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Iona

Where Is Wallis?

My name is Iona English. I am currently a 20 year old Media Production student doing a degree at Brooksby Melton College, which doesn't exactly lean towards the idea of me being a massive and proud book worm, but I am. I love to read. My favourite genre's are YA Contemporary, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, with some Classics thrown in. 

 

Where to find me:
http://where-is-wallis.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/user/whereiswallis

 

 

Currently reading

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
J.K. Rowling
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
Robert Rankin
Tender Morsels
Margo Lanagan
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Catherynne M. Valente
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone
Kat Rosenfield
Blackout
Robison Wells
Burial Rites

The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys - Blue, our protagonist, is the only non-psychic in a house full of women blessed with the gift of foresight and even though she can't see the future herself she knows well enough to heed a psychics warning. So after years of being told if she ever kisses her true love he will die she pretty much swears off boys all together, and especially Raven Boys. However, on the one night a year where the spirits of those who'll die in the next 12 months show up at an abandoned church, Blue see's her first spirit. Every year she has been with her family finding out the spirits names she's never actually been the one to see or interact with the spirits until now, when the featureless spirit of a boy in a Raven Boy's uniform shows up and tells her his name "Gainsey". Blue knows there is some significance to this and find out that the only reason she is able to see his spirit is because he is either her true love, or she's going to be the one to kill him, and Blue knows in her case it's likely to be both. Blue and Gainsey's lives inevitably cross paths and although they get off to a rocky start Blue realises she might have been wrong about some of the Raven Boys, named that because of the expensive private school they attend. Because of the unusual knowledge Blue has as a result of her families occupation she starts to help Gainsey and his friends on their quest to find the resting place of a supposedly dead Welsh King. When I first heard of this book I heard it was about true love (which is usually a big eye roll subject for me) and how this girl sees the spirit of