Review: THE RAVEN BOYS, by Maggie Stiefvater

Hey guys, look! My first-ever book review! WOOHOO!

THE RAVEN BOYS (Book 1 in The Raven Cycle)

by Maggie Stiefvater

Why I Read It

I knew nothing about this book—literally had not heard of it—before I attended BEA this year. But on the first day of BEA as I was madly dashing through the booths and snatching up galleys and tote bags, I noticed a bunch of people crowded around this beautifully-stacked crescent of books. Deciding this was probably a sign of a popular book, I dove into the fray and emerged a few moments later with my ARC (advance reader copy) of The Raven Boys. It ended up being the first BEA ARC I decided to read. Honestly, I think I just liked the cover, but I was also curious to read a book by Maggie Stiefvater, since she’s such a big name these days and I hadn’t read any of her other stuff.

How I Read It

I commute to work daily, and the ride to Midtown Manhattan usually takes 20-30 minutes from my apartment. I started reading The Raven Boys on the way home after BEA. I had no particularly high hopes for it, and I just started it without bothering to read the jacket copy/blurbs, so I had no idea what it was about. But it hooked me from the very first page and subsequently became my default commute book. I even went so far as to deny myself the chance of reading it unless I was on a train or a subway platform.

What Is It About?

Click here to read the book description (if you must). In my opinion, though, the jacket copy doesn’t do it justice. Instead, here’s a collection of keywords (in no particular order) that will hopefully give you a better sense of what to expect:

Ravens (obviously), Welsh mythology, Owen Glendower, modern-day psychics (of the clairvoyant, tarot-card-reading variety), murder, deaths foretold, ghosts, ley lines, friendships (among boys, primarily), mother-daughter relationships, private schools, Latin, magic, rural Virginia, class/money distinctions and tensions, and romance (yes, just a little bit, and it’s very subtle and realistic).

What I Thought Of It

There is a reason that this is the first book I’ve chosen to review on my blog, and it isn’t just about it being my first BEA ARC read of the summer. I’m reviewing it first because I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a book so thoroughly on every level. 

Let me explain what I mean by that.

As you may or may not know, I’m a fan of straightforward, no-nonsense prose. I’ll opt for interesting plotlines and interesting characters over interesting sentences just about any day, and it’s not because I don’t appreciate the latter. It’s just that, when it comes right down to it, books are about storytelling for me, and I have little patience for beautiful imagery and lush metaphors that don’t move the story forward. When a writer gets indulgent, I get bored.

But…BUT…

When a writer can pull off stunning imagery WHILE developing interesting characters and a forward-moving plot…I am putty in that writer’s hands. That’s what happened with this book. I am utterly serious in saying that I have not encountered something that so effortlessly merged beautiful writing with character and plot since I read His Dark Materials back in 5th grade. And guys, in case you didn’t know, The Golden Compass is one of my favorite books. Like, ever. So this is not a comparison I make lightly. Reading The Raven Boys, I found myself pausing on nearly every page to just admire a particular turn of phrase. It’s not really the sentences themselves that are beautiful so much as the absolute precision with which Stiefvater nails an endless variety of images, feelings, and moments of interaction between human beings. I won’t try to quote things at you because I think most of them draw power from their contexts (besides which, my copy is an uncorrected proof and thus may be subject to change before the publication date), but suffice it to say that I am blown away.

On a related note, one of my favorite parts of this book was the characters and their interactions. Again, I’m so impressed by these fully-fleshed human beings that Stiefvater has conjured. The story is told from the perspective of four characters—three protagonists and the antagonist—and each one has totally comprehensible feelings and desires and relationships. They’re flawed, and above all, human. Which is why the romance (or rather, the lead-in to the romance, since this is the first book in a trilogy) totally worked for me. If you know me in real life, you may know I’m far from being a romantic, and I don’t really care for romance in fiction on the whole. But I totally believed this because it was so much more realistic and complex than the old “boy-meets-girl” formula.

In short: wow. This book wasn’t just a great read—as a writer, I found it so inspiring. And the fact that I forced myself to savor it by only reading on the subway should tell you that this was something special. On the downside, having read it in ARC form months before its release, I have to wait even longer than the rest of you before I get to find out what happens next.

Where You Can Get It

As of the writing of this review, The Raven Boys has not yet been published (though I’ll try to remember to come back and update this post once it is). My ARC lists the official release date as September 18th, 2012, although I think if you’re desperate and poke around on the internet enough you might be able to scare up an ARC or two. You should also feel free to preorder it.

