Episode 2.6: ‘The Raven Boys’ by Maggie Stiefvater
The season 2 finale is upon us and we’re rounding off the season by revisiting a favourite of both of ours, the first book in Maggie Stiefvater’s ‘The Raven Cycle’, ‘The Raven Boys’.
We adore this book and had to squeeze it in the line-up. Making it the last book of the season means we’re ending on a real high.
We know ‘The Raven Boys’ is magical realism, but can it also be considered dark academia?
Here’s the summary for those who haven’t met Blue, Gansey and the rest of the Raven Boys yet:
"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve...
Either you're his true love... or you killed him."
Part of a clairvoyant family, Blue has spent sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die.
So when she meets Gansey's spirit on the corpse road, Blue knows that either he is her true love - or she has killed him.
The boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and he is a student at Aglionby, a wealthy local private school. With three other mysterious and privileged boys, he is on a quest to find the grave of Glendower - a Welsh king buried somewhere on a Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour.
Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey really her true love - the one she is destined to kill?
Blue never fully believed in the prophecy. But as she is caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.
It’s immediately clear that this ticks a few of our boxes, just from reading the summary, but does it delve into the dark enough to meet our criteria? (We detail the genre framework in every episode, or you can check out our “intro” episode if you missed it which will give you all the details).
In this episode we discuss:
Home, found family and the fluidity of the relationship between Blue and the Raven Boys
Privilege and power in academic pursuits
Gansey’s desperation and loneliness
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘The Raven Boys’ by Maggie Steifvater
‘The Dream Thieves’ by Maggie Stiefvater
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘Dark and Shallow Lies’ by Ginny Meyers Sain
We also announced our line-up for Season 3! Listen for a sneaky peeks of the titles we’ve chosen, or check out a post coming soon with full details.
If you want to snag yourself a copy of this wonderful book, please consider using our bookshop.org affiliate link below which helps out independent bookstores and helps us fund the website and the podcast at no extra cost to you.
