The Raven Cycle
 Front cover of The Raven Boys | |
The Raven Boys The Dream Thieves Blue Lily, Lily Blue The Raven King | |
| Author | Maggie Stiefvater |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young-adult fiction Fantasy |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
| Published | 18 September 2012 – February 2016 |
| No. of books | 4 |
The Raven Cycle is a young adult series written by Maggie Stiefvater. The first book in the series The Raven Boys was published by Scholastic in 2012. It was followed by The Dream Thieves in 2013 and Blue Lily, Lily Blue in 2014. The final book, The Raven King is set for release in February 2016.
The series chronicles the journey of a group of five teenagers; Richard Gansey, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch, Noah Czerny and Blue Sargent, on a quest to find a sleeping king called Glendower in the fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia.
Plot
The Raven Boys
The story begins in The Raven Boys with a prologue from Blue explaining that she is the only non-psychic from an entire family of psychics, and that every clairvoyant she has met has warned her that if she kisses her true love, they will die. On St Mark's Eve, she goes to the cemetery with her half-aunt, Neeve, to watch the spirits walk past. These spirits are people who are fated to die within the next twelve months. Because of Blue's lack of psychic abilities, she is usually unable to see the spirits, but she sees one of a teenage boy who tells her his name is Gansey. Neeve then tells her that the only reasons a non-seer would see a spirit is either if the person is their true love or because they'll kill them. 'Ley Lines' are also explained as invisible that allegedly connect places, and have mystic energy surrounding them.
Richard Gansey III, Ronan Lynch, and Adam Parrish - the eponymous Raven Boys - all attend Aglionby Academy in Henrietta, a prestigious boarding school for the wealthy and privileged. Richard Gansey, who goes by 'Gansey', is hunting for the sleeping Welsh king, Glendower, and has recruited Adam, Ronan, and their other friend Noah to help. Gansey has been searching for Glendower ever since he was killed by hornets (to which he has a fatal allergy to) seven years before - as he was dying, he heard a voice telling him that Glendower would allow him to live because someone else was dying on the ley lines when they shouldn't. The discovery of Glendower is also said to allow to the discoverer to be granted a favor. Gansey, Ronan, and Noah live off-campus in an old warehouse called Monmouth Manufacturing, while Adam lives with his parents in a double-wide trailer home. It is also discovered that Adam, who is extremely poor and attends school on a scholarship, has an abusive father. It is also revealed that Ronan's father, Niall, was murdered sometime before the beginning of the book, and Ronan hasn't been the same ever since - it is heavily implied that he tried to kill himself only six months before.
Blue meets the Raven Boys at a restaurant where she works, and after a disastrous first meeting with Gansey - who's name she doesn't know at the time - finds his journal on Glendower. She initially wants nothing to do with the boys (aside from Adam, who asks her out after they leave), but realizes that the boy she met at the restaurant is the Gansey she's fated to kill. Curious about Gansey and his quest, she decides him and the boys in their search. As she does so, she develops feelings for Adam, even though her true love is potentially Gansey. They unofficially date, although Blue refuses to kiss him on the chance that he is in fact her true love. Ronan has a penchant for drinking, and one night, when Gansey realizes he's not at Monmouth and terrified that he might have tried to kill himself again, Gansey goes out looking for him and finds him in a church with a baby raven Ronan names Chainsaw.
They find a spiritual forest called Cabeswater, where time is manipulated and the trees speak Latin. They call Ronan, who is the only one who speaks competent Latin, the 'Greywaren'. They discover a strange tree that gives them visions of the future - Adam sees Gansey dying because of him, and Blue sees her and Gansey together and about to kiss. Later, when Blue and Gansey go back to the forest, they discover a skeleton beside an old car, and realize that the body is Noah's (whose discovered driver's license reveals his full name is Noah Czerny), and that he has been dead the entire time. When confronted, Noah disappears and begins haunting Monmouth Manufacturing. It is later revealed that the boys' Latin teacher, Barrington Whelk, has been searching for the ley lines and Glendower as well. He had killed Noah - his former best friend - seven years before as a sacrifice, believing that killing him would wake the ley lines, although this proves to be false.