Summary Haiku

Magic and ravens

Awesome images. Problem:

You can’t buy it. (Yet.)

Ari Susu-Mago and the Tell-Tale Writer’s Conference

“TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”

Well, it seems appropriate to open with a Poe quote (especially since the nominees for this year’s Edgar Awards were just announced today). But I swear I’m not mad! I’m not going to murder you, that’s for sure. I only kill people who live inside my head, and…

Screw it. There’s no good way out of that one.

But it’s true: I am indeed very, very dreadfully nervous. In fact, there’s a precise word for the type of nervousness I’m experiencing: Zielschmerz. In other words, the “exhilarating dread” of taking concrete steps towards doing something I love.

And why am I experiencing this, you may ask? Because tomorrow, I get on a train that will whisk me off to New York City, where I will spend three days mingling with other writers, meeting agents and editors, honing my pitch for my novel, and trying to soak up as much information about the publishing world as I possibly can.

N.Y.C.

Eeep!

Zielschmerz. I haz it.

Honestly, I’m a wee bit surprised I feel this way. I always thought I’d accepted my “fate” as a writer a long time ago and that I would be bouncing-off-the-walls-excited to attend a writer’s conference in-person. And I am! I really am excited! Agents and editors and authors all around me, all saying interesting things and giving useful tips and cracking hilarious jokes (well, that’s how the imaginary writer’s conference in my head works, anyhow)!

But I’m also really nervous. I’ll admit that a fair chunk of the nerves stem from the Pitch Slam, where writers get 90 seconds to pitch their novels to agents and then get 90 seconds of feedback. Don’t get me wrong: I’m definitely not expecting that an agent will ask for pages, and everyone tells me I should just do it for the fun and the practice—and I know they’re right—but my stomach does flip-flops even thinking about pitching my book. (And here I thought I was getting away from auditioning by doing writing instead of theatre!)

Anyhoo, the point is that despite the nerves, I’ll try to update my Twitter feed fairly regularly throughout the day during the conference (provided the hotel has WiFi). So if you feel like keeping track of me (hi, Mom!), that’s one way to do it. And if I can find the time/energy, I might blog a bit. If not, though, I’ll be sure to tell you all about it when I get back on Sunday (pending the pile of homework that’s going to accumulate over the weekend).

Holy crap, guys! I’m actually doing this. I’ll see you on the other side!

Anatomy of a WHAM MOMENT! Part I (or, The Things that Change Everything)

So, there’s this awesome story.

I know a lot of awesome stories (or I try to, anyways), but this one will remain nameless for the purposes of this post because today’s subject deals with River Song’s favorite word:

(I've never actually seen an episode with River, but some of my best friends are Whovians, so I am well-informed.)

Bear with me here, though. I promise to try to keep this as vague as possible (not even going to tell you whether it’s a movie or TV show or novel or play or what), but if you’re still concerned that you might recognize it, jump past the outlined section below.

—————————————————————————

In the awesome story in question, Character A is in disguise and using the alias “Character C”. While using this persona, A meets Character B, and the two become friends. However, the closer they get, the more C’s story starts to not add up in B’s mind. In particular, there are these occasional references made (by C and others) to a certain Character A who is somehow connected to C, though the exact nature of that relationship is unclear.

Over time, the clues pile up until B finally begins to suspect the truth. It becomes a matter of great importance, because if C is indeed not truly C, then their entire friendship is built upon a lie. B wants to be sure. B has to be sure.

One day, the two of them are talking, and B seems weirdly preoccupied. A can’t figure out what’s going on and finally calls B out on it. At which point, B takes a deep breath and says, “I need to know something. Can I trust you, A? Really trust you?”

“Of course you can,” A replies earnestly.

*B sighs, gets up, and walks out of the room*

*beat* *beat*

A: Oh shit.

—————————————————————————

Seriously. If you click those links, I take no responsibility for excessive time spent on TVTropes. You've been warned.

Reveals like this are probably my favorite moments in fiction—that instant when one little thing drastically changes the relationships of the characters forever. They are sometimes referred to as ”Wham Lines” by TV Tropes, but they don’t have to be lines. Such moments can rest upon:

• the discovery of an object
• an observed moment of interaction
• the intentional revelation of new information
• or a “You Just Told Me” conversation (like the one above)

So for the purposes of this post, I’m going to call them Wham Moments.

