Raven Me This.

After reading THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater, I am at a loss of words to describe how I feel about this book. At first, it felt like I was diving in to another Harry Potter book - a world that felt familiar but very, very different. And then, it was like reading the next volume in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence. That series, I would say, is probably the closest comparison one will find for The Raven Cycle. Truly, though, THE RAVEN BOYS was brilliant. And the entire time I could picture Stiefvater typing at her computer, hand over her mouth, giggling with secrets - because that's the way this book feels. It is a slow-building story. One to be savored. And the reader knows that this is not the end, or even perhaps, the beginning. Although we might not know the whole story, we are certainly given satisfying bits and pieces of it. We might not understand all the clues exactly, but we know a lot of them are there just waiting to be found and understood. 

In fact, the story and the writing are much like the character's quest itself. Both are filled with slow-building mystery. Both are riddled with clues not solved easily. And both are based on the emotional connect of characters - what they want, need, and how they feel. In a word: Timeless.