The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

This book is all over Tumblr (you can follow me if you want!). It's really everywhere. I've seen so many aesthetics and edits that I had to see what it was all about. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. 

The Raven Cycle is an urban fantasy series that follows a group of friends who are trying to find the sleeping Welsh king Owen Glendower. The Raven Boys are Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah. They live in a small town in Virginia and they are trying to follow the ley lines, the lines that connect magical places, in hopes of finding Glendower. Even though it started as Gansey's quest, each one of the boys has their own reason for wanting to find the sleeping king. They are kind of in a rut with their quest, but when they meet Blue, a girl who comes from an all psychics family, things take a turn.

I really loved this book. My love for these characters was instant. They are all so colorful and interesting, and the relationships they have with each other are so complex. The genius of this novel rests on such intricate character relationships.

Maggie Stiefvater's writing is superb. It reflects the theme of the book, it's magical and atmospheric. I really enjoyed her writing style, it was actually refreshing.

The plot is very slow. It develops slowly, and you can see that the resolution of an essentially simple plot won't come until the last book. It seems almost stretched out. But this is a very character driven story. It's not action packed, but the characters and their chemistry make up for it all. I personally didn't care for the plot. It wasn't uninteresting by any means, it's clever and unusual, but honestly I just wanted to read the interaction between these characters. They are so fleshed out, and you really care about them and their destinies. 

I am currently reading The Dream Thieves and it's even better! So I definitely recommend this series if you're looking for amazing characters and writing.

Rating:✯✯✯✯ 

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I have read Gone Girl a while ago and I just adored that book. I thought it was really clever and shocking, with an amazing story and on top of all that - ingenious writing.

Naturally, I decided to pick another one of her novels, and I ended up choosing - Dark Places.

This is a story about Libby Day, whose family (mother and two sisters) was killed back when she was seven years old. Her own testimony put her brother, Ben, behind bars. After 24 years, Libby is sort of mindlessly wandering through life and just basically living off of the money she got from donations. After she starts running out, she starts meeting with this sort of weird "club", composed of people who are fascinated with murder mysteries. They sort of get her questioning everything that happened throughout that night.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Flynn's writing is so atmospheric and eerie, and you are transported into this story, instantly, from the first page, It's gripping and holds your attention throughout. You just want to keep reading, and you don't want to put the book down until you know what is going on. The story is told both from the present day perspective in which we see how Libby is dealing with everything, but also we see the events of the night of the murders. And that day, back in 1985, we see from the perspective of her older brother Ben and her mother Patty. This is a very clever way to tell this story. Because both (or all three) perspectives lead to the culmination and "the reveal". They all sort of intertwine together and it just works perfectly.

Gillian Flynn has a very strong sense of the human nature. She is able to write such flawed characters. I think that this book doesn't really have any really likeable characters. But Flynn is still able to make you feel interested in these characters and care for their destinies. And even if you don't you still want to know what happens.

The only down side to the book was that for me, personally, the "mystery solution" got kind of, sort of obvious about half way into the book. But that didn't ruin the book for me. I still think it was pretty brilliant.

Definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a thriller mystery and above anything, to anyone who enjoys really good writing.

Rating: ✯✯✯✯