Maggie Stiefvater, anybody?

The Bluestocking

The Bluestocking

Bloody Mary in Blue
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I got curious about Maggie Stiefvater and picked up a couple of her books ("The Raven Boys" and "Lament") at the bookshop discount shelf the other day.

Read both and am still teetering on the fence about whether I like her stuff or not.

Both are definitely much better written and plotted than "Twilight" but not really up there with "The Hunger Games". I hear her "Shiver" trilogy is really good.

Anyone have any thoughts?
 
I read shiver. I like her poetic style of writing, but not much else.
 
I really liked The Raven Boys, but Shiver etc was much more paranormal-romancey and less my thing.
 
I have read the three books with the werewolves in German. Here they have titles like lines of a poem. I found them very readable, only the rules for becoming and staying a wolf seemd non-consistent to me.
Then I read this book about horse races on an island. Too many deaths for my tender taste. And I would have like a bit more of "what happened after".
Recently I read "The Raven Boys", so far I like them best.

Now I am wondering why it is always the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke if German poetry is mentioned in non-German books. They are nice enough, but there were better poets. Maybe they translate well.
 
I LOVE her and her work, especially the Raven Cycle, and her art/music is also amazing. She's one of my idols in terms of productivity/creativity. Even if you don't like her work, she has some really good writing advice on her blog, plus pictures of goats and cool cars.
 
I finally read the rest of the Raven Cycle a few months ago, and found that I liked it more and more as the series went on. I think because there was more and more depth to the characters as the series progressed, or perhaps I should say that I kept seeing new layers. Maybe it was there all along and I'd see it from the start if I reread the books.
 
After reading the above comments and on a lark I read the sample of The Raven Boys.

I have to say she does have an easy sort of prose that made it difficult at the end of the prologue; after reading about Blue's relatives all predicting she would kill her true love and her own worries that she might have a poisonous kiss; when she meets her aunt for the first time and her aunt says "this year you will fall in love." ;it's difficult to not add " this year you will become a murderer."

And then the end of chapter one when her aunt, who is either master of overstatement or understatement or both; responds to Blue's wondering, while in the church where they encounter the spirits of the soon to be dead, why Blue has for the first time seen one of these spirits, 'he's your true love--or you're going to kill him.'

It becomes equally as difficult not to add 'Or both.'

I shall have to put this Author on my to read list.
 
I couldn't get into Shiver, though it might have been because I didn't like the narrator on the audiobook. Should probably give it another try. I loved The Raven Cycle: a great story of friendships, romance, family, and magic. I love the way Maggie's sense of humor finds its way into her writing and characterizations.
 
I liked the humor, too. The understated humor in The Raven Cycle was one of the reasons I ended up enjoying the books so much. Not laugh-out-loud humor, but the kind that makes you smile with recognition when you catch someone in the act of being so thoroughly themselves.
 
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