#but scorpio races was really atmospheric and original and I loved it

[llycaons]

seeing quotes by rilke around reminds me of maggie steivater's wolves series...it was so bad. I still don't know what the point of it was and it made very little sense and was full of plot holes and it was written so awkwardly even at 15 I was recording the sentences in my head. she should have hired me as an editor

[pvrrhadve]

I trust ur taste in books, so can you recommend some? 🥺🥺🥺

yes absolutely!! this turned out obnoxiously long so i'm putting it under a read more

at this point you definitely all know about 2 of my favourite series, the queen's thief and the locked tomb

on the jellicoe road, also by melina marchetta. my fav ya contemporary, about a girl at a boarding school in the australian bush trying to figure out where she comes from, where she belongs and how to heal. marchetta's writing style can be a little difficult to get into for some people but she really really does it for me.

while tqt is my #1 favorite series, my 2nd favourite is melina marchetta's lumatere chronicles which is both kinda dark and full to the brim with love and hope and healing. some of my fav characters ever are in these books and the ending is so warm and radiant it straight up made me weep. some tw's that i go into here

the darkest part of the forest by holly black. ya fantasy. she wrote this specifically for girls who absolutely would've bargained years of their life away to the faerie king to become a monster-hunting knight when they were 11. black's magnum opus.

the girl who drank the moon by kelly barnhill. mg fantasy about a little girl who is accidentally given magical powers by a friendly bog witch. reads like a ghibli movie.

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. a lyrical and devastatingly beautiful epistolary sci-fi wlw love story about 2 enemy time travellers.

abhorsen/old kingdom trilogy by garth nix. a ya fantasy classic about grief, duty, dead things and primordial cats and dogs. definitely holds up.

tess of the road by rachel hartman. ya fantasy. one of the best books i've read this year, had me completely emotionally invested by chapter 2. tess is SUCH a good character and her arc is so beautifully done. a companion novel/future series to hartman's seraphina duology but imo you don't need to read them first to enjoy this (you can ofc, but while the 1st (seraphina) is a really good scholarly fantasy about identity and also dragons, the 2nd (shadowscale) sadly didn't do much for me). tw for sexual assault (recounted as a memory, not graphic) and religious abuse.

the colours of madeleine by jaclyn moriarty. young ya/older mg contemporary portal fantasy. i picked these up on a whim a couple years ago and didn't expect much from them but was very pleasantly surprised by how fun and original they are. i reread them this summer and they're just as good the 2nd time around.

in other lands by sarah rees brennan. ya portal fantasy deconstruction. it's borderline satire and one of the funniest books i've ever read but it's also very sincere and intelligent in how it deals with its main character and his struggles.

middlegame by seanan mcguire. fantasy/sci-fi. honestly could not explain the plot of this book to you or why it's so good but there's psychically linked alchemically engineered twins who have various and sundry powers and i loved it.

sunshine by robin mckinley. paranormal urban fantasy. another book that i cant really explain but love anyway. i mean it's in the very general neighbourhood of "vampire romance" but like... weirder and frankly whatever you're expecting it to be it's probably not that.

keturah and lord death by martine leavitt. fairytale-like and haunting. every hades and persephone retelling wants what this book has.

the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater. her iconic standalone horsegirl fantasy <3 deeply atmospheric and about how being stuck on an unspecified celtic island in an unspecified but vaguely modern time could understandably be enough to drive you to fuck around with the local carnivorous water horses.

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer. honestly if i could make everyone read just one book off this list it would be this one.

lab girl by hope jahren. beautifully written memoir about life, love and botany. one of my fav nonfiction books.

[tcm]

Desert Noir: Wherein writer Jeremy Arnold takes us through a weekend at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs

For the fourth year in a row, I drove to Palm Springs this May not for music festivals or partying but for NOIR. Film noir. Strange as it may seem, the bright, blinding sun and heat of the desert is actually a perfect setting in which to settle down for 72 hours of dark, rain-soaked streets, shady guys in fedoras and the wicked dames who wreck their lives.

