#this is what maggie did with trc

[kazbiter]

very interested in how the storyline of ronan's sexuality is developed in the dream thieves as a battle between kavinsky and gansey while adam is almost never present in these scenes, which makes it even more interesting that we found out in CDTH that ronan was set on adam the moment he saw him. i think that ronan is attracted on some level to both gansey and kavinsky (you can draw the lines of how much romantic intention you think he hold towards either of the yourself, that's a rabbit hole I would need a whole other post to go down) but more so I think he was attracted to the IDEA of both of them and certain qualities that each possessed, and that the real question wasn't does ronan want gansey or kavinsky because we know he wants adam but rather who's qualities resonate more with who ronan is, or who he is choosing to be at this critical moment in his character development. kavinsky is a dangerous thrill and often comes wrapped in ronan's other favorite self destructive attempts to outrun himself, while gansey is ronan's history and proof of his deep capacities for loyalty and love. he tells kavinsky it was never going to be me and you and that it's not going to be ronan and gansey because that was never the question- maggie was obviously always planning on bluesy and pynch. the answer to who ronan WANTS in adam. the question of who ronan IS- that's what he's trying to decide here. his self hatred is such a heavy weight on him and theme in tdt, and the kavinsky/gansey dichotomy represents the the path he will choose to take to deal with it- keep try to drive faster than his demons or accept that he can still be loved even if he isn't the person he once was. the dream thieves my beloved ronan lynch my beloved

[eternalchemy]

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Call Down The Hawk

[susie-thewitch]

What is the raven cycle fandom if not just a bunch of Adam Parrish apologists

[fortyflightower]

i miss u parsifal tdt……

[garciapimienta]

I finished The Dream Thieves and it was every bit as perfect as I remembered it

[evenstarfalls]

Actually the real tragedy in the raven cycle is that fuck is that ovid was not recorded for the audio books

[arielmagicesi]

btw I did very much tell you all that I was going to get back to being annoying now that season 4 is in the foreseeable future... so I wanted to rant a bit about how people in the Shadows fandom are inevitably going to start throwing the word “queerbaiting” around and I just want to say, jesus christ please do NOT... I’m so excited that they’re going to make Guillermo canonically queer and I don’t care with whom, I’ve been thrilled to see Guillermo’s personal life outside the vampire house for ages (the episode with his family???!!???), I’ve wanted him to have romantic interests outside the house forever, and I’m genuinely sincerely excited to see him as a canonically queer character. and Harvey Guillen has been absolutely lovely about the whole thing so if I see ONE GODDAMN PERSON try to give him shit about shipping-related things... don’t be an asshole, and on a more selfish note, please don’t give everyone on earth more reasons to talk about how cringe fandom shippers are all insane sex-crazed stalkers or whatever

however if we as a fandom ARE going to toss the word “queerbaiting” around, can we talk about Nadja, because it’s high time that one of her rotating cast of side pieces was a woman. I absolutely will become an insane sex-crazed stalker about that, I take back what I said five seconds ago

[crispycostumes]

things we know about pre-death Noah's personality

He didn't have a sense of humour but he occasionally said things that were funny. Whelk was his longest living friend outside of his own family and as much as i loathe to say it, he probably had a good idea of this. And on that note:

Whelk was his only real friend

He was loyal

It is implied he made Whelk laugh with his unintentional humour

There is evidence that the quest was his as well as-

something he did for fun ("it had been a game, a treasure hunt. A play for glory")

He didn't really care how the quest went

He had a girlfriend who cheated on him with Whelk, it's unclear if he knew about this or if he cared

He skated

He was on the Aglionby swim team

Adele described him as energetic, cheerful, and animated

He was very boisterous and a shithead to a degree that Blue thought she wouldn't have liked him when he was alive

Noah Czerny was a "stereotypical" aglionby boy. The gangsey probably wouldn't have liked him if he was alive and their age,, (and maybe readers wouldn't either)

[rogersstevie]

saw a copy of the hunger games with a bookmark in it on my godson’s desk and i was immediately like “you’re reading the hunger games? is it the first time? do you love it?” 