One afternoon when Gansey is driving home, he is confronted by Whelk at gunpoint. Whelk takes his journal on Glendower and tries to shoot him, but is deterred by Gansey hitting the gun away, breaking his thumb in the process. He informs his friends of the incident, who are all shaken by Gansey's near-death and Whelk's involvement - they also discover that he was the one to kill Noah. Later, Ronan drives Adam home, where Adam is beaten by his father and hits his head on a railing that causes him to go deaf in one ear. Ronan, having witnessed the scene, assaults Adam's father and fights him until the police come to arrest Ronan. Adam, not wanting Ronan to go to jail because of him, tells the police that Ronan defended him and that he wants to press charges against his father. After a fight with Gansey over where he should live following this event, Adam steals his car and drives to Cabeswater, where he finds Whelk and Neeve. Neeve originally kidnapped Whelk, but he escaped and captured her to make as a sacrifice, so as to wake the ley lines. The others show up, and Adam sacrifices himself (specifically, his free will) to Cabeswater to wake the ley lines. His sacrifice brings a hoard of stampeding animals that trample Whelk to death. To protect themselves, Blue pulls Ronan and Gansey with her into the hollow vision tree, where she and Gansey both see visions of them together; Ronan doesn't disclose the contents of his vision.
Adam moves into an apartment above the St. Agnes Church, where Ronan had been found with Chainsaw earlier in the book, and they attend Noah's funeral. After, they steal his body and bury it near the church, which is on the ley line. Noah, who had disappeared after his body was first moved, reappears. Ronan then admits to the group that he took Chainsaw out of his dreams.
The Dream Thieves
In The Dream Thieves, Ronan is plagued by disturbing dreams, and is revealed to be able to bring objects back from them. His father Niall, murdered before the start of the series, had the same abilities, but had told Ronan never to reveal their abilities to anyone. Declan Lynch, Ronan's older brother, is attacked at his Aglionby dorm by someone called 'The Gray Man', who was employed to find the Greywaren. The Graywaren is in fact Ronan, as confirmed by Cabeswater in The Raven Boys, but the Gray Man and his employer are under the impression that the Greywaren is a physical object. Declan refuses to give up any information, and the Gray Man leaves him alive but battered. Meanwhile, while driving, the boys and Blue see Joseph Kavinsky, another boy from Aglionby. Ronan, who has a liking for drag racing, begs Gansey to let them race him, but Gansey refuses. Ronan later dreams and brings back a box that can translate languages, one of which is unknown to Ronan. Kavinsky sees them again at a restaurant, and gives Ronan a gift of leather bracelets, identical to the ones he usually wears.
Later, Adam - who is now plagued by strange visions and other effects as a result of his sacrifice to Cabeswater - is informed that his rent at St. Agnes will now cost $200 less a month, letting him save $2400 a year. He receives a letter that the tuition for Aglionby has increased by $2400 - realizing that this isn't a coincidence, he accuses Gansey of changing his rent as a way to "control" him. In reality, it was Ronan's work - St. Agnes is the church he attends with his brothers and has connections to, and upon receiving the letter from Agliony, he persuades the landlady the accept Ronan's $2400 cash offering and to tell Adam that his rent has changed due to a tax assessment - he recognizes that Adam is at a breaking point and would be unable to compensate for the additional $2400 the new tuition would cost.
When Gansey, Ronan, and Noah are out, an energy surge goes through Henrietta, causing Noah to briefly disappear. Meanwhile, the Gray Man continues his hunt for the Greywaren and goes to a reading at 300 Fox Way, where Blue lives with her family. He meets Maura, Blue's mother, and they hit it off. The women of 300 Fox Way begin to clear out Neeve's room following her disappearance at the end of The Raven Boys.
The Lynch brothers attend church together every Sunday, which brings about arguments between Declan and Ronan - he wants Ronan to keep his head down and out of trouble, and warns him that if he fails out of Aglionby or gets into legal trouble before he turns 18, he won't receive the inheritance promised in their father's will. The will also states that none of the Lynch children are ever to return to the Barns, where they had lived before their father's death, although Ronan longs to return to his childhood home where his comatose mother currently abides. In the meantime, Ronan and Kavinsky street race, and Ronan returns his gift of leather bracelets with dreamed-up sunglasses that match the pair Kavinsky wears.