For its 18th annual edition, The Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival offered 12 classic movies (11 of them in 35mm prints), from Thursday evening, May 11, through Sunday afternoon, May 14. Named for the longtime (and now deceased) Palm Springs resident and film historian who founded it, The Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival is presented at the Camelot Theater by the Palm Springs Cultural Center and programmed and hosted by film historian Alan K. Rode. Rode is also director/treasurer of the Film Noir Foundation, founded by Eddie Muller, who was also on hand to present some of this festival’s screenings. Eddie, of course, is the host of TCM’s new Noir Alley series, which airs every Saturday morning at 10am, and Turner Classic Movies was one of the festival’s official sponsors this year. A third host, film scholar Foster Hirsch, is also on the Board of Directors of the Film Noir Foundation.

Joining noir experts Alan, Eddie and Foster for some of this year’s films were special guests Monika Henreid (daughter of Paul Henreid), Sara Karloff (daughter of Boris Karloff) and actor Andy Robinson.

I always enjoy making the trip to Palm Springs for this festival because it has a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere. The screenings are always pretty full, but there’s never a rush to get in. The Camelot Theatre has comfy, spacious seats and a nice, big screen (plus good popcorn). The films are spaced out at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7:30pm, and with short running times it’s easy to head back to the hotel or go grab a meal between shows and still get back in time for the next picture. And finally, everyone you meet is incredibly nice and enthusiastic. I really couldn’t recommend it more highly for classic movie fans.

Visit the festival’s website for more information and mark your calendars for May 2018!

Meanwhile, here’s a brief rundown of the movies and presentations I took in this year...

THURSDAY, MAY 11

HOLLOW TRIUMPH  [also known as THE SCAR] (’48) opened the festival and looked great in its 35mm print. I’ve always loved this movie for its utterly crackpot story (even in an era of movies FULL of crackpot stories!) and for the work of its leading man, Paul Henreid, who also produced (and partially directed, uncredited). As guest Monika Henreid explained in conversation with Alan Rode, her father liked the script because it gave him a chance to stretch himself. He wanted to move away from the debonair, romantic, Continental leading man that he had played so well in CASABLANCA (’42), and NOW VOYAGER (’42) and had been asked to play again and again ever since. In Hollow Triumph, Henreid is bad—twice over! The script by Daniel Fuchs has him playing TWO bad guys. Monika Henreid explained that the studio, Eagle-Lion, asked her dad to produce this picture as well as star in it because it was so low-budget that they couldn’t come anywhere close to his usual acting fee. This way, they were able to pay him to do both. Henreid enjoyed having the extra level of creative control, and Monika said he was “all over” this movie down to the choices of songs and operas heard on the soundtrack (his real-life favorites).

Joan Bennett is perfectly cast in a complex role and HOLLOW TRIUMPH is satisfyingly layered with delicious ironies. Henreid’s principal character is simply fated to not win, and there’s nothing more “noir” than that—except perhaps noir maestro John Alton’s brilliant cinematography.

Following the screening, there was a friendly catered reception outside the theater to celebrate the opening night.

FRIDAY, MAY 12

Friday morning started with THE CHASE (’46), but having seen it recently, I opted for a little bit of “vacation” time and instead ambled to the Camelot a little later, for the 1pm screening of SIDE STREET (’50). This exceptional Anthony Mann directed picture, as Rode proclaimed in his intro, is one of the ultimate “shot on location in New York” noirs. Mann uses the claustrophobia of the city to great affect as he follows the story of Farley Granger’s mailman inadvertently getting mixed up in a mess far beyond his planning when he succumbs to the temptation of stealing “only” 200 bucks.

I love how the opening montage of New York skyscrapers comes back to figure prominently in the elaborate car-chase finale. The opening shots are not mere decoration or throwaway images; they function as a kind of unconscious visual foreshadowing, and their reappearance gives the film a satisfying visual unity. SIDE STREET was shot by Joseph Ruttenberg, a reminder that even without his frequent collaborator John Alton, Mann’s films were breathtakingly visual and dynamically lit and framed, proving Mann’s chops as a visual stylist himself. (Of course, Ruttenberg was also one of the great cameramen.)