i was a few years older than him the first time i read it but like i had a friend who got me into that and percy jackson around the same time and those were series that truly got me excited to read again in high school like i’d devoured twilight in middle school and i got into my lifelong love of sarah dessen then too but other than that for a while it was just like such a chore

even now like it helps that i make myself read every day because otherwise if i was reading something i wasn’t into then it would just sit partway through for months and months (like tbf i did have school reading too so like that much i HAD to do) but idk i wouldn’t say i’m picky i’m nice enough to give most things three stars on goodreads bc it’s just like okay yeah i was somewhat entertained but i wouldn’t read it again, i just so rarely find things i love and i really do tend towards series more bc i just love an ongoing story like that, that’s probably why i’m in the midst of so many series right now though ya know some have been much more enjoyable than others, it’s just nice when you find ones that really hit

but yeah i was just excited even though i couldn’t like talk about any plot points with him bc my nephew isn’t a reader as far as i can tell and my nieces are all too young at this point so to be like YES you are reading this thing i loved as a teen it’s very fun for me

[crimeronan]

alright. WHAT is a Raven Cycle. What is this story about. All this time seeing you pointed about these people, but it took me ages to figure out what the "trc" tag even stood for -- that poll you just reblogged in fact. I'm ready. Give me the pitch.

HI.

the raven cycle is a series of four books by maggie stiefvater: the raven boys, the dream thieves, blue lily lily blue, and the raven king. there is a follow-up trilogy called the dreamer trilogy made up of three books: call down the hawk, mister impossible, and greywaren.

(my 'cdth' tag is my tag for the sequel series, which i like even more than trc.)

it's a YA modern fantasy series set in a small town in rural virginia. the series focuses on a gang of five teenagers (a sixth joining in book 3/4) who are all dealing with various magic bullshit in their lives. one is looking for a dead welsh king along a ley line in the mountains of virginia, because legend says that the king can be woken and grant a wish.

the problem is that this boy, gansey, is going to die.

we know this because the one girl in the group (sorry women. there are more women in cdth i SWEAR), blue, saw his ghost on st mark's eve. which means he will die within the next year. why did she see his ghost?? because he's either her true love, or she killed him.

or, you know. both. if you're a girl who's cursed to kill your true love with a kiss. as she is.

blue does not want to kill anyone. blue also does not want gansey to be her true love. they get off on the wrong foot entirely and she decides he's the devil for a little while. blue is overall having a bad time with the world and her place in it and the fact that she's the only non-psychic person in a family of psychics, And Also She Doesn't Want To Kill Anyone.

so the question is -- for all four books -- what..... would make her kill gansey. how is gansey going to die.

gansey's three other closest friends are boys in varying states of emotional turmoil.

ronan, who is where my URL comes from, is a suicidal bipolar maniac alcoholic who spends all of his time trying to kill himself. and is also magic as fuck. and hiding it. and going out street racing with a guy who wants to eat him. and they're kind of fucking about it. they technically never fuck except like. they're kind of fucking about it

adam is a trailer trash kid paying his own way into the elite boarding school that gansey & ronan attend. his dad is physically abusive to the point of adam's life being in constant danger, but adam refuses to accept gansey's offers of help or safety, because he's determined that nobody else ever Own him.

noah is a quiet kid with a violent past that gansey cares about very deeply, getting into all of his backstory involves major book one spoilers but it is. Rough.

the plot points in the series are complicated to explain because there's a lot of mythology and strange worldbuilding and psychic bullshit and magic all going on and playing off each other. but the series is about these five kids being in a giant pseudo-polyamorous relationship and loving each other and hating each other and wanting each other and killing each other.

it has some of my favorite relationship arcs of all time in any media, ever, and also it like. taught me how to write. LOL. so if you're here from the owl house (??) or from a different fandom and you like how i talk about characters and how i write character conflicts and character arcs and character relationships....... U Get All Of That Shit In The Raven Cycle.

and that's it!

[juliasgoodusername]

Ley Lines Map for All the Gansey-core Girlies

Have you ever wished there was an interactive map that not only graphs the ley lines described in TRC, but also has layers full of possible spiritual points, arranged in loose categories and sloppily curated by sheer force of mental illness?? Okay baby here you go:

FAQ under the cut 😘

Was this necessary?

Genuinely it was not. My investigations uncovered that Maggie Stiefvater does not really care about geography, nor does she remain consistent about the ley lines, so I can't even really say that it's book-accurate.

