Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

28 reviews

rookeatsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

jojo_fiction_'s review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

4.5 stars 

“‘Is that all?’ she whispered. 

Gansey closed his eyes. ‘That's all there is.’” 

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, but her own abilities are limited to amplifying the powers of others. On the feast of St. Mark, while helping her aunt speak to the spirits of those who are to die within the next 12 months, she sees a spirit for the first time. The spirit of a boy named Gansey. The problem is, when a non-seer sees a spirit, it means one of two things: they are either their true love, or they are the ones who kill them. 

Gansey is a student at the elite private school Aglionby. Despite the prestigious lifestyles of those around him, Gansey is only interested in one thing: finding the lost tomb of the Welsh King Glendower. He and his friends, Adam, Ronan and Noah, take their search to the local psychic’s home. There, these mysterious boys and their quest draw Blue in, and their fates become tangled together in a web full of mysteries and magic. 

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This wasn't my first time reading this book. I had tried when I was younger when it was just getting popular, but I guess I was just too young to fully absorb what was happening. However, I am so glad I decided to give it another shot.

This book was really good! However, it was a bit slow plot wise at the start. Stiefvater takes her time making sure we are properly introduced to the characters, and their dynamics with each other, before really moving us along to focus more on the plot. Now, I personally love character based stories, so I didn't mind the slow start to the action. But if you are someone who likes a little more focus on plot/action as opposed to the characters, this might not be your cup of tea, or it just might be harder for you to get into.

In terms of the style, Stiefvater has such a wonderful way with words that really draws you in. I love books that make me feel enveloped by a feeling of magic and mystery and The Raven Boys makes even the more mundane aspects of the town feel like it is covered in magic. 

I also enjoy it when fantasy books have a magic system that is off putting and doesn't make logical sense all the time. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. In this case it's ghosts and spirits, stepping out of linear time, and trees that speak Latin to you. 

Stiefvater gives us characters that we can't help but love. They all have good intentions, and care deeply about each other, but are dealing with different levels of pain or toxic environments that cause them to make decisions that often clash with each other. The friendships are really what sell this story. The playful dynamics that start with the 4 boys are increased when Blue joins the mix. All of these characters are closed off in one way or another, and I can't wait to see how they slowly open up to each other and further flesh out these already amazing characters. My only critique of the characters is that of Blue’s characterization. I'm not quite sure how I feel about her, but the way she is portrayed can sometimes come across as “not like other girls”. Which could just be due to the trends that were around when this book was released, but I'm still hoping she will become more developed as the series goes on.

My only critique of the book’s writing itself would be the difference in pacing from the beginning and the end, as I mentioned before. By putting such a focus on the characters in the beginning, when the plot starts to pick up it is a noticeable change that might be jarring to readers. 

All in all, I can't wait to read the next book, especially since we get to see more of Ronan’s character (who I have a feeling will become my favourite character). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This series has been in my TBR since 2018, so I figured I should start 2024 by finally reading it and I'm so glad to say I enjoyed it a lot and finished the audiobook in one day (great narrator)!

I really liked the characters and can't wait to see more of them, I love how Blue is so independent but also relies on her family to help her and they are always there for her; I want to know more about Gansey to have him as favorite, I see the potential, but we'll see; I already love Adam and just want to protect him but also smack him for his pride lol; Ronan is starting to grow on me but is going to take time with his personality ; and for whatever little we get to see of Noah I'm liking him too I like Noah (never getting over this personal things because it's just so funny, can't believe I avoided spoilers for SIX years only to go into twitter that day, read their names and then see how Noah

is a ghost lmao I mean I wasn't sure if he wasn't joking at the beginning when he said that he had been dead for 7 years, but the biggest surprise was that he was the boy murdered by the boys's professor, that would've good to find out on my own, but no big deal)

ALSO, I know I'm not the only one who saw the connection here: The Raven Boys reminded me of The Marauders! (don't expect something exactly like them, just something similar in dynamics, personalities, role in the group, but it was nice to see)

Love all the paranormal stuff about being able to see ghosts and the souls of people who will die, this "prophecy" on Blue, Ronan's

power with dreams that made him being able to take out an animal to the real world!?

and I'm excited to see more of that in the 2nd book.

I agree with other reviews though that this has an open ending, you won't get answers here, in fact you will have more questions on how things work and what the characters are going to do about it, but you will really want to know them and continue with this story and the characters. So if you're okay with that read this book.

So happy my first book of the year was so good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Self harm, Murder, and Alcohol

If you want to know more about the Trigger Warnings I'm leaving the specifics here, but some are spoilers and be aware some might affect you. For a longer list of the Triggers look into the feature of Storygraph, but I think this are the most notable: SELF HARM (doesn't happen to any of the main characters, it just shocked me how this random character just dropped a comment about

"slitting her wrists" as if it was a joke.

) ;; MURDER / DEATH (There's 2 cases of this, both involving 17 yo kids being both the murder and the victim. They happen around these pages

Won't say names so it's not an spoiler, but you find out about one at 30% and the other one happens near the end.

