Hi everyone! Welcome to Nox Reads, I'm "Nox", and I was not ready for the Raven Cycle to end! This is my book ramble for the last book of the series, The Raven King, which, like the rest of the series, is 100% a GET ME ALL THE MERCH!
"He was a book, and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went, and he didn't want it to be over."
TRIGGER WARNING: Deaths, demons, violence
Songs I Listened to While Writing: Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran; Say No to This by Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Lin Manuel Miranda
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I picked that quote because that's exactly how I felt going into this book! I was not ready for the Raven Cycle to end. In the course of four books, I had become emotionally and mentally invested in these characters, in Blue and her Raven Boys. I was invested in their relationships, in their quest to find Glendower, even in the most mundane aspects of their lives.
It doesn't help that this book had a lot of questions to answer. Was Gansey going to die? If he did, is it because he finally kissed Blue? Will the gang find Glendower? What is their favor going to be? What's going to happen to my precious ghost boy Noah?
Alas, these are all spoilers. Fortunately though, I have two points that I can talk about now.
First things first: I adore Henry Cheng. Henry was introduced in the previous book Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and he has a much more prominent role in this book. While it may seem a bit late to add in another character in the last book of the series, he's incredibly well-developed and interesting to read. He belongs with the gang.
Secondly, can Ronan and Noah please catch a break? For once? I swear those two have gone through enough for a lifetime (or in Noah's case, an after-lifetime) and it seems like life only got harder for them as the book continued. Poor Ronan just wants to happy, and Noah just wants to be Noah, to stop decaying and just be himself, whether he's alive or not. It was heartbreaking to read about the Raven Day celebration because we're given a glimpse of who he was when he was alive.
If you haven't The Raven King yet, please do and come back. It was an amazing book to read (I finished it in maybe 5 hours) and I highly recommend it.
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Okay, so most of you probably remember the epilogue in The Dream Thieves when we learn that Ronan considers Adam his "second secret". Unfortunately, I, your resident moron, apparently missed that part, so when all of this Ronan and Adam action started happening, it seemed like it happened out of the blue. Either way, all I can say is I needed more time with this ship! Don't get me wrong, I love Blue and Gansey, awkward secret flirting and all, but at the same time Ronan and Adam! I realize that they have spent the past two books together more and more, but their was less flirting in the previous book, and I need more flirting/awkward interactions. These two are incredibly precious together, and my favorite thing about them (besides that it involves one of my favorite tropes: typical grump/bad boy falls for precious cinnamon roll) is that it isn't insta-love. They've been best friends for a while, and there's the scene where Adam goes to Gansey about his feelings because he knows that he has to make sure he knows how he feels about Ronan. Ronan doesn't do anything halfway (especially love), and if Ronan is giving Adam his heart than he needs to be in all the way. This also makes me love Ronan's "I like how you losers thought Instagram before first aid" comment from the last book so much better. Pynch is one of my favorite parts of the book.
Of course, Gansey and Blue's relationship is an important part of the series. They've spent the past book and a half awkwardly flirting without telling Adam, and they get to a point in the book where they can finally be open with how they feel. I love when Gansey tells Adam that yes, he thinks that he's Blue's true love, because he sounds so certain about it. Ultimately, their kiss is what saves the town from the demon, as Gansey sacrifices himself on the ley line. I am so glad that they found a way to get Cabeswater to sacrifice itself to save Gansey's life. Speaking of which...
Glendower. Was. Dead. The. Whole. Time. Hello, Maggie Stiefvater? What the actual hell?
They had been on this quest for such a long time, and in the end, he was already dead. Of course, having Glendower wake up would've made things to easy, and Gansey needed to die at some point, but I was still disappointed and sad for them.
Of course, I have to talk about Noah. Depending on where you start, the story begins with Noah Czerny. The boy who was killed by his best friend, the boy who called his sister about an art project with crazy ravens, the boy who was decaying beyond recognition. I really wanted Noah to live, or at least be able to comfortably continue in his weird limbo with his friends. Alas, he drifted away from time. I swear, I almost cried when we discover that he's the one who spoke to Gansey when he died the first time. To me, the story really does start with Noah.
Despite my sadness, I love the ending of the book. I love the gang realizing that they have countless adventures to continue on (they have to wreck the Camaro somehow), and the feeling that even though they're going their separate ways, they still have each other. Blue finally gets to see the world with Gansey and Henry, Ronan gets his peaceful farmer life with Opal and a loving boyfriend, Adam patches things up with his mother, and Noah is remembered. It was an amazing end.
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I was seriously left in a series hangover, and I'm glad to know that the void will be filled because Maggie Stiefvater is writing the Dreamers trilogy about Ronan, and has already released Opal, an e-book told from the perspective of Opal (Orphan Girl) about her life with Ronan and Adam after the series.
Thank you for reading! If you've finished the series, who is your favorite psychic at 300 Fox Way? I think mine is Persephone, but I really like Maura and Calla too. Have a good day!