But how exactly does one go about crafting a Wham Moment (WM)? While I can’t claim to be an expert, but I do have a few ideas to offer on the matter. In the next few posts, I’ll actually be discussing two different types of WMs. Many great WMs are ones that shock the reader as much as the characters, but some such moments happen in-universe only, creating instances where the reader may be aware of the secret in question and  is waiting anxiously to see if/when the reveal will happen. I’m going to call these WMs “Naïve” and “Savvy”, respectively. While Naïve WMs have the advantage of blowing the audience’s mind, you can still get a lot of plot mileage out of Savvy WMs because the dramatic irony can actually heighten the impact of the revelation, particularly if we know there’s a good chance it’ll happen and find ourselves desperately hoping that it will (or won’t, as the case may be).

Yeeaaah airports!

I’m going to leave it there for now because I have to go get on a plane (YAY WINTER BREAK!), but keep your eyes peeled: our post about Naïve Wham Moments will be coming up here soon!

And as always, a question for you, dear readers and raptors:

1. Are there any authors that stand out to you as being particularly talented where WMs are concerned? Which ones, and why (only tell us if you think you can articulate it without spoilers, though)?

New York, New Books, and Navigational Misadventures!

I feel like this post calls for a clever title…but I don’t have one. However, I do want to say: LOOK, I’M BACK!

This is what I do when I'm borg---sorry, bored.

Did you miss me?

Yes?

No?

No? Well, I missed you. And Fred. I’ve been so good about blogging regularly this semester (in spite of the insanity of it all) that this academic hiatus has been most peculiar. But since my last final is on Thursday, I’m going to ease my way back into blogging by doing a post tonight, another sometime later this week, and then returning you to your regularly-scheduled program starting this coming Sunday.

Wooo, exciting!

Anyhow, if you’re wondering what’s up with my visit to the Big Apple, I’m going to give you a brief summary. ‘Twas a journey of epic proportions, but I needs must pare it down. Just imagine you’re reading the Sparknotes for The Odyssey or something.

Last week, my friend Casey, who runs the ever-popular and awesome book review blog The Bookish Type, invited me to go on an adventure with her. As it turns out, her friend—author Michelle Hodkin—was having a book event/signing on Long Island with none other than Cassandra Clare (she’s a big, big name in YA fiction, if you’re unfamiliar with the genre) to promote their new books.

Casey on the train...

To be honest, at the time that Casey asked me if I wanted to go, I hadn’t read anything by Michelle or by Cassie. I really wanted to attend, but at the same time, I was determined not to go to an author event without knowing the work of either author. So Casey lent me a copy of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, and I used it as an excuse to not study the night before the event (note: there’s something delicious about putting everything on hold to read a work of fiction because you’ve convinced yourself that you “have to”). I finally finished it on the train to NYC.

The actual getting to NYC was fairly straightforward (apart from the fact that I lost my wallet shortly before leaving, but that’s another story). Getting from Grand Central to the event itself was another matter entirely, and it was only after two missed train/bus stops, some doubling back, and asking lots of people for help/directions that Casey and I FINALLY made it to the Carle Place Barnes and Noble! We’d missed the opening discussion, but we still got to slip ahead to say hi to Michelle anyways before heading back to the end of the signing line. Waiting in line was actually great; we ended up getting some down time to catch our breath, get centered, and have a nice chat with some of the store employees running the event. And before we knew it, we were at the signing tables.

Casey meets Cassie

Casey and I chatted with Michelle for a while, which was great—in addition to being lovely and cheery and friendly, Michelle was also quite willing to talk shop, and I got to ask a couple of questions about her book (which, by the way, has an awesome WHAM MOMENT of an ending—keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming post on WMs). She also asked me about my own writing, which led to a hilariously roundabout discussion in which I kept trying to come up with the names of authors who write stories similar to mine and which ended with Michelle kindly pointing out that I could have just said that I wrote YA fantasy (she speaks the truth). *facepalm*
Then, when Casey went to get her copy of Clockwork Prince signed by Cassie, we also got to take some pictures:

From left to right: me, Cassie, Casey, Michelle, and some of Michelle's many relatives!

And another with all the girls together...Ari, y u no keep ur eyez open?

And then Casey and I went out for dinner and made the epic trip home again. Exhausting, but glorious. (Well, the fact that we got home at 3:30 AM and that I had to get up at 7:00 AM was less than glorious, but once I’d caught up on sleep, I was once more in a fit state to fully appreciate the experience.)

So there you have it! Keep an eye out for a new blog post in the next day or so (*fingers crossed*), and in the meantime, I salute those of you who, like me, are venturing forth into the bloody battlefield of finals. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!

