Shiver
Quotes from the Book
My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I’ve come unequipped with the ability to disarm them.
She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.
Gansey had once told Adam that he was afraid most people didn't know how to handle Ronan. What he meant by this was that he was worried that one day someone would fall on Ronan and cut themselves.
If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a human.
Is this thing safe?" "Safe as life," Gansey replied.
We have to be back in three hours," Ronan said. "I just fed Chainsaw but she'll need it again." "This," Gansey replied "is precisely why I didn't want to have a baby with you.
You are being self-pitying." "I'm nearly done. You don't have much more of this to bear." "I like you better this way." "Crushed and broken," Gansey said. "Just the way women like 'em.
Ronan said, "I'm always straight." Adam replied "Oh, man, that's the biggest lie you've ever told.
When Gansey was polite, it made him powerful. When Adam was polite, he was giving power away.
They were always walking away from him. But he never seemed able to walk away from them.
I guess I make things that need energy stronger. I'm like a walking battery." "You're the table everyone wants at Starbucks," Gansey mused as he began to walk again. Blue blinked. "What?" Over his shoulder, Gansey said, "Next to the wall plug.
Fate," Blue replied, glowering at her mother, "is a very weighty word to throw around before breakfast.
From the passenger seat, Ronan began to swear at Adam. It was a long, involved swear, using every forbidden word possible, often in compound-word form. As Adam stared at his lap, penitent, he mused that there was something musical about Ronan when he swore, a careful and loving precision to the way he fit the words together, a black-painted poetry. It was far less hateful sounding than when he didn’t swear. Ronan finished with, “For the love of … Parrish, take some care, this is not your mother’s 1971 Honda Civic.” Adam lifted his head and said, “They didn’t start making the Civic until ’73.
You missed World Hist." "Did you get notes for me?" "No. I thought you were dead in a ditch.
I guess now would be a good time to tell you," He said. "I took Chainsaw out of my dreams.
Gansey's partying with his mother," Ronan said. He smelled like beer. "And Noah's fucking dead. But Parrish is here.
How do you feel about helicopters?" There was a long pause. "How do you mean? Ethically?" "As a mode of transportation." "Faster than camels, but less sustainable.
He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people.
In his head, his mother said, 'People shout when they don’t have the vocabulary to whisper'.
Blue tried not to look at Gansey's boat shoes; she felt better about him as a person if she pretended he wasn't wearing them.
Adam had once told Gansey, "Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done.
I think they're here because I thought they ought to be here," Gansey said. Blue replied sarcastically. "Okay, God.
She recognized the strange happiness that came from loving something without knowing why you did, that strange happiness that was sometimes so big that it felt like sadness.
When she opened her eyes, she was both in her body and watching it, nowhere near the cavity of the tree. The Blue that was before her stood inches from a boy in an Aglionby sweater. There was a slight stoop to his posture, and his shoulders were spattered darkly with rain. It was his fingers that Blue felt on her face. He touched her cheek with the backs of his fingers. Tears coursed down the other Blue's face. Though some strange magic, Blue could feel them on her face as well. She could feel, too, sick, rising misery she'd felt in the churchyard, the grief that felt bigger than her. The other Blue's tears seemed endless. One drop slid after another, each following an identical path down her cheeks. The boy in the Aglionby sweater leaned his forehead against Blue's. She felt the pressure of his skin against hers, and suddenly she could smell mint. It'll be okay. Gansey told the other Blue. She could tell that he was afraid. It'll be okay. Impossibly, Blue realized that this other Blue was crying because she loved Gansey. And that the reason Gansey touched her like that, his fingers so careful with her, was because he knew that her kiss could kill him. She could feel how badly the other Blue wanted to kiss him, even as she dreaded it. Though she couldn't understand why, her real, present day memories in the tree cavity were clouded with other false memories of their lips nearly touching, a life this other Blue had already lived. Okay, I'm ready- Gansey's voice caught, just a little. Blue, kiss me.
Being Adam Parrish was a complicated thing, a wonder of muscles and organs, synapses and nerves. He was a miracle of moving parts, a study in survival. The most important thing to Adam Parrish, though, had always been free will, the ability to be his own master. This was the important thing. It had always been the important thing. This was what it was to be Adam.
Are you really going to work in that?" Maura asked. Blue looked at her clothing. It involved a few thin layering shirts, including one she had altered using a method called shredding. "What's wrong with it?" Maura shrugged. "Nothing. I always wanted an eccentric daughter. I just never realised how well my evil plans were working.