Next up was ALL THE KING’S MEN (’49), which as Foster Hirsch said in his intro was “not visually noir, but philosophically, politically, emotionally noir.” Indeed, to see Broderick Crawford’s Willie Stark—modeled by novelist Robert Penn Warren on 1930s political populist Huey Long—racing to the top of the political world by the foulest of methods, I was not only reminded of the still-topical aspects of the story but of the way film noir can be described as a “world.” It’s as if Stark, who begins with his heart in the right place, falls into the noir world, is seduced by it, and can’t get out, or even know enough to want to get out. He catches the noir “virus,” which is very hard to cure.

Eddie Muller was back on hand to conclude the day with the stylish BLACK ANGEL (’46), because what would a film noir festival be without an appearance from Dan Duryea?!

SATURDAY, MAY 13

Saturday began with somewhat of a rarity, the “nuclear noir” SPLIT SECOND (’53), in which escaped convicts Stephen McNally and Paul Kelly take shelter in a Nevada ghost town with four hostages while an atom bomb test is set to go off less than a mile away in mere hours. This was the first film ever directed by Dick Powell, and as Foster Hirsch said in his introduction, Powell’s direction is as clipped, efficient and no-nonsense as his portrayal of Philip Marlowe was in Murder, My Sweet, which of course had represented another shift in talents for the former crooner Powell.  He directs excellent performances by all involved here including Arthur Hunnicutt, who seems to have wandered in from the set of a nearby western with his welcome, grizzled, western humor. Hunnicutt and everyone else are helped enormously by a tight script with the usual superb dialogue from William Bowers, one of the best dialogue writers in Hollywood history. If you ever get a chance to see any movie written by Bowers, take it. Is Split Second “noir”? Well, its visual look shifts from flat and bright to deep and shadowy when the hostage portion of the story begins and the ever-present knowledge of that atom bomb about to go off certainly lends fatalism, so I would say a resounding “yes.”

The 1pm screening was William Cameron Menzies’ excellent and little-known Columbia film ADDRESS UNKNOWN ('44). Well, perhaps not that little-known anymore - I had seen it just six weeks earlier at Noir City Hollywood, so no need to see it again here. But it’s well worth seeking out should you get the chance. Set in the years before World War II, it chronicles the dissolution of a close friendship between two German men and their families as the rise of Nazism tears them apart. Masterfully shot by Rudolph Mate, later a fine director himself, this one will stay with you.

MEET DANNY WILSON (’52) is another of those movies whose “noir” status is debatable at best, but as Eddie Muller said, “Any movie with Raymond Burr can be placed in a film noir festival.” Fair enough! He plays a gangster who spots the singing talent in Frank Sinatra when others seem unable to (for some strange reason) and signs him to a contract for his nightclub and beyond. Shelley Winters is a heart-of-gold chanteuse and the result is a “noir-stained musical.” This was Sinatra’s first credit to really show he could act dramatically, outside of pure musical roles, although he does sing six songs here extremely well.

Saturday evening, I got to meet the Scorpio Killer and lived to tell the tale. And he was actually a perfectly nice guy. Andy Robinson’s film debut was in DIRTY HARRY (’71) as that famous screen killer, but this night he was in Palm Springs for another ’70s classic, CHARLEY VARRICK (’73). I’d never seen this one, even though it’s directed by Don Siegel, one of my favorites. It did not disappoint. It has an entertaining story, terrifically taut action scenes, welcome humor, moves right along and it features a superb cast, starting with an unlikely Walter Matthau as a very clever bank robber who has a way with the ladies. Siegel originally offered the role to Clint Eastwood, who turned it down because he saw no redeeming qualities in the character when he read the script. I find that hard to believe because Matthau imbues the man with sympathetic qualities just by virtue of his own screen persona and the tone of his performance, and I think Eastwood would have accomplished the same. In any case, Matthau is very appealing here. In a conversation with Alan Rode afterward, Robinson said that Matthau was wondering aloud constantly during the shoot about why he was acting in this silly film, but when he saw the finished product he realized it was actually very good.

