~(◔▽◔)~

So remember how I said I was going to post a review of The Raven Cycle? And how that was quite a few days ago? Well I had actually just never gotten around to it but I'm going to pretend it's because I was waiting to finish the last book in the series so I can talk about the whole series.

So. The Raven Cycle. *insert incoherent flailing here*

This is one of those books that happens to have absolutely god-awful official blurbs, which means anytime someone mentions it and someone goes "Hey lets google that and see what it's all about!" they immediately get turned off by words like "paranormal romance". It will say something about true love and curses and you will probably think Twilight and cringe and close the tab. It's okay, my friend. I was one of those people too, way back when I started seeing some slashy fanart on tumblr tagged with "trc" and I wanted to know what it was all about.

Here is what it's actually about: codependency, chosen families, coming out via a giant nightmare monster, magic, privilege, the circular nature of time, platonic intimacy, welsh kings, a gaggle of psychics who spend their time being snarky and drinking a lot, antagonists you want to hug, protagonists you want to slap, cars, trees, pet ravens, and a metric fuckton of character development. 

I do have to say I went through this series in record time. Part of that was just having a lot of commute to fill up, but the 3rd and 4th books I devoured in about a day and a half each. (It was the feelings. There are a LOT of feelings in these books. I just finished the last one and I am still not okay with stuff that happened in the second.) Some people seem to find the language flowery, but I personally found it very easy to keep going. There was rarely any part where I was taken out of the story by the writing itself. 

Oh and there's also the amazing feeling of having your ship actually become canon, which happens so rarely that it's worth mentioning just because of that. (Actually there's a lot of subtext in this book. Everyone loves everyone, thought not always in a romantic way) 

So yeah, if you like sort of... modern-day YA with paranormal/magical elements and an adorable queer subplot, definitely, DEFINITELY read this series. 

(I've also already written fanfic for it, so I guess that means I'm officially in raven boy hell now)

Up Next: I have no idea. I picked up Leviathan by Scott Westerfield purely because it happened to be on one of the highlight shelves at the library, and I'd heard some good things about it. It's.... also YA, some kind of steampunk I think? But more likely I'll just dive into Raven Boys fanfic now that I can't be spoiled by anything.