The Raven King (Raven Cycle, Book 4)

by Maggie Stiefvater

Overview

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. 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.

In a starred review for Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Kirkus Reviews declared: "Expect this truly one-of-a-kind series to come to a thundering close."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545424981
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Series:	Raven Cycle Series , #4
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	83,082
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.60(d)
Lexile:	HL760L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Maggie Stiefvater is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Shiver, Linger, Forever, and Sinner. Her novel The Scorpio Races was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association. The first book in The Raven Cycle, The Raven Boys, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and the second book, The Dream Thieves, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. The third book, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, received five starred reviews. The final book, The Raven King, received four. She is also the author of All the Crooked Saints and Call Down the Hawk. She is also an artist and musician. She lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children. You can visit her online at maggiestiefvater.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/01/2016
“What a strange constellation they all were.” Such is Richard Gansey’s assessment of the teenage magical dreamers, psychic amplifiers, scryers, and ghosts who have been his closest companions in his efforts to find the sleeping Welsh king Glendower over the previous three books of the Raven Cycle. The search for that king—and the fact that Gansey is supposed to die this year, probably from a kiss from Blue—has hung over each novel, and it all comes to a head now. Despite Stiefvater’s use of repeating phrases (“Depending on where you began the story, it was about...”) to create an air of finality and heighten the mythic scope of Gansey’s quest, the path to what readers have always known was coming is swirling, chaotic, and unpredictable, drawing in robotic bees, real wasps, a cloven-hooved girl, a terrifically powerful demon, tree spirits, fast cars, and a couple of eagerly anticipated kisses. The playful, imaginative force of Stiefvater’s writing works its magic once again, and most readers will finish this saga not with regret or disappointment but with hope. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Blue Lily, Lily Blue:

* "Blue Lily, Lily Blue is, simply, a triumph." — Booklist, starred review

* "Expect this truly one-of-a-kind series to come to a thundering close." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "We have not yet finished loving these characters and exploring their world." — The Bulletin, starred review

* "Stiefvater's razor-sharp characterizations, drily witty dialogue, and knack for unexpected metaphors and turns of phrase make for sumptuous, thrilling reading.... Readers will snap up the final installment the second it's available." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "The prose is crisp and dazzling and the dialogue positively crackles." — School Library Journal, starred review


Praise for The Dream Thieves:

* "Richly written and filled with figurative language... this story of secrets and dreams, of brothers and of all-too-real magic is an absolute marvel of imagination and an irresistible invitation to wonder." — Booklist, starred review

* "Mind-blowingly spectacular... Stiefvater's careful exploration of class and wealth and their limitations and opportunities astounds with its sensitivity and sophistication. The pace is electric, the prose marvelously sure-footed and strong, but it's the complicated characters . . . that meld magic and reality into an engrossing, believable whole." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "A paranormal thriller... this installment [is] more tense and foreboding than its predecessor — and every bit as gripping." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "A complex web of magical intrigue and heartstopping action." — The Bulletin, starred review

* "Readers who want a moody chill and appreciate an atmospheric turn of phrase will want to spend more time in Henrietta." — School Library Journal, starred review

Praise for The Raven Boys:

"Stiefvater is a master storyteller." — USA Today

"A dizzying paranormal romance tinged with murder and Welsh mythology." — The Los Angeles Times

* "Simultaneously complex and simple, compulsively readable, marvelously wrought." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "A tour de force... such a memorable read." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "One unexpected and wonderful surprise after another... a marvel of imagination." — Booklist, starred review

* "The Raven Boys is an incredibly rich and unique tale, a supernatural thriller of a different flavor... Fans have been salivating for Stiefvater's next release and The Raven Boys delivers." — School Library Journal, starred review

"Equal parts thriller and mystery, with a measured dash of romance sprinkled on top... Maggie has woven such a unique, intriguing narrative that I struggled for comparisons." — MTV.com

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 2012 Blue Ribbons list

From the Publisher

12/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—This is a roller-coaster ride of a finale to an engrossing series that mixes mythology and magic, modern friendship and love, and betrayal and loss. The characters' high-stakes struggles and seemingly ill-fated futures keep readers turning pages and holding their breath until the satisfying last page.

School Library Journal

2016-02-17
A group of Virginia teenagers finally finds a long-buried Welsh king in this conclusion to the four-part Raven Cycle. A demon has infected the magical forest, Cabeswater, killing Ronan's mother, Aurora, and threatening Ronan's brother, Matthew, as well as Ronan and maybe the whole world—Gansey knows what he has to do. It's all been foretold, and readers have been waiting for it since Blue saw him on the corpse road in quartet opener The Raven Boys (2012). For three out of four novels, Stiefvater combined extraordinary magic and visceral reality in a way that felt entirely true. Here, the magic scatters in all directions, and too little of it makes sense. The characters—Ronan, Gansey, long-dead Noah, Blue Sargent, newcomer Henry, and especially Adam—are as multidimensional and fully realized as ever; Ronan and Adam's budding romance is beautifully told. The writing sings—each sentence, each paragraph marvelously wrought. Yet at the point where the story needs to make the most sense, it makes the least, prophecy and magics piling up on one another in a chaotic, anticlimactic climax. The ending feels trivial, almost mocking the seriousness of the rest of the quartet. Stiefvater couldn't write a bad book, and this isn't one, but it is a disappointment after years of glorious buildup. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

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