Robinson, meanwhile, was happy with his role as Matthau’s accomplice right off the bat. Just two or three years earlier, Robinson had been doing “off off off off Broadway” roles, when suddenly DIRTY HARRY “changed everything.” CHARLEY VARRICK was his second feature, and he was off and running in a long career that has focused mostly on television. His role as Garak in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE was particularly noteworthy and he said that it “changed my career as much as Dirty Harry... I did some of the best acting in my life on DEEP SPACE NINE. That mask liberated me.”

Two other notes about CHARLEY VARRICK: the hood of a car pops open during a chase and that was not planned. Robinson said everyone simply improvised when it happened. And Joe Don Baker has never been better than as the entertainingly ruthless killer named “Molly” he plays here. See this movie!

SUNDAY, MAY 14

The final morning began with DESPERATE (’47), another masterful little film noir from Anthony Mann, but one that is not as often screened as T-MEN (’47), RAW DEAL (’48) or SIDE STREET (’50). This one was really Mann’s calling card, the first that truly bore his full-fledged stamp from beginning to end. Mann co-wrote the story, which follows Steve Brodie’s truck driver as he is tricked into taking part in a heist led by Raymond Burr; things go haywire, and Brodie and his pretty new bride (Audrey Long) must take it on the lam to some relatives in the country... although Burr is not giving up on finding them.

Desperate marks a rare leading role for Brodie, who is probably best known to noir fans as Robert Mitchum’s dangerous partner in OUT OF THE PAST (’47), which was released six months after DESPERATE. He is excellent in this role, as is Raymond Burr who brings more to the part than what’s written. So do Mann and his cameraman George Diskant, of course, shooting Burr from low angles and lighting to emphasize his ominous girth and demeanor.

Mann had little time or money to shoot films like DESPERATE, so he concentrated on the two or three set pieces that he could really show off stylistically, shooting the rest of the film quickly and more straightforwardly so as to allow time for scenes like the superb finale, a showdown between Brodie and Burr that shifts from a room to an apartment building staircase without losing an ounce of tension. Eddie Muller and Foster Hirsch introduced this one together and waxed poetic on some details that only noir fans could love. “This is the best swinging light bulb I know of,” said Foster. “And the best staircase in noir.” To which Eddie added with a grin, “Are we the ultimate nerds or what?”

My final movie was THE BODY SNATCHER (’45), one of producer Val Lewton’s excellent cycle of chillers for RKO. Lewton’s films are usually classified as “horror,” not “noir,” but a case could certainly be made. There may not be a strong sense of fatalism to the proceedings, but stylistically and visually, this looks like many noirs of the period. But really, who cares? It’s a great film, it looked crisp in 35mm and the cast includes Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell and Bela Lugosi, a film lover’s dream.

Karloff’s daughter Sara regaled the audience afterward in her conversation with Alan Rode. I had interviewed her myself at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April and she was as charming and funny as ever. She spoke of her father’s love of gardening and the theater and his work as a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. He was one of the twelve founding members and was very proud of this accomplishment because of his own suffering during outrageously long hours on the set before union rules existed to prevent studios from abusing their actors in such ways. She also said that “FRANKENSTEIN was his 81st film, and, as he said, no one saw the first 80!” Indeed, it’s easy to forget that Karloff had such a long career even before his turn as The Monster really “started” it.

Sara also brought along some rare home movies of her father (with herself as a toddler). They included very rare color footage of Boris Karloff in makeup as Frankenstein’s monster. She narrated the home movies expertly, including the funny story of the time her Dad, having shaved his own head to star in TOWER OF LONDON ('39), shaved little Sara’s head while her mother was out of the house one day. Mom was not pleased!

There was a final film in the festival: Jules Dassin’s masterful NIGHT AND THE CITY (’50), one of the quintessential titles in all of film noir, but I had to hightail it out of Palm and get back to the mean streets of Los Angeles. I’m already looking forward to next year. And I hope that now, you are, too.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

"I had wasted so much time on this. I kept finding out that the monster I'd been fighting was only me."