The gang goes to Cabeswater, only to find that it has disappeared, which frustrates especially Gansey. Ronan continues to have nightmares - in one, he watches Adam turn into a monster after putting on a mask of Ronan's father's from their home. He brings back two night-horrors - large, murderous bird-like creatures - and recruits Gansey to help him kill one, although the other escapes. With the others, they take it to be buried at Ronan's home, called the Barns, deliberately breaking Ronan's father's will. They realize that all the animals, which are found to be dream-things, are dormant since Niall died. They enter the house, and look at all the other dream things his father made, and visit Ronan's mother, who they discover is also a dream-thing of Niall's. They decide to leave after Ronan has a violent reaction to Adam touching a mask on the wall - the same one he was wearing in Ronan's nightmare. After, Blue takes Ronan to get a reading from Calla, who tells them that Ronan's mother was also a dream thing. They travel to a man-made lake near where Cabeswater was, looking for Glendower. Blue finds an old Camaro tire and a small, old shield that Gansey surmises is from hundreds of years before. Blue goes back home and finds the Gray Man there. He is interested in taking her mother out to dinner. She gives him some advice, then gets a call from Gansey about a burglary at Monmouth Manufacturing, which was the work of the Gray Man.
Believing that it was Kavinsky that broke in, Gansey and Ronan find him and ask about it; he denies his involvement. Gansey leaves Henrietta to go to a function held by his mother, who is running for office, and brings Adam with him. Meanwhile, the Gray Man goes on a date with Maura, Blue's mother, and kisses her, during which she steals his phone to find out why he is in Henrietta. Back at Monmouth, Ronan has a sensual dream involving Adam and Kavinsky, and wakes feeling both ashamed and ecstatic. Blue and Noah have a discussion about her kissing problem, then, realizing that she can't hurt Noah, since he is already dead, and they kiss. Ronan and Matthew go to the Barns, and are attacked by the escaped night-horror. The Gray Man shows up and steals the puzzle box while the brothers hide.
Adam, who is in Washington D.C. with Gansey, continues having visions sent by Cabeswater, though he tries to repress them. Adam and Gansey argue, and the Adam later goes missing. Gansey and his family searches for and finds Adam, who wandered fifteen miles due to Transient Global Amnesia cause by his imbalance with Cabeswater. Gansey tells his family about Adam's problems, including his poor economic status and abusive father, and they give Adam a car, though they pretend it is an old one so Adam will accept it. Ronan, back in Henrietta, races Kavinsky in Gansey's car and wrecks it. Ronan is devastated and terrified that Gansey will hate him, but Kavinsky insists that he has nothing to worry about and reveals he also has the ability to take objects from dreams. Kavinsky begins to teach Ronan how to take things from his dreams at will, aided by the use of pills that cause the boys to instantly fall asleep. After many tries, Ronan creates a perfect replica of Gansey's Camaro. He realizes that the reason Cabeswater has disappeared is because of Kavinsky, who is bringing back too many dream-objects and is taking energy away from the ley line.
The Gray Man works out that the Graywaren is a person, not a physical object. He confronts Maura, who admits that the Graywaren is one of the Raven Boys. The Gray Man then lies to his employer about his progress. Maura kisses him and they sleep together.
After recovering from his fugue state, Adam returns to Henrietta and goes to Blue's house. They have an argument - Adam has feelings for her and wants to kiss her, while Blue has realized that she doesn't feel the same way - and break up. Blue discovers that she has feelings for Gansey, but doesn't disclose this to Adam so as to not hurt him further. Persephone, one of the psychic women living at 300 Fox Way and Maura's friend, says that she knows a way to help Adam acquire balance with Cabeswater. Blue goes on a drive with Gansey, and the two almost kiss, but they stop themselves out of loyalty to Adam. Later, the group meets the Gray Man at 300 Fox Way, where he reveals he knows that Ronan is the Graywaren and that he was the one who murdered Niall Lynch. The Gray Man reveals that his employer is a sort of collector, and would only wish to show Ronan off and pick him apart - implying that he would eventually torture and kill Ronan - and that if he doesn't return with Ronan his employer with inform his brother (who is trying to kill the Gray Man and has been searching for him for some time) of his location. The Gray Man, having fallen in love with Maura, decides to lie to his employer about the location of the Graywaren and opts out of the job. His brother finds him shortly after and the Gray Man kills him.
