History Literature / TheRavenCycle

The series is written by Maggie Stiefvater and is set to be four books long. The first book in the series, ''The Raven Boys'', was released September 18, 2012. The second book, ''The Dream Thieves'', was released September 17, 2013. The third, ''Blue Lily, Lily Blue'', was released October 21, 2014. The fourth, ''The Raven King'', was originally scheduled to be released in September 29, 2015, [[ReleaseDateChange but was pushed back to April 26, 2016]] in order to give Maggie Stiefvater more time to edit.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her [[{{Seers}} clairvoyant]] mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caueght up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

* CoolCar: Gansey's Camaro, Ronan's [[father's dreamed]] shark-nosed BMW and Henry's electric Fisker. Kavinsky's Evo with the knife decal, and do some of the cars driven by members of his "dream pack".

* LoveDodecahedron: Kavinsky is attracted to Ronan. Ronan is initially unattached, [[spoiler: but eventually realizes he likes Adam.]] Adam likes Blue, but also [[spoiler: may return Ronan's feelings]]. Blue initially likes Adam, but in ''The Dream Thieves'' reveals herself to be more fond of Gansey. Gansey is married to the search for Glendower, but is attracted to Blue as well. Blue also kisses Noah, who so far no one is interested in romantically.

* CoolCar: Gansey's Camaro. Kavinsky's Evo also qualifies, as do some of the cars driven by members of his "dream pack".

* MoodWhiplash: Usually pulled once or twice per book to lighten an especially angsty or tense scene, often through the use of the [[RunningGag murder squash song]].

** The real BilingualBonus is that ''he sucks''. Stiefvater has mentioned that only two characters in the series actually speak good Latin. [[spoiler:Turns out that the bad Latin is actually [[Foreshadowing a way to tell who and what has been dreamed up by Ronan, and thus speaks it as badly as he does]].]]

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her [[{{Seers}} clairvoyant]] mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

* LeyLines play a key role in Gansey's search.

* WritersCannotDoMath: The timeline is... confusing. Blue is 16 at the start of the series, but then turns 18 a few months later in ''Blue Lily, Lily Blue'' (mentioning that she's "lived eighteen years as the town psychic's daughter"). Also, Gansey apparently came to Henrietta 18 months prior to the start of ''The Raven Boys''. Adam also says he has been friends with Gansey for 18 months. Yet somehow, Gansey was friends with Ronan in Henrietta for months before meeting Adam. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

** Gansey knew Ronan before he moved to Henrietta and is shown to have spent time with him in childhood, so it's likely they met through their parents.

* [[spoiler: BiTheWay]]: [[spoiler: Adam, and possibly Kavinsky.]]

* [[spoiler: StraightGay]]: In the second book [[spoiler: we find out Ronan Lynch is gay.]] It's implied that [[spoiler: Kavinsky is queer as well.]]

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: Adam]]

* RelationshipUpgrade: In ''The Dream Thieves'', Blue and Gansey have a sort of mini one when they finally admit that they like each other and start their tradition of romantic late night drives, which are basically secret, unofficial dates. Happens again in ''The Raven King'', when [[spoiler: they finally admit their relationship to Ronan and Adam and officially start dating, though Adam is angry that they never even gave him a chance to be okay with it and just assumed that he wouldn't be.]]

** Declan in ''The Dream Thieves'' and ''Blue Lily, Lily Blue'', by way of protecting his brothers even while being threatened by a hitman and driving 4 hours from DC to Henrietta every Sunday to go to church with them. Though since it's Declan, it's implied he may have motives besides just looking out for his family. [[spoiler: And again in ''The Raven King'', when he and Ronan finally reconcile and he proves that he ultimately does love his family.]]

* InSeriesNickname: Gansey thinks "Blue" is a ridiculous name and decides to call her"Jane" instead. It ends up morphing into an AffectionateNickname.

** Ronan rarely calls Adam by his first name [[spoiler: outside of his dreams]], and when he does it's typically when serious magic is involved.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Adam in ''The Dream Thieves'', as a result of his father's abuse and [[spoiler: his sacrifice at the end of ''The Raven Boys'']]. He gets nicer again by the end of the book.

* [[spoiler: StraightGay]]: In the second book [[spoiler: we find out Ronan Lynch is gay.]] It's implied that [[spoiler: Kavinsky is queer as well, though given Blue's mentions of him being famous at her school as a user and abuser, chances are high he falls more into the DepravedBisexual category.]]

** SirSwearsalot: Ronan. Adam compares his swearing to poetry and says he actually sounds much harsher when he's ''not'' swearing.