Review – The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, Book 4) by Maggie Stiefvater (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0545424981
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in the Raven Cycle
Source: Gift
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

“For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.”

This was a well done conclusion to the Raven Cycle. I adore Stiefvater’s writing style; it’s very unique, beautiful, and has a dreamy ambiguous quality to it. I also really adored the characters in this book; all of them are fleshed out so well and given so much depth.

This book is shared equally between all the characters and we hear from multiple POVs. This works beautifully for this book and results in a wonderful patchwork of smaller scenes and stories that weaves into one amazing larger story.

I also enjoyed that there are incredibly magical and surreal parts of the story blended with more everyday life issues (like the selling of illegal magic objects). This makes the magical parts seem all that more magical.

Henry is in the story a lot more and he ended up being an amazing character as well. I really enjoyed him a lot and wanted to learn more and read more about him than I got in this book.

It’s hard to really talk about the story without spoilers; so I guess I will just say this…Ronan dreams, Gansey is a king, Adam survives and learns to love, and Blue gives them the power and strength to make it all work. It all blends together beautifully; at times the story is heart-breaking, at times creepy, and at times breathtakingly spectacular.

My only complaint about this book is that it felt a bit unfinished to me. The Epilogue does tie up some loose ends but there is still a lot about our characters that is left unfinished. I think it would have been awesome to see where everyone ended up a few years in the future; then again maybe that’s the point of doing it the way Stiefvater did…maybe she just wanted to show that they all had futures that were theirs to do with as they pleased.

Overall an awesome conclusion to this magical series that blends mystery, magic, and some paranormal elements. Stiefvater has a writing style the is beautifully ambiguous and completely her own; I really loved it. The characters in this book are amazing and I enjoyed the setting as well. The story is wonderfully woven and wrapped up nicely too. I would definitely recommend this series to those who enjoy a more high literature type writing style (it can get kind of ambiguous at times) and a magical read. I will definitely be checking out Stiefvater’s future novels.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge