Friday, August 21, 2015

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

The Raven Cycle takes fortune telling for granted. A principal character is a ghost. A group of private school boys are searching for an ancient king who lives in a magical realm situated on a line of power. If you accept these little details it's not a bad tale. It does require a fair dose of imagination and a great deal of suspension of disbelief. Oh, and we learned in book one that one of the boys will die before the year is out and Blue has been hearing as long as she can remember that if she kisses her true love he will die.

There's Richard Gansley III who lives in the converted factory he owns.
Noah Czerny, the ghost who lives in a room there.
Another Roommate, Ronan Lynch who has a younger brother Matthew and an older, Declan. Ronan has a pet Raven and in book 2 we learned he can dream things into existence—his father in fact dreamed his mother into existence.
Adam Parrish, the victim of child abuse who lives in rooms above a parsonage. A townie he lacks the other's financial resources.

“The students kept coming in. Adam kept watching. He was good at this part, the observing of others. It was himself that he couldn't seem to study or understand. How he despised them, how he wanted to be them.” (p. 63)

And Blue Sargent who lives with her Mother Maura, her Aunt and several other relatives and friends who make their living as psychics.

Book three tends to drag, it just hasn't grabbed my interest quite the same as books one and two. The private school boys have a sense of entitlement. It is taken for granted that what they want they'll get. When Gansley joins Adam before the judge the two are practically on a first name basis. The results are so foregone they aren't even mentioned.

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