When it comes to books, there’s two kinds of cheesy—the plain old annoying cheesy that makes me roll my eyes and is laughably bad, and the fun cheesy. For instance, Truthwitch was as cliché of a young adult fantasy novel as you could get, but it was also fast paced, enjoyable, and lighthearted.
The Raven Boys may have been another angsty paranormal romance about a “special” girl full of overused ideas, but it was so addicting and undeniably fun.
I liked the characters who felt distinct from one another. Gansey was a pretentious private school rich kid and his brooding group of friends didn’t act anything close to realistic, but there was something attractive about them. I simultaneously found them funny and wanted to slap them. Enter Blue into the picture, who has made it a rule to avoid the “Raven Boys.”
As for the plot, I didn’t really get it. If Blue kisses Gansey, he dies. If she doesn’t, he lives. What seems to be the conflict here? There was also that whole thing about finding the Raven King which wasn’t explained very well and, frankly, confused me. Oh well, at least it was a page turner.
Maggie Stiefvater’s writing was seriously gorgeous. Her prose held a lovely, eerie atmosphere that suited the mysterious plot. I feel like she has come a long way since the annoying, overly long Shiver (which I pretty much hated).
“Longing burst from the pages, in every frantic line and every hectic sketch and every dark-printed definition. There was something pained and melancholy about it.”
I know I shouldn’t have liked this book. The rules of being a critical book reviewer pretty much forbade it. But darn it, amidst the cheesy dialogue and underdevelopment, it was so entertaining. I can’t wait to read The Dream Thieves!
No comments:
Post a Comment