) ;; GUN VIOLENCE (no names mentioned:

a guy in his 20's having a 17yo kid at gun point

, and the Murder involves a gun.) ;; KIDNAPPING (let's just say the bad guy gets kidnapped so who cares lol) ;; DOMESTIC ABUSE BOTH PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL INVOLVING A CHILD (We see just one big scene of this but that's enough, one of the boys suffers from this at home and you will hate his father. If you want to know the name, it happens to

Adam , one of Gansey's best friend

) ;; ALCOHOLISM (No one is surprised to hear that the abusive father is the one who drinks.)

lunep's review against another edition

funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit

viacrow's review

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

trintrin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ooookay where do we start

THE CHARACTERS. I love the characters. I can't stress how much I love the characters. I would willingly read a thousand one-shots and spin-offs about them even though it's only been one out of four books so far.
- Maura, Calla, Persephone, and the other psychic women were very interesting to read about. I hope to get to know them more in the future books. Especially Persephone, she's got me in her charms.
- Blue is such a refreshing character, I love her so much. I thought she's gonna be one of those whiny YA protagonists,

especially considering her forbidden love and kind of poor background story,

but oh boy, she's none of those things.
- I don't really have an opinion on Ronan yet, but I smell a character backstory/arc up ahead. I shall deliver my judgement after that :D

Although, I do admit, those little moments where Ronan actually expressed his emotions and his love for the others or Chainsaw made me feel warm

- Adam is probably the most realistic character out of everyone here. He was my first favourite character, I hope he pulls through all the way to the end.

His relationship(?) with Blue was very pure, but obviously it's not gonna be the endgame. I pray for him and my future self.

- Gansey, oh Gansey. I have a soft spot towards Gansey. Something about the way he cares so much for the Raven Boys, and eventually, Blue, makes me want to not read this book anymore. Because I absolutely do not want him to die. He's such a FANTASTIC friend and he is the glue holding the group together. I genuinely cannot imagine how the boys would even survive without him. I want a friend like Gansey, and not just because he's filthy rich.

I don't really sense any chemistry between Gansey and Blue so far. I kinda hope they don't have to resort to that, but oh well. A prophecy is a prophecy, but ig prophecies can also be misleading

- And finally, saving the best boy for the last, NOAHHHH.

He went from a very suspicious background character to this adorable, cutest little child gahhhhhh someone please protect him from all the harm in the world

THE PLOT. The first 50%-ish part of the book had a very weird pacing, so much so that it nearly took me a month to finish it. I truly did not care about Glendower or the ley lines or Aglionby, but it was the characters that kept me going. Lucky I did, because after setting up the world and everything about halfway through, the book picks up the pace. One second you think you've got it, and the next second it goes poof. It keeps you guessing all the way till the end.

I literally just finished reading the book, but what wouldn't I give to find out that Noah Czerny's been dead all along for the first time. I was convinced he was sneaking out trying to wake up the ley line on his own, but turns out the poor child wasn't even alive in the first place. I'm so glad the others didn't freak out and suddenly turn Noah into this ghost who haunts them now, but they gave a logical explanation on why he appeared and disappeared at certain times.

The amount of foreshadowing this book has?? Noah quite literally said that the reason he is always cold is because he's been dead for seven years in the fourth chapter AND NO ONE QUESTIONED IT? Every time Noah makes an appearance has some sort of clue to his situation (the way he threw up after seeing that car and no one bothered to think why?) and yet I never guessed that he was actually dead, just that he's sketchy. And the way it matched up with Gansey's hornet death backstory and Whelk's Czerny backstory, it's incredible, really.

Whelk, I thought he's a weirdo who turns out to be a good-ish guy in the end. The psychopath straight up murdered Noah. Little bitch deserved every bit of his stupid death. Noah's funeral actually made me kinda teary eyed, but I didn't expect them to commit literal grave robbery wtaf 😭 we stan.

One thing that made me feel so relieved in a way was when Adam's father (he can go to hell) slapped him, he actually lost his hearing in a ear. That's it. It's gone. No partial hearing loss, or temporary deafness that will soon be back to normal, or magical abilities to heal his condition, or super hear with his other ear. Nothing. It's just an injury that can never be fixed. This is one thing that I never really liked about fantasy. Like why make the characters lose something as important as a body part only to immediately fix it in someway that its loss is not a big deal at all? I really hope Adam stays this way at least for a good long time, and that his partial deafness affects and slows him down every once in a while. (I understand how sadistic this sounds, but we really need more disabled characters who are actually disabled)

Overall, if only the pacing in the first half hadn't been dogshit, I would've given this five stars. As it is, I hope we can rectify that in the next one :D (although I still don't really care about Glendower, I'm just here for the lovely people and some vibes)

Jan 2024 reread:
This has been my favourite book ever to reread, easily 5 stars! I remember thinking there was a lot of foreshadowing immediately after finishing this book and just flipping back through the pages. Now, with the knowledge of the other three books and the Dreamer Trilogy combined, I can safely say THERE'S SO MUCH FORESHADOWING!! I was sitting here with my jaw dropped for some of those. So many of them evaded my attention, even the things that happen within this book. Maggie, you big-brained genius.

Another thing that I somehow forgot about is

how present Adam's abuse is. I was genuinely shocked on reading about it even before Blue became a part of the gangsey. Reading Adam and Gansey's argument hurt even more, now knowing and understanding the two characters better than before. So proud of them for making it through eventually.

I remember struggling with the pacing so much that it took me nearly a month to finish this book because it took forever to get to the main plot. After flying through the book at record-speed during this reread, I realised it's probably because I didn't know that the main point of this series is not finding Glendower, it's the friendships, and it's always been there at the core of the book. Not justifying the book or invalidating new readers who might feel the same way, just a curious thing to point out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Self harm, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

imbored_soillread's review

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm and Suicide attempt

kricxx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

it starts out slow and i was confused for most of the first half but oh once it gets going *chefs kiss*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death and Self harm

sheadunlop's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is a very good book. Especially considering that i was written 10 years ago. It was exactly my level of creepy. Not scary. I cannot tolerate scary. The characters are great, it is so very engaging, good dialogues, supernatural, witchy, dark academia, perfect for a busy fall read for people who do not want to be scared but do not want to feel left out either. Would recommand. I do not think that the ending is very strong. (But I guess it’s okay considering that it is a first in a series.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Self harm, Vomit, Car accident, and Alcohol