Meanwhile, Kavinsky - who has asked Ronan repeatedly to go to his Fourth of July party - kidnaps his brother Matthew and stuffs him inside a Mitsubishi - the one of many that he has dreamed up for the party. Ronan, Gansey, and Blue go to the party to search the Mitsubishis for Matthew, and Kavinsky drugs himself to sleep to pull something out of his dreams. Ronan follows suit, knowing that Kavinsky will further drain the ley line and possibly cause Noah and Cabeswater to disappear permanently. Adam and Persephone realize how to fix the ley line, and work quickly to repair it so that Ronan can use it. Ronan and Kavinsky end up in Cabeswater, where Kavinsky implies he has feelings for Ronan. Ronan tells him they would never have gotten together, and Kavinsky insists that Gansey (who he believes Ronan has sexual or romantic feelings for) will never want him; Ronan affirms that Gansey is like his brother. Kavinsky claims to know that Ronan "swings that way", and Ronan doesn't deny this. Kavinsky, infuriated by Ronan's rejection, dreams a large dragon to bring back to the party. Ronan, alone in Cabeswater, discovers Adam and Persephone fixing the line. Adam tells him to stop Kavinsky once the ley line is repaired, and that he figured out that Ronan was the one who fixed his rent. Ronan also sees his father in Cabeswater, who suggests that there is a hidden will that Ronan has access to as a Graywaren. Ronan realizes that he doesn't hate himself anymore, and is able to control the night-horrors - who fed off his self-hatred - and brings one back to the party to fight Kavinsky's dragon. Ronan wakes up and finds Matthew, and Kavinsky is killed by his dragon.
Later, Ronan - who amended his father's will to allow the Lynch brothers to return to the Barns - takes his mother to Cabeswater where she is reanimated and reunited with Ronan and Matthew. It is revealed that Ronan has feelings for Adam.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue
To be added...
The Raven King
The Raven King is the fourth and final installment of the Raven Cycle. It was planned to be released on September 29th, 2015, but has been pushed back until the end of February 2016.
Characters
Narrators
- Blue Sargent: Blue is a 16 year old girl and one of the protagonists of the series. She is five feet tall with short and straight black hair that she keeps pulled back with clips. She has a unique and strange sense of fashion and doesn't care what people think of her, although she herself has a tendency to be judgmental. She has feelings for Gansey, but doesn't want to act on them, afraid of hurting Adam and being the cause of Gansey's death. She is fated to kill her true love after she kisses him.
- Richard Gansey III: Richard Gansey III - who goes by "Gansey" - is one of the Raven Boys, and a protagonist. He has brown hair and hazel eyes and an athletic build. He is deathly allergic to hornets and bees. He is hunting for Glendower with his friends, his obsession with which began when he was stung to death by hornets at age 9, but lived because he was on the ley line, and Noah was being killed at the same time. He has feelings for Blue.
- Adam Parrish: Adam is a Raven boy and protagonist. He is tall and thin with dusty-colored hair, blue eyes, and tan skin and is described as "elegant" looking. He has a distinct Henrietta (Southern) accent that he tries to hide when he speaks out of embarrassment of his background, but he fails to hide it in moments of stress. He suffered for many years at the hands of his abusive father, but eventually moved out. He sacrificed himself to wake the ley lines and become Cabeswater. He initially desires to have Glendower's favor in order to help him become a self-made man, but upon discovering Gansey is to die decides to obtain it to save his life. He used to date Blue, but the relationship quickly ends. He is aware of Ronan's feelings for him but it is unknown if he reciprocates them, although it is suggested that he may be bisexual.
- Ronan Lynch: Ronan is a Raven Boy and a protagonist. He is the tallest of the group, pale, and "savagely handsome", with blue eyes and buzzed dark brown hair. He has a large black tattoo that extends from his back to his neck. His father was murdered sometime before the beginning of The Raven Boys, which resulted in his mother becoming comatose. His two brothers - Declan (who he shares a strained relationship following their father's death) and Matthew - also attend Aglionby. He is gay and has feelings for Adam.
Other Characters
- Noah Czerny: Noah is a Raven boy and protagonist. Noah is a ghost, having been killed seven years before The Raven Boys by his 'friend' Barrington Whelk. He has pale blond hair and a "smudge" on his cheek from where his face was caved in when he was murdered. He is able to read minds, and it is implied that he knows about Ronan's feelings for Adam.
- Maura Sargent: Blue's mother and a psychic. She lives at 300 Fox Way with her family and two of her closest friends, both of which are psychics, where they run a business out of their home. As of The Dream Thieves she is in a relationship with the Gray Man. Her former lover and Blue's father is revealed in Blue Lily, Lily Blue to be a man known as Artemis.