Year Read: 2017

Rating: 4/5

Context: While Sinner isn't officially a part of The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, I don’t feel like I've truly completed a series unless I've read everything connected to it. Fortunately, companion novels are usually nice, lovely things in their own right while novellas are bafflingly derivative, and Sinner is the former. There may be spoilers ahead for Shiver, Linger, and Forever.

About: Cole St. Clair is in California to film a reality show of the recording of his new album. But really he's in California because it's where Isabel Culpepper, the girl he may or may not be in love with, is currently living. Of all the things Isabel doesn't need in her life, the disaster that is Cole St. Clair is at the top of the list. Her parents have separated after the death of her brother, Jack, and are on the verge of making the split official. While her beauty and her chilly demeanor grant Isabel VIP access into L.A. life, she has difficulty caring about anything these days--except for Cole.

Thoughts: I don't usually pay attention to when things were published; unless it’s part of a series, I read things willy nilly and out of order, but I feel like there's something important that happened here that made Sinner a little better for me than the rest of The Wolves of Mercy Falls. Before Sinner, The Scorpio Races, The Raven Boys, and The Dream Thieves were all published, and I can practically feel it in the pages. It's such a weird thing, but I feel like Stiefvater hit her stride during The Scorpio Races and never looked back. Everything since then has just gotten better. While The Wolves of Mercy Falls is still beautifully written, it just didn't affect me the way the rest of her novels have. The writing in Sinner is the kind of writing I fell in love with in the first twenty pages of The Raven Boys; it's so vivid and on-point it's practically criminal.

I always liked Grace and Sam's love story more than Cole and Isabel's. I adore Isabel, but I've had trouble with Cole as a leading man up until now. In short, it's because life is enough of a disaster that I don't need to add another self-admitted asshole as a romantic interest, even in my fiction. Isabel is still a force to be reckoned with; she steals the show in Sinner as far as I'm concerned, but I didn't mind spending more time with Cole as much as I thought I would. At the very least, there's never a dull moment with him, and--finally--he's trying to be a decent human. It's interesting to see Cole turn his powers to good, and it turns out he's as good at building things as he is at tearing them down.

It's odd how some companion novels become better than the actual series, and I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite between them. On the one hand, the writing and the characters are exquisite in Sinner. On the other, the actual story and its werewolf lore in The Wolves of Mercy Falls are better (plus Grace and Sam). Sinner is only incidentally a werewolf novel; while Cole happens to be one, it's not the point of most of the major plots, and the atmosphere is completely different. Except for that, it could probably be read as a stand-alone novel without too much confusion, and I think it could easily succeed for fans and non-fans of the original series.

[bookiemonsterph]

The Raven Boys

Synopsis:

"'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.

Title: The Raven Boys Series: The Raven Cycle Author: Maggie Stiefvater ISBN: 0545424933 (ISBN13: 9780545424936) Pages: 408 pages (Paperback) Published: July 30th 2013 by Scholastic Inc. (first published September 18th 2012) Characters: Blue Sargent, Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey III, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch, Noah (The Raven Cycle) Setting: Henrietta, Virginia (United States) Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Magic

First off let me address the things that I was expecting this book to be all about:

Poor girl meets rich boy and falls in love (kind of a forbidden love trope)

Insta-love ( I mean the description straight up says he’s her true love before they meet)

A very plot-centered romance overall

Yes, the description made me think this book was all about true love, kissing, and romance.

But….

It most certainly is the opposite.

This book is in fact more about psychics, spirits, ley lines, magical trees, and the search for an ancient Welsh king who waits to be woken. Now doesn’t all of that sound so much more appealing than the kissing? I know I found it to be, I couldn’t resist turning pages to find out what would happen with all of these things next! Maggie Stiefvater intricately weaves the paranormal with the fantastical, sure there are supernatural things happening but yet you still get the very distinct impression of magic. How could you not love a blending of the paranormal and the magical?