Example 1 - There are multiple understandings of ley lines. Some are circles, patterns, connect the dots, etc. but TRC goes with the definition of "perfectly straight" lines "that crisscross the globe" (The Raven Boys Chapter 2, Chapter 15). One of the big three lines connects Boston to St. Louis (The Raven Boys Chapter 22). And the main line also passes through Boston (see example #2)! But half of all the Pynch drama in Call Down the Hawk specifically blames Boston/Harvard for not being on the ley line. Hello?? It's on TWO of them!

Example 2 - Maggie makes it clear that the connection between D.C. and New York, which also connects to the UK and Pilot Mountain, is the main line that Glendower's squad traveled on (The Raven Boys Chapter 7, Chapter 22). The weird part is how after defining this line, all of Adam's ley line adventures place it directly along the Shenandoah National Park/Blue Ridge Mountains (Blue Lily, Lily Blue Chapter 2 + many other quotes I don't feel like looking up). There's no way to connect the DC-Pilot Mt line to Shenandoah, but I can totally see how Maggie Stiefvater would think it connects when looking at a flat map.

So yeah. It doesn't really matter, but thanks to my research we can CONFIRM that it doesn't really matter. You're welcome.

So why did you make this?

For fun...it wasn't exactly worth it. But by sharing it with y'all, hopefully no one else will make the same mistake.

What about line #3?

The third line never has specific connection points in the books so I basically made it up :) but I narrowed it down to 2 candidates, with my chosen line based on Ronan's mention of the "Pando thing" in Greywaren's epilogue.

How did you decide on/find points?

Honestly it was a lot of vibes. You can read in the description of the map how I started from certain resources, like all the stuff in the books, and other people's Google maps. My big discovery was realizing that UNESCO World Heritage Sites covered a lot of territory between history and nature, but before that I was literally googling things like "strange places Kentucky" and pouring through articles. If a place seemed weird and magical, I added it.

Yes this took forever. Easily 3x as long as the 300 Fox Way floorplan, if not longer.

Is this map complete?

I had other ideas for things I should add to it but I got tired, so nah.

You've put down everything from urban legends to alien sightings, but why don't I see many hauntings on the map?

Blatant author bias; I firmly don't believe in famously haunted houses! The vast majority of "haunted" places operate as tourist attractions, so if I took them at their word I'd have to also log Disney World for being the most magical place on earth, wouldn't I? Also Re: I got tired.

Can I copy this map / add to it / use it for reference?

Please please please please

I found a typo

I bet you did! I'm not even proof reading this post bestie.

[ofliterarynature]

JANUARY 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok DNF (reread) bookclub*]

Mammoths at the Gates • An Impossible Imposter • Greywaren • The Hexologists • Mister Impossible • Reclaiming Two Spirits • (Check, Please: #Hockey)* • Thornhedge • Call Down the Hawk • All the Hidden Paths • All the Beauty in the World • (The Raven King) • (A Strange and Stubborn Endurance) • (Blue Lily, Lily Blue) • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie • The Missing Page • Bird By Bird • Lucky Red • Portrait of a Thief

I suppose I may as well start with the giant pile of Maggie Stiefvater and get that out of the way, lol. According to Goodreads, this was at least my 3rd time through the entire Raven Cycle. Despite that, I had only the vaguest idea of what happened in the last two books, and now having reread them (again), yeah, that tracks! I can hang with book 3 but I have no idea what was really going on in The Raven King, and as a series finale I didn't love it. It felt a lot like the dreamer plotlines drowned out the original Glendower and ley line story that we started with. But, Maggie being Maggie, I love the way she writes so much that I at least still enjoyed the reading experience. And it made an incredibly clear lead-in to the Dreamer Trilogy (which I had not read), it made total sense, I was hopeful! Again, Maggie being Maggie, I had a good time reading them, I liked learning more about the Lynch brothers, I'm always down for some art forgery, but I just didn't really like it and (while I'm glad for Maggie that she was able to write it) I could have lived without it. It completely did not have the vibe or charm of TRC and, criminally, did not include the Gangsey. How!!!!

