Expectations In The Raven Cycle

Sometimes I get so dramatic that I fear myself. Sometimes I go on spiels about The Raven Cycle and I also scare myself. Sometimes I fear that nothing will ever live up to Richard Campbell Gansey III.

But never, (never, do you hear me?), do I ever, will I ever, regret reading The Raven Cycle. Stiefvater has dug herself a firm place in the history of life changing reads that have affected dear Jess’ life. I used to be a little ignorant child before, with my mindset that cried “Sophistication is reserved for all those books validated by a group of men who sat around a round table and decided the who's who of the literary canon”. I never knew Young Adult fiction to be surprising. Like I said, I was ignorant. In my pre-Raven Cycle life (which

Expectations of exceeding expectations, expectations of underachieving expectations. I had expectations of being unable to write a coherent review. Howdy ho, that’s one expectation that rings true. Look at this review. Three paragraphs in and I’ve achieved nothing. Halt the procrastination, Jess.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue will take your heart out of its cave of safety, crush it, fill it with euphoria, wring your hopes and dreams out, thump it beyond rational means, and then hammer it to pieces. How vivid. It’s also true.

When I had initially read the premise for The Dream Thieves, I’ll be honest: I was a little, a smidge, disappointed. It screamed “I AM RONAN. PAY ATTENTION TO ME.” I screamed “NO. I DON’T FANCY YOU TOO MUCH, DEAR CHARACTER”. You see, I was a little distracted, to say the least. I had been enamoured by a rich, entitled boy who did the whole I'm-old-money-but-money-isn't-who-I-am thing (I realise now that this makes close to no sense.) What intrigued me about The Raven Boys, apart from that award-winning prose, was the exhilarating chase after a piece of history in order to make history and the forbidden romance with a delicious twist. Was I shocked that The Dream Thieves became somewhat tangential? Yes. Was I shocked that I still enjoyed it? Who knows. Stievater could honestly just sell me anything. Her gloves with a happy hole. Her kettle with a broken lid.

Have I run out of things to mention? Ha, no of course not. But this is prominent, I promise. What I love and appreciate the most is references to pop culture. It’s odd, this preference. Why does pop culture matter so much? Personally, having characters who concurrently live in the same timeline as us just heightens the whole reading experience for me. Suddenly the impossible feels very plausible. I can relate. It links into my universe and I feel a greater connection to the story. But it's not just the typical pop culture drops. No, I'm not too fond of pop culture that is scattered around as a form of info dump or in the manner of establishing time points. I have a special type and Stiefvater showers me with