The atmosphere that was created, it was eerie and also suspenseful, I loved everything from Blue’s family demonstrating their psychic abilities to Gansey and boy’s quest for Glendower (you know…that ancient Welsh king I mentioned earlier). There are definitely a lot of things happening within the plot of this book, lots of different plot lines to be followed. It may come off confusing right away to some people but the mystery and anticipation is half the fun, trust me! There is also a bit of POV jumping, which I know can confuse some readers or at least annoy, so you’ve been warned about that now.

As far as all of the romance goes though there still is some but it really does take a backseat in the story which I appreciated very much. However, I don’t think any of you romance fans will be too disappointed with it. It’s a very slow-burn romance and it doesn’t completely take over the plot and the romance isn’t exactly between the characters you would expect…..

The pacing did get a little slow at times and it would really go up and down a lot, however, I didn’t mind since my thirst for answers concerning our many plot lines far out-weighed any slow pacing.

Overall I think my favorite part about this story and its plot is how original it feels, which is something I wasn’t expecting at all. I was actually expecting a book full of the same old tropes but I have definitely never read or heard of anything like this before.

Honestly I think the characters are the best part of this whole book, the story is kind of character driven overall. There wasn’t a single character I disliked which is quite the feat on its own. Everyone is complex, developed, and interesting. Emphasis on the interesting. They’re also all very likable in general but most of all they’re realistic.

Blue Sargent is one of our MCs don’t let the description fool you into thinking this is a 1st Person POV told only by Blue because it isn’t. Blue and The Raven Boys themselves are on equal footing as far as the POVs go. I digress, I actually really liked Blue’s character she’s sensible (as she so often calls herself) and quirky and she doesn’t really take shit from anybody. Qualities I love in a heroine. She’s also a kind of the opposite of a special snowflake seeing as how she’s the only member of her family that doesn’t have psychic abilities which I like because it makes her just a bit more relatable as a character. However, Blue does make things “louder” for other psychics but I still don’t view this as special snowflake status.

Then we have our Raven Boys and they really are the stars of the show in my opinion and Blue pales in comparison,  I could sit and sing their praises all damn day. Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah are just complete and utter perfection as far as characters go; they’re flawed, complex, and actually quite….swoon-worthy. I also really love how strong their friendship is and how realistically it’s portrayed. It’s also a nice change of pace to have interesting male main characters in a YA book.

Gansey is very determined in his quest for Glendower and he’s clever and a loyal friend. He’s also not my favorite character I just found something a little lacking with him, don’t get me wrong he’s still a great character and I like him but he just isn’t my favorite. Something just didn’t quite spark my interest enough with Gansey’s character.

Adam makes me heart bleed, I came close to tears every time we switched to his POV. He’s got the whole “rags to riches” thing going on but it doesn’t come without its costs and he’s had to work very hard to get where he’s at. Honestly I just wanted to give him a hug the whole time and he deserves one!

Ronan is by far my favorite character he’s the “bad boy” and I feel cliched for having him be my favorite but he’s so awesome I don’t even care. There’s actually a lot going on with Ronan and he has his fair share of secrets that keeps his character intriguing. Plus everyone loves a sarcastic little shit, right?

Noah is probably one of the single most adorable characters I’ve ever come across in a book, he puts fluffy kittens to shame. He’s quiet and very much in the background but that doesn’t make him any less important. I think the most significant thing I can even say about Noah is that he’s adorable, seriously that’s probably all you need to know.

There are also many secondary characters that are equally complex and play equally important parts in the plot. Mostly Blue’s family. They’re just as quirky and eccentric as Blue and they’re just overall a fun set of characters. Blue’s mom is definitely one of my favorite literary mothers of all time now.

The Raven Boys is a great, original tale that blends the paranormal with the mystical and has amazing characters that are easy to connect with.

I’m giving this a rating of 4.5 because I don’t quite feel it’s a full 5 star book but I’m also giving it that extra 0.5 star just because I can’t stop thinking about this book!

Overall I can say that the hype was worth it and I’m so glad to have finally read it.