~Nox
"He was a book, and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went, and he didn't want it to be over."
TRIGGER WARNING: Deaths, demons, violence
Songs I Listened to While Writing: Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran; Say No to This by Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Lin Manuel Miranda
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S P O I L E R - F R E E T A L K (if you've read the previous three books)
I picked that quote because that's exactly how I felt going into this book! I was not ready for the Raven Cycle to end. In the course of four books, I had become emotionally and mentally invested in these characters, in Blue and her Raven Boys. I was invested in their relationships, in their quest to find Glendower, even in the most mundane aspects of their lives.
It doesn't help that this book had a lot of questions to answer. Was Gansey going to die? If he did, is it because he finally kissed Blue? Will the gang find Glendower? What is their favor going to be? What's going to happen to my precious ghost boy Noah?
Alas, these are all spoilers. Fortunately though, I have two points that I can talk about now.
First things first: I adore Henry Cheng. Henry was introduced in the previous book Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and he has a much more prominent role in this book. While it may seem a bit late to add in another character in the last book of the series, he's incredibly well-developed and interesting to read. He belongs with the gang.
Secondly, can Ronan and Noah please catch a break? For once? I swear those two have gone through enough for a lifetime (or in Noah's case, an after-lifetime) and it seems like life only got harder for them as the book continued. Poor Ronan just wants to happy, and Noah just wants to be Noah, to stop decaying and just be himself, whether he's alive or not. It was heartbreaking to read about the Raven Day celebration because we're given a glimpse of who he was when he was alive.
If you haven't The Raven King yet, please do and come back. It was an amazing book to read (I finished it in maybe 5 hours) and I highly recommend it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S P O I L E R - T A L K
Okay, so most of you probably remember the epilogue in The Dream Thieves when we learn that Ronan considers Adam his "second secret". Unfortunately, I, your resident moron, apparently missed that part, so when all of this Ronan and Adam action started happening, it seemed like it happened out of the blue. Either way, all I can say is I needed more time with this ship! Don't get me wrong, I love Blue and Gansey, awkward secret flirting and all, but at the same time Ronan and Adam! I realize that they have spent the past two books together more and more, but their was less flirting in the previous book, and I need more flirting/awkward interactions. These two are incredibly precious together, and my favorite thing about them (besides that it involves one of my favorite tropes: typical grump/bad boy falls for precious cinnamon roll) is that it isn't insta-love. They've been best friends for a while, and there's the scene where Adam goes to Gansey about his feelings because he knows that he has to make sure he knows how he feels about Ronan. Ronan doesn't do anything halfway (especially love), and if Ronan is giving Adam his heart than he needs to be in all the way. This also makes me love Ronan's "I like how you losers thought Instagram before first aid" comment from the last book so much better. Pynch is one of my favorite parts of the book.
Of course, Gansey and Blue's relationship is an important part of the series. They've spent the past book and a half awkwardly flirting without telling Adam, and they get to a point in the book where they can finally be open with how they feel. I love when Gansey tells Adam that yes, he thinks that he's Blue's true love, because he sounds so certain about it. Ultimately, their kiss is what saves the town from the demon, as Gansey sacrifices himself on the ley line. I am so glad that they found a way to get Cabeswater to sacrifice itself to save Gansey's life. Speaking of which...
Glendower. Was. Dead. The. Whole. Time. Hello, Maggie Stiefvater? What the actual hell?
They had been on this quest for such a long time, and in the end, he was already dead. Of course, having Glendower wake up would've made things to easy, and Gansey needed to die at some point, but I was still disappointed and sad for them.
Of course, I have to talk about Noah. Depending on where you start, the story begins with Noah Czerny. The boy who was killed by his best friend, the boy who called his sister about an art project with crazy ravens, the boy who was decaying beyond recognition. I really wanted Noah to live, or at least be able to comfortably continue in his weird limbo with his friends. Alas, he drifted away from time. I swear, I almost cried when we discover that he's the one who spoke to Gansey when he died the first time. To me, the story really does start with Noah.
Despite my sadness, I love the ending of the book. I love the gang realizing that they have countless adventures to continue on (they have to wreck the Camaro somehow), and the feeling that even though they're going their separate ways, they still have each other. Blue finally gets to see the world with Gansey and Henry, Ronan gets his peaceful farmer life with Opal and a loving boyfriend, Adam patches things up with his mother, and Noah is remembered. It was an amazing end.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was seriously left in a series hangover, and I'm glad to know that the void will be filled because Maggie Stiefvater is writing the Dreamers trilogy about Ronan, and has already released Opal, an e-book told from the perspective of Opal (Orphan Girl) about her life with Ronan and Adam after the series.
Thank you for reading! If you've finished the series, who is your favorite psychic at 300 Fox Way? I think mine is Persephone, but I really like Maura and Calla too. Have a good day!
~Nox
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