- The Gray Man: A hired hitman employed by Colin Greenmantle to find the location of the Graywaren. He was assigned to kill Niall Lynch before the start of the series in order for Declan to find his body and reveal the location of the Graywaren. He defects from Greenmantle's employment in The Dream Thieves as a result of his relationship with Maura Sargent. His real name is Dean Norris.
- Persephone: One of Maura's best friends and a resident at 300 Fox Way. Like Maura, she is a psychic, and is also a PhD student working on her thesis. She helps Adam regain balance with Cabeswater and teaches him how to scry. She dies searching for Maura in Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
- Calla: One of Maura's best friends and a resident at 300 Fox Way. Like Maura, she is a psychic, and her specialty involves touching people to read them.
- Neeve: Blue's half-aunt and a psychic. She tries to sacrifice Barrington Whelk to awaken the ley lines at the end of The Raven Boys, and doesn't reappear until the end of Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
- Henry Cheng: A charismatic and ambitious student at Aglionby who is very wealthy as a result of his father's business. While he and Gansey are aquaintances, Ronan and especially Adam dislike him. He appears briefly in Blue Lily, Lily Blue, although he is to become a major character in The Raven King.
- Declan Lynch: Ronan's older brother who attends Aglionby before attending college in Blue Lily, Lily Blue. He and Ronan have a strained relationship following the death of their father, and Declan constantly advises Ronan to maintain a low profile. Declan is implied to know more than he lets on about Niall and Ronan, including the fact that Matthew and their mother Aurora are dream-things and that Ronan and Niall are Graywarens. He is implied to have had a poor relationship with Niall prior to his death.
- Matthew Lynch: Ronan's younger brother and an Aglionby student. He is Ronan's dream-thing that he created when he was three years old. His older brothers are highly protective of him, and in Blue Lily, Lily Blue Ronan works to "open the door" to Cabeswater so that Matthew will stay alive when Ronan dies.
- Niall Lynch: Ronan and Declan's father and a Graywaren. He is murdered by the Gray Man on Colin Greenmantle's orders before the start of the series. He is implied to have built their wealth off of his dream creations, and traveled for extensive periods of time for unknown reasons. He adored Ronan and cared little for Declan while he was alive, and his wife Aurora is one of his dream-things.
Antagonists
- Barrington Whelk: A former Aglionby student turned Latin teacher. He was formerly wealthy before his father fell from grace, and despises the pretentiousness and wealth of his students. He has been searching for Glendower and a way to wake the ley lines, and sacrificed Noah seven years before to achieve this. He is indirectly killed by Adam in The Raven Boys.
- Joseph Kavinsky: A student at Aglionby that has a reputation for drag racing, drug use, and raging parties. He can take objects from his dreams, like Ronan, and abuses the power of the ley line through the use of his abilities. He has feelings for Ronan, who doesn't reciprocate, and is likely bisexual given his reputation with girls. He kills himself by way of his dream-thing in The Dream Thieves.
- Colin Greenmantle: A businessman who seeks magical and mysterious objects for his "collection". He employs the Gray Man to hunt down the Graywaren, believing it to be an object. He harbors immense hatred for Niall Lynch, who he has murdered before the start of the series, although it is unknown why. He becomes the Aglionby Latin teacher in Blue Lily, Lily Blue. He is unaware that Ronan is the Graywaren, but knows that Ronan and Adam are in possession of it's abilities when they blackmail him into leaving Henrietta. He abandons his search for the Graywaren and his wife at the end of Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
- Piper Greenmantle: Colin Greenmantle's wife who goes with him to Henrietta in his pursuit for the Graywaren. She is implied to have done some searching of her own for the Graywaren and Glendower. She discovers Neeve, who had been missing since the end of The Raven Boys, in a cavern the end of Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
- Robert Parrish: Adam's abusive father. He is implied to be alcoholic and homophobic and controlling of his wife and son. He beats Adam for the smallest infractions - Adam tells Gansey that he can't fight back because Robert owns a gun, implying that he would kill him given the chance. In The Raven Boys, he beats Adam for leaving the house to search for Ronan when he went missing from Monmouth, and later hits him hard enough to cause Adam to hit his head on a railing and lose his hearing in one ear. Ronan assaults him for this latter incident, which results in Adam pressing charges against him to save Ronan from being arrested. In Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the Parrishes' case is taken to trial with Ronan as a witness and Gansey as Adam's character witness, but the outcome is unknown.
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