The Missing Page - liked it! It felt a lot more solid as a mystery than the first book, which I greatly appreciated, though the villagers in the first book were maybe a bit more fun. I'm not feeling particularly inspired to go look up more Cat Sebastian after this, but if she writes another one of these I'd read it.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - I've had this one on my mystery tbr for a while, and for some reason I'd thought it was set in a much earlier time period than the 1950's? lol. Our protagonist is the youngest of 3 sisters growing up in genteel poverty with an absent father, and she has the run of the village, the house, and an incredibly well stocked chemistry lab left by an ancestor. She is both incredibly clever and terribly naive, and absolutely terrifying because of it. Flavia is fascinating as a detective, because she's not written as the protagonist of a middle grade mystery novel - she's a child. This was an interesting read, but I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for in a mystery novel and I don't think I'll continue the series.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - reread this in advance of the sequel - it was a bit easier to see some flaws this time around, but had a good time! This *was* my first time listening to it on audio though, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It had a different person reading for each of the main characters and their voices just didn't pair well for me - not to mention one of them also read Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House and boy does he do some distinctive character voices.

All the Hidden Paths - didn't go quite so well. I think primarily my mental space was not pairing well with the tensions of reading this for the first time, I do think on a reread I might like it better. Somehow the spy/saboteur was my favorite character? He was soo bad at his job, I found it very funny. But overall, I think it was just a little too close to a rehash of the plot from the first book, leaving me to think Meadows might not be the best at writing mysteries. Luckily it does at least score high on my romance scale.

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me - first nonfic of the year! I've been eagerly anticipating my library getting an audio copy ever since I first heard about this last year, it sounded cool, I'm fascinated by art museums and behind-the-scenes! Unfortunately I was not into it, and almost 2 months on I can't remember enough to even try to tell you why. It did pair interestingly with another recent read, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, but I'm still learning how far into memoir territory I can go. Someone stop me from trying the other Met nonfic book I found recently lol.

Thornhedge - wonderful! No notes! I love fairy tales and this was a delight to read.

Check, Please! #Hockey - loved getting to revisit this for book club! I've been meaning to for a few years, because y'all. I've read so much fanfic, and I have no idea what is in the comic, what Ngozi posted as extras, and what is fanon. The comic had less than I was expecting! Still fun, my fellow book-clubber liked it, but my real love was the tweets! I'll definitely try to read Vol 2 this year so I can then browse the larger collection of them compiled in the Chirpbook.

Reclaiming Two Spirits: I saw this one on tumblr and fortunately was able to get access to the audiobook! It's a topic I was very interested in learning more about, and I did! But - this is a research project, more than anything, it could be very repetitive (which, fair. colonizers suck), and it felt distanced from its subject. I feel it's a book that definitely has its place, but it's not objectively a 'good read,' and I'd rather have had something from someone who is indigenous and two-spirit themselves.

The Hexologists - it has its quirks, but this was unapologetically a delight to read and I had a fun time! I'm a sucker for a world with a magic vs industrial revolution, not to mention a married pair of established investigators, and I always appreciate an author who's willing to get a bit silly. If there's ever more books I'd love to read them!

An Impossible Imposter - she is what she is, I had a good time! This one felt like it might have taken some inspo from The Moonstone 👀

Mammoths at the Gate - had a good time with this, as I always do with the Singing Hills books. Stories about stories are like catnip, I should reread them all sometime!

Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott (DNF) - I have only the vaguest memories of reading parts of this for a creative writing class in college, and now that I'm getting more into nonfiction thought why not? Unfortunately the audiobook version I got was read by the author, who absolutely does not have an audiobook voice/cadence. I considered trying again with the version read by someone else, but decided I wasn't actually interested enough to continue.

Lucky Red By Claudia Cravens (DNF) - the host of one of the podcasts I listen to was gushing about this one and I was like, sapphic western? Sign me up! I read about 25% of it, and it all seemed fine, it just wasn't feeling particularly interesting to me. Absolutely give it a shot if you'd like!

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D Li (DNF) - I knew going in this had been getting mixed reviews. I really like the idea of it - I enjoy a heist, am always interested in fine arts/art history drama, and vigilante art repatriation hell yeah! But this felt very much like it was trying to emulate a heist *movie*, and it just wasn’t working for me as a book. If this ever gets adapted I’d love to see it.

[libraryfag]

I've been seeing you blog a lot about The Raven Cycle and I need some more book recs so I'm curious now, what's it about?

I'm really tempted to say 'everything' because The Raven Cycle is one of those types of art where it could be about everything, and is, to me at least but that probably isn't very helpful so ill start from where the book starts.