And if all else fails, the internet will never fail to supply you with doses of random cute in times of stress:

BorgTribble courtesy of: http://d.facdn.net/art/noben/1275883618.noben_borgtribble001.jpg

P.S. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow Casey, Cassie, and Michelle! Respectively, they are:

@The_BookishType
@cassieclare
@MichelleHodkin

Sunday Sharing #8, SPECIAL EDITION! (or, Read Banned Books!)

Dear readers and raptors,

Banned Books Week has always been an important event for me. I’m not home at the moment, but when I am, walking into my local library at this time of year means that my eyes are always drawn to the posters featuring the covers of banned books, or quotes that condemn censorship.

It makes me happy. And weirdly, for someone who is not usually patriotic, it makes me glad to live in the United States because I appreciate the ability to use controversial books as conversation-starters. I will freely admit that I have some strong feelings about banning/challenging books. Generally, I am a levelheaded and calm person, but there are a few things that make me angry on a very basic level, and censorship is one of them. It is something that gets under my skin and prods me until I feel the urge to go for a long walk or punch a pillow for an hour or so.

I suppose someone could argue that I need to straighten out my priorities—what with people starving and the rainforests being decimated, how can I possibly think about books? Books are hardly a matter of life and death…well, at least, not to a young American woman who grew up in a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle.

Fine, you can argue that. I might even agree. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be angry about censorship. I have an intimate relationship with books—I’ve been reading them since the age of five. They have taught me and bored me and helped me and angered me and consoled me and amused me and, above all, fascinated me for nearly two decades, and that is something to which I can relate. There are plenty of crusades and causes to choose from in this world; I have simply chosen one I feel strongly about. Passionate people make a difference, and I am choosing a place where I can be most passionate so that I can make a difference.

Fortunately for me, I grew up in a place where the ideals of the community mean that it is very unlikely that a book will ever be seriously challenged there. Nevertheless, it upsets me when I read a story about a novel that was banned from a school library by administrators, or a public library that is forced to shelve “inappropriate” books in a back room, away from the “sensitive” eyes of patrons (usually, this means kids and teens). I don’t live in these places, so how can I do my part to maintain the intellectual freedom of the American public? I am not a fighter by nature. I’m not the type to drive to a faraway town to protest with signs and chants, and I’m not the type to write letters to school administrators and board members. So what will I do?

I will ask people to read banned and challenged books. And without further ado, here are this week’s links:

1. First of all, the official page for Banned Books Week. A great resource if you have any general questions about the project.

2. A list of the most frequently challenged books of the 21st century (compiled by the American Library Association, which is also the driving power behind Banned Books Week in the US). I think it’s interesting (but unsurprising) to note that the vast majority of them are MG/YA fiction or books that are commonly taught in schools.

3. I know I’ve posted this once before, but I can’t help wanting to share the amazing and inspiring story of a teenager who is quietly disobeying her school’s rules and running a library of banned books out of her school locker. If I could, I would send her as many books as I could afford.

4. If you click on one link from this blog post, please let it be this one. In a letter to an irate patron, a librarian responds—with wonderful respect, understanding, and courtesy—to her challenge of a children’s book called Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. It is the most thoughtful, kind, and generally wonderful response I have ever seen in a situation like this.

5.  YA author Sherman Alexie (whose book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was my favorite read this summer) responds to the Wall Street Journal’s article on dark material in YA books. While I am fortunate not to have had any of the experiences Alexie describes, I wholeheartedly agree with him. (If you haven’t read my thoughts on the matter, you can find them here.)

6.Again, I know I have posted this before, but it’s too relevant to leave out. John Green shares his thoughts on the proposed censorship of his book Looking for Alaska:

 

7. Finally, part of the Banned Books Week project includes a new facet called the Virtual Read-Out, where people record videos of themselves reading excerpts from banned books and then share them on YouTube. Makes me happy.

I’d like to end with a request. Or perhaps it’s a challenge, or a plea, or an admonishment. However you want to think of it: consider reading a Banned Book this week. I myself will be going to the library tomorrow (or possibly Wednesday) to pick out a book to read, and I invite you all to join me. I know we all live busy lives, but I think most of us can find an hour (or even 30 minutes) or so per day to read. If you need ideas, check out that list of books in link #2, or take a look at the Wikipedia list of challenged books.

So read a banned book–heck, read two of three if you can manage it–and leave me a comment saying which book you’re reading (or plan to read). For myself, I’m considering the following:

1. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

3. ttyl, by Lauren Myracle

4. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

5. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

Thoughts? Any other recommendations? Leave a comment and let me know!