Don't panic. Are you sitting? You probably don't need to sit. Well, possibly. At least lean on something.
I found it." "People find pennies," Gansey replied. "Or car keys. Or four-leaf clovers." "And ravens," Ronan said. "You're just jealous 'cause" - at this point, he had to stop to regroup his beer-sluggish thoughts - "you didn't find one, too.
In the end, he was nobody to Adam, he was nobody to Ronan. Adam spit his words back at him and Ronan squandered however many second chances he gave him. Gansey was just a guy with a lot of stuff and a hole inside him that chewed away more of his heart every year.
Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards.
Did you know?
- It is the first book in The Raven Cycle, followed by The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and The Raven King.
- The story is set in the fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia.
- The central quest concerns Glendower, a legendary Welsh king thought to lie sleeping along a magical ley line.
- Blue Sargent is the only non-psychic in a household of clairvoyant women.
- A graphic-novel adaptation of the series began publication in 2025.
About Maggie Stiefvater
About the book
"The Raven Boys" (2012) is the first novel in Maggie Stiefvater's contemporary-fantasy series The Raven Cycle. Set in the fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia, it follows Blue Sargent, the only non-clairvoyant in a family of psychics, who has been told all her life that she will cause her true love to die if she kisses him. On St. Mark's Eve she sees the spirit of a soon-to-be-dead boy named Gansey, a wealthy student at the prestigious Aglionby Academy, and is drawn into the quest he shares with three other "Raven Boys": Adam, Ronan, and Noah.
At its heart the book is about the search for Glendower, a legendary Welsh king believed to lie sleeping along a magical ley line, and the friendships, class tensions, and secrets that bind the group together. Stiefvater braids together threads of Welsh mythology, small-town life, and the supernatural, shifting among the perspectives of Blue and the boys as an ancient prophecy and Blue's own fate loom over them.
Praised for its atmospheric prose and vivid characters, The Raven Boys launched a four-book cycle and a later sequel series, The Dreamer Trilogy, cementing Stiefvater's reputation as a leading voice in young-adult fantasy. Its themes of destiny, sacrifice, class, and loyalty have made it a lasting favorite among readers of the genre.
Key characters
- Blue SargentNon-psychic daughter of a clairvoyant family, warned she will kill her true love
- Richard Campbell Gansey IIIWealthy Aglionby student obsessed with finding the Welsh king Glendower
- Adam ParrishScholarship student from a poor family, proud and self-reliant
- Ronan LynchAngry, reckless Raven Boy with a dangerous secret
- Noah CzernyQuiet member of the group who is not what he seems
Book details
- First published
- 2012
- Length
- 409 pages
- Reading time
- 7 hours
- Author
- Maggie Stiefvater
- Genre
- Fantasy
- Goodreads rating
- 4.05 (408k ratings) →
- First line
- “It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived.”
Series & reading order
- 1 The Raven Boys
- 2 The Dream Thieves
- 3 Blue Lily, Lily Blue
- 4 The Raven King
If you liked this, read…
- 1The Scorpio RacesAlso by Maggie Stiefvater, atmospheric YA fantasy with mythic stakes
- 2Shadow and BonePopular YA fantasy with a strong heroine and immersive world
- 3Ninth HouseDark magical-realism with ley-line-like secret powers and class themes
Keep reading
Blue Lily, Lily Blue
The Raven King
The Dream Thieves
Bone Crossed
Neverseen
Silver Borne
Lover Enshrined
The Ship of the Dead
The Raven King
Awry
The Shadows
Magic Triumphs
The Piper's Son
A Gathering of Shadows
Daylighters
Valiant
A Conjuring of Light
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
The Demon's Covenant
On the Edge
Untold
Lover Unbound
Crooked Kingdom
Sea Swept
Island of Dragons
Dangerous Creatures
The Immortal Rules
Gilded Cage
Magic Bites
Everblaze
Bitterblue
Kill Me Softly
Born of Hatred
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Hunted
A Perfect Blood
Underworld
Making Promises
Iron Kissed
Lion Heart
Drop Dead Demons
The Fixer
Page
Firefight
Carpe Corpus
The Immortal Highlander
Stray
The Blood Mirror
Gathering Darkness
Ashes of Honor
Spirit
UnEnchanted
Fatal Shadows
Hunger
The Rule of Thoughts
Chimes at Midnight
Night World, No. 1
Alienated
The Exiled Queen