Blue Sargent lives in a house of psychics. However, instead of psychic abilities, Blue is cursed with the knowledge that one day, she'll kiss someone and they'll die. Her presence also amplifies psychic powers, which brings her to a graveyard on St Marks' Eve.There psychics can see people who're destined to die within the year. This year, for some reason, Blue sees one of them- a boy in the uniform of Algionby Academy; the nearby private school for rich boys who she detests. The boy in question is Richard 'Dick' Gansey III who is chronically autistic about Glendower- an ancient welsh king he believes is still alive. Gansey and his bffs, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish and Noah are on a quest to find him. Hijinks ensure.

The thing i think you'll enjoy the most about trc is that the entire story is one huge timeloop within a timeloop and everything cycles into everything else in such a clever way. Also im in love with literally every character maggie writes, and the writing and plot is so so so addictive i think i did significantly worse at school last year because i spent SO many nights just reading the series and so many days just thinking about it. So while i think you should 100% read it make sure its during a time where you need to focus on other things lmao! Anyway, i wish you all the best if you decide to take it up <3

[deathsweetblossoms]

Okay listen just LISTEN A SECOND.

Dare I say the epilogue of the Raven King is grossly underwhelming? Dare I say how frustrated I am that we never see the Gray Man at the end of Greywaren? I just finished this reread and I think I was more entranced ten years ago when I first read the Raven King, and I realized the only scene I really remember is That One Scene on the leyline at the end. And Noah’s story. That’s it.

I don’t know how I feel.

Am I missing something? Did Maggie ever give us more information about where they end up over the years??? (Why did she spend so much page time on giving Adam a reunion with his parents in that epilogue when we could’ve had more Bluesy? Lmaooo wtf?? More 300 Fox Way?? Literally anything else? Omg.

Also I really dont know how to feel about the shoe-in of Henry and him suddenly being the means to find Glendower like wtf are you talking about? What a cop out. The addition of Henry and removal of 300 Fox Way weakened this book for me. Also it felt like Bluesy + Noah took a backseat to Ad*m and R*nan in this and I truly feel like TRC is at its strongest when the story focuses on ALL OF THEM TOGETHER, IN BALANCE.)

Also, I did notice there’s similarly no mention of Henry in Greywaren either? I don’t care so much, because I did think Bluesy needed to have some time to adventure alone, but I’m just a bit disappointed, I suppose. It’s like MS only cares about a specific few of her characters. We never heard about 300 Fox Way again and we still don’t get anything in the spin off??? H…hello?

Does Artemus stay where he is forever?

Does Gwenllian become a true member of 300 Fox Way??

Do Maura & Grey Man reunite eventually?

Does Gansey tell Mallory about his finding??

Does ANYONE know what Noah did???????? I think this is my biggest upset tbh.

[faeparrish]

Omg about Maggie’s q&a… are you sure it was the person harassing Maggie wanted Adam written off? I had always assumed it was a feral Adam stan who wanted more content 💀

yeah it’s weird bc i thought the same thing! maybe another incident occurred more recently that was related to some particular adam fans (i know i’ve seen some really messed up tweets from fans who clearly don’t understand boundaries lol). i did end up watching the recording of her q&a tho and she said this stuff actually happened when she was still writing trc. a lot of people hated adam after the first two books came out.. like. they REALLY hated him. she got emails from people, they would come to book signings and ask her to kill him off, she even said she had film meetings where producers asked if he was going to be killed off by the next book because people hated him that much.. so yeah. the people who showed up in her driveway were adam haters. she said her kids who were like 8-10 at the time would be like “there’s weird people in the driveway again” and the weird people in the driveway would be like “hey just wanted to see what your house looks like also i hate adam”. fun!

it’s interesting because she also said that she had to really ignore how people were reacting to him at the time in order to tell his story in a way that felt true to him; he’s supposed to be a realistic character so when he didn’t fit into the box of how abuse survivors/victims were generally portrayed in the media (especially back then), people thought he was cold, callous, unlikable. they got frustrated with him as a character because he was behaving in a way that didn’t make sense to them for several books. which is interesting but i guess those people perhaps didn’t have a very clear understanding of how abuse could realistically shape a person’s behaviour/attitude/motives

[binbrick]

never in my entire life have i felt the way i feel about trc. like what kind of actual crack did maggie put into this