The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle Series #1)

by Maggie Stiefvater Narrated by Will Patton

Overview

An all-new series from the masterful, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater!

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.His name is Gansey, 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 is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher 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 doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

Editorial Reviews

The Washington Post

…Stiefvater not only weaves a suspenseful tale…but she also does so stylishly, with sly social commentary…This first in a planned four-novel series draws readers into a world where time enfolds hauntingly, and magic informs reality…
—Mary Quattlebaum

The New York Times Book Review

…a well-paced neo-Gothic thriller about a teenage fivesome's search for the supernatural…and themselves…Stiefvater, who has an assured and entertaining way with language, doesn't talk down to her readers, and she ably blends the mystical and the earthly, the primitive and the contemporary in a way that brings to mind the work of John Bellairs, J. K. Rowling, Lois Duncan and Stephenie Meyer.
—Anna Holmes

From the Publisher

Praise for The Raven Boys

*"It's a tour de force of characterization, and while there is no lack of event or mystery, it is the way Stiefvater's people live in the reader's imagination that makes this such a memorable read." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

*"[A] story very few writers could dream up and only Stiefvater could make so palpably real. Simultaneously complex and simple, compulsively readable, marvelously wrought...The magic is entirely pragmatic; the impossible, extraordinarily true." -Kirkus, starred review

*"[T]he book is marvelous, for not only is it filled with marvels, it is also a marvel of imagination and, more prosaically, structure. Rich, too, in characterization, this fantasy/mystery rises to the level of serious literature, leaving readers hungering for more." -Booklist, starred review

"In a young-adult market crowded with copycats, it's refreshing to find a book that blazes a path as unique as Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys. The first title in the "Raven Cycle" quartet is a dizzying paranormal romance tinged with murder and Welsh mythology." -Los Angeles Times

"This first in a planned four-novel series draws readers into a world where time enfolds hauntingly, and magic informs reality." -The Washington Post

Praise for The Scorpio Races

2012 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

New York Times Notable Children's Book

Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

A Horn Book Fanfare Book

A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book

An Amazon.com Best Young Adult Book

ALA Notable Children's Book (Fiction)

Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee

"Stiefvater...not only steps out of the young adult fantasy box with The Scorpio Races but crushes it with pounding hooves...If The Scorpio Races seems like nothing you've ever read, that's because it is." -The New York Times Book Review

"Stiefvater has established herself as one of the finest YA novelists writing today." -Entertainment Weekly

"Tense, atmospheric, and utterly original." -People Magazine

*"A study of courage and loyalty tested...utterly compelling." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

*"An intoxicating ride." -Horn Book, starred review

*"Masterful. Like nothing else out there now." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

*"A book with cross-appeal to lovers of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action adventure, this seems to have a shot at being a YA blockbuster." -Booklist, starred review

*"Marvelous." -School Library Journal, starred review

Kirkus Reviews

An ancient Welsh king may be buried in the Virginia countryside; three privileged boys hope to disinter him. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Blue Sargent, daughter of a small-town psychic, has lived her whole life under a prophecy: If she kisses her true love, he will die. Not that she plans on kissing anyone. Blue isn't psychic, but she enhances the extrasensory power of anyone she's near; while helping her aunt visualize the souls of people soon to die, she sees a vision of a dying Raven boy named Gansey. The Raven Boys--students at Aglionby, a nearby prep school, so-called because of the ravens on their school crest--soon encounter Blue in person. From then on, the point of view shifts among Blue; Gansey, a trust-fund kid obsessed with finding King Glendower buried on a ley-line in Virginia; and Adam, a scholarship student obsessed with his own self-sufficiency. Add Ronan, whose violent insouciance comes from seeing his father die, and Noah, whose first words in the book are, "I've been dead for seven years," and you've got a story very few writers could dream up and only Stiefvater could make so palpably real. Simultaneously complex and simple, compulsively readable, marvelously wrought. The only flaw is that this is Book 1; it may be months yet before Book 2 comes out. The magic is entirely pragmatic; the impossible, extraordinarily true. (Fantasy. 13 & up)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170593682
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/18/2012
Series:	Raven Cycle Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

Read an Excerpt

From The Raven Boys

Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love.

Her family traded in predictions. These predictions tended, however, to run toward the non-specific. Things like: Something terrible will happen to you today. It might involve the number six. Or: Money is coming. Open your hand for it. Or: You have a big decision and it will not make itself.

The people who came to the little, bright blue house at 300 Fox Way didn't mind the imprecise nature of their fortunes. It became a game, a challenge, to realize the exact moment that the predictions came true. When a van carrying six people wheeled into a client's car two weeks after their psychic reading, he could nod with a sense of accomplishment and release. When a neighbor offered to buy another client's old chainsaw if they were looking for a bit of extra cash, she could recall the promise of money coming and sell it with the sense that the transaction had been foretold. Or when a third client heard his wife say this is a decision that has to be made, he could remember the same words being said by Maura Sargent over a spread of tarot cards and then leap decisively to action.

But the imprecise nature of the fortunes kept them from feeling complete. They could be dismissed as coincidences, hunches. They were a chuckle in the Wal-mart parking lot when you ran into an old friend as promised. A shiver when the number seventeen appeared in an electric bill. A realization that even if you had discovered the future, it really didn't change how you lived the present. The predictions existed in one world, and reality in another. They were truth, but they weren't all of the truth.

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