The Raven Boys {Week 1 Reactions}

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DISCUSSION|  The Raven Boys [Prologue- Chapter 12]

* WARNING this post will contain spoilers and probably too much personal information about Autumn @Kitty Cat Reads and I.(Its also going to be pretty long) So if you haven’t yet read The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater I would recommend  closing your eyes/computer/tab or anything else that might ruin the book for you.*

So we are still in the beta stages of how we are going to run our Book of the Month posts and discussions, so sorry if this seems a little rambly and all over the place. The Rave Boys is the first pick for our book club: The Future Cat Ladies of America. You can find information in our first post HERE or on our goodreads group.  I am going to try and group some of the info into groupings and I will try to indicate the differences between Autumn and I’s thoughts. We felt like since this was just the beginning of the book we would focus on mainly the characters and our thoughts. There will also be a few questions we asked each other to answer, our ramblings on the new “loves of our lives” and some additional connections/thoughts and feelings about things !

Random Thoughts:

♦ Adam’s story is kind of sad and the facts that he needs the favor and such because he is a scholarship kid and doesn’t have the money that everyone else has and also comes from a not so great home.
♦Thoughts about the raven that Ronan found. Autumn believes that the little bird is  grounding Ronan. That he needs something to be there for and be of some importance for something.
♦Their beliefs in the supernatural and what Gansey is selling. Ronan seems to really believe in it and all that supernatural stuff that Gansey is obsessed with, whereas Adam is skeptical and not so sure about everything, but wants to believe because he needs the favor.

Questions We Have:

♦What is the reason for all the references to ravens?
♦We wants to know more about the relationship between Gansey and Ronan and how they came to be friends and what it is that make Gansey feel such a need to take care of Ronan.
♦Where is Gansey’s mother and what is the deal with her?
♦How are the boys living at the warehouse?
♦Why is Ronan so good at latin and so dedicated to it?

CHARACTERS |

♠ Blue-
 Autumn: Not impressed so far. She doesn’t feel like she can really relate to her, but does love her sassy side!
Ashley: I also feel like we haven’t seen enough of Blue to really be able to grow an attachment to her, but I love that she is quirky and doesn’t care what others think about her!

♠ Noah-
Autumn: She is a bad kitten and nows secrets about Noah that I do not because she was looking at things. She also wants to know how he came around to become involved with the other boys.
Ashley: I don’t have any real thoughts about Noah yet. I feel like he hasn’t been very present, always in the background.

♠ Whelks- We keep forgetting he is close in age to the boys and went to Aglionby too! Also think that his life and what happened is parallel to what is happening to the boys now

♠ Ashley- We agree with Adam’s theories that she is not as dumb as she puts on. We want to know why she is involved with Declan and why she’s so interested in Gansey’s research.

♠ Declan- There is something missing from his story and the reasons for his fighting with Ronan.

♠ Maura- Blue’s mother is awesome! But she is keeping secrets and things away from Blue, which makes it intriguing to see whats going on that we don’t know about yet.

THE BOYS |

Book boyfriends are one of the best things ever and really can make or break a book. Of course The Rave Boys has a variety of boys to choose from! And with many other books/movies/tv shows Autumn and I also end up choices slightly different love interest even though we have very similar taste. The Raven Boys is no different. Here is the example of our crazy obsessions and school girl crushes.

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♠ Ronan (The love of Autumn’s life)
Autumn: According to her “he is right down to the exact type of what I like”.She likes the guys with the issues that get angry. Her greatest weakness is  the broken boys that like to fight.  
Ashley: I think Ronan is a great character and totally swoon worthy. Who doesn’t love the bad boys that have that dark wounded side. I do think he totally needs to solve some of his life because he has all these people that care about him.

♠ Adam (Ashley’s weakness)
Autumn: All of Autumn’s thoughts on Adam were mainly questions besides the fact that she really likes him too. She wants to know how adam fell into cahoots with Gansey and how is he at school (how he got his scholarship/what drew him to Aglionby).
Ashley: I love the fact that he has “flaws” at least what he considers to be flaws. Seeing him working hard to make a better future is so endearing. Also the fact that he is a little wounded and also intelligent. Adam is so swoon worthy in my opinion!

♠ Gansey:
Autumn: Autumn wants him as her BFF. She feels like she is a lot like him, with his learning/ obsessing and would love to do all that stuff with him.
Ashley: I am kind of slightly (more like really) in love with Gansey too! He is intelligent, loves books and research. He is also a really great guy and really cares about his friends and their well being. Perfection!

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QUESTIONS|

I created a few questions to ask Autumn as well as answer myself and Autumn also created one.

♠With the research that Gansey is doing it is said that whoever finds and wakes the king will receive one favor.
If you were given the chance to ask for one favor what would it be?
Autumn: A fairytale happily ever after, not the specific details but a guarantee that I will be happy in life.
Ashley: This is a hard question, but I think not having to worry about money ever again. Not asking for a bunch of money or to be rich, just not having to worry about trying to find money to pay bills and such.

 If you had insomnia like Gansey what would be your late night project and obsession be? 
Autumn: Teaching myself things/research based things (civil war etc) reading to teach herself to do things or wandering around outside. (She referred to herself as Hermonie Granger).
Ashley: I mean I already spend so much time on my blog, but I think that would be it. Like teaching myself more coding and how to make my blog super baller!

♠Blue has been told her whole life that when she kisses her true love he will die.
If you were in blues situation how would you handle it?
Autumn:- Now I would be angry and hostile about it but when I was younger I would have kissed everyone because if it was a true love you need to be in love so wouldnt care and do whatever I want. It sucks a lot but seems like blues true love is predestined to die so it seems like it wouldnt matter if they were in love or not.
Ashley: I don’t think I would be able to handle it. It is like giving limits to your life and telling you basically you can’t do something and I am not about that life.

If you had the gift of clairvoyance, what would your medium be ?
Autumn: Tarot Cards!
Ashley: Crystal Ball, because how cool would that be!

AUTUMN’S THEORIES|

♠ One of the lynch boys killed their father
♠ Ronan tried to kill himself and thats why he has adopted the raven (To be important and ground himself)

*I don’t really have any theories as of yet*

Please share your thoughts and add to our discussion if you would like! Just please make sure not to spoil the rest of the book for us! 

BONUS MATERIAL|

Both Autumn and I are completely obsessed with the movie The Covenant (2006). We both also feel that they are similar and when we were going over our reactions and discussions we went off on a rant about this movie and who each character from the book would be in the movie vis versa. If you haven’t seen this movie yet and have read this book  you should definitely watch it.Its got the whole prep school and group of boys thing. (warning though, many people aren’t fond of this movie so it might just be some obsession that Autumn and I alone share and the trailer isn’t the best, but oh well.) Here is a trailer of the movie!

 

 

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