Title: The Raven King
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #4
Genre: YA Fantasy/Adventure
Published: April 26th, 2016
Source: Purchased myself
This is a book that I am going to have a really hard time reviewing. I love this series so much. I love this author's writing so much. The first book, The Raven Boys, was so good and got me so in love with this series. What was so exciting about that first book is that my last name was almost a character's last name in the book. Don't believe me? Too crazy? Well here is a picture I took of the actual tweets with the author about it.
I try not to be too annoying, but it's hard not to remind her of this and say how sad I am that the character ended up on the cutting room floor whenever I go to one of her events. Book 2, The Dream Thieves, also blew me away. And again, book 3, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, just great, and I loved it. Now, I will try really hard not to give any spoilers with this book for those of you who are caught up, but, I can't promise that for the three books before this one if you haven't read them. So if you are behind, click on the links for those books and read those reviews first. Just know that while this was a good ending to the series, it's almost like the amount of extra time between when it was due out, October 2015, and when it actually came out, April 2016, built it up too much in my head and I felt a little tiny bit of something missing for that wait. But still, so so good, and you need to read the series!
But now, on with my review of this one. The last book left off with such a sad place, the death of one character I'd grown to really like in the short time we got to know them. Some new characters showed up, including Blue's father. To learn exactly who or what Blue is, that was really neat and such a great surprise to me. The daughter of the lost king, such a quirky character, which totally brought in something we'd been missing since the death or loss of other characters from before. The tension in Blue and Gansey's at first hidden relationship, to the will they or won't they kiss, when we've all known what that kiss is supposed to mean for Gansey since the very first book. We learn just how much of Ronan's life is a dream, or came from a dream. And then there is Henry Cheng, I love his character, and what his past brings to the story really did add a whole other aspect that made the story even better. Ronan getting a chance at love and happiness, well as happy as Ronan ever gets, that totally brought a smile to my face and made me so happy. Of course there is the king to be found to see what kind of wish Gansey could be granted, maybe so he won't have to die? And then Cabeswater itself is in trouble. There are just so many strings that intersect in so many different ways that I can't even really tell too much about any one event without giving away another major event or plot line.
Here's my thought on how it all ended. I feel like Maggie did a great job, believable, and perfectly normal for her type of world ending. There are things about it that almost felt a little too easy to me, but I can't even explain what about it made me feel that way, so I can't even use that as a negative for the book. I didn't have any trouble enjoying the book, to the point that as I read I wanted to know what was going to happen, but unlike the other books in the series, I didn't have problems setting it down and going on to do other things. So there was something missing in that aspect I guess. But it wasn't the characters. As usual, the characters were the best part of the story, and I will be sad to be done with them. I know the story is over, but I could totally read on about their lives after it all. Ronan and Adam, Gansey and Blue, and what about Henry? You must read this series, and you must see how it all ends if you've read all of it so far.
