it is very easy for me to fall in love. I loved the characters in this book. Blue, Gansey, Noah, Adam and Ronan were each complex and unique characters. They were almost real people more than characters, actually.
I also loved the development of the relationships between the characters. I love how Blue slowly gets to know "her raven boys", and at the same time I got to know the boys (and Blue) as well. The third person POV switching definitely helped with that. So effective. I love alternative POVs, especially when the POVs are on either side of the story.
So the characters were definitely the best part, and that makes the book pretty good in my eyes. However, I did end up being immersed into the psychic magic stuff by the end. I loved how I kind of got swept up with Gansey's obsession just like the rest of the boys and Blue were. I'm really curious to see where this all goes, and I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time with these awesome characters.
(Also I read the sequel, The Dream Thieves, and it was amazing! I hate that the third book doesn't come out until October.)
Check out The Raven Boys on Goodreads and Amazon.
Check out Maggie Stiefvater at her website and on Twitter.
Everyone is always pushing for complexity in characters. ("Everyone" being writer/publishing people I see online). Complex characters are good characters. They are good characters because characters should be complex, just like humans.
Sometimes the complexity of certain characters takes a hold of my brain and just won't let go. I cannot stop thinking about the character and their intricacies. I have to analyze everything about them. They are so very real and human to me. They are endlessly fascinating.
These are some characters that I've found (and still find) endlessly fascinating:
1. Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
I find it absolutely fascinating about how Malfoy is not just this great big bully enemy with a capital E. I mean, Harry and co obviously see him that way (especially Harry) but it's easy to see past that. It's easy to see how he's in a very similar position to Harry, but how he's failing. The scene in Half Blood Prince where Draco is crying over the sink gets me every time. He's just a boy with goals and fears and everything just like Harry. See this gifset as well.
2. Massie from the Clique series by Lisi Harrison
Yes I read all the Clique books obsessively; they were/are my guilty pleasure books but CHARACTERS. One of the things I appreciated about the Clique books (and probably the reason I was into them for so long) was how Lisi Harrison really digs into the characters. Massie is the most popular girl and leader of her group of best friends. She's responsible for holding it all together and basically being perfect, or her face goes down the drain. The chapters from her POV were always fascinating - seeing how hard she works to keep up appearances and keep everything together, even when things are falling apart. She does anything to get her way, and sometimes she does give up hope and just wants a friend. Those are her best moments, but even still she insists on returning to keeping up appearances. From anyone on the outside, it's really, really hard to empathize with Massie. For anyone on the inside (the reader), it's almost impossible not to.
3. Dustfinger from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Dustfinger sort of just gets caught up in all this stuff with Mo being able to read things into existence completely by accident. I love love how he is not really a bad guy, but not really a good guy either. He has his own interests at heart, and will do anything to do what's best for himself. But he still ends up feeling for other's causes anyway until... well, spoilers. Dustfinger is one of my favourite characters ever and he definitely deserves his own book.
4. Quintana from Froi of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta
Quintana is one of the most fascinating characters of all, because she's absolutely horrible. She does not deserve love or acceptance from anyone, and deservedly doesn't get it. She's kind of crazy and you never really understand her. The fact that you never really understand her is part of the fascination of her character. She comes from places that are really hard to understand. By the end of Quintana of Charyn I only began to understand her character. There is so much to her, so much complexity and hurt and... gahh. She's absolutely brilliant.
Which characters fascinate YOU to no end? I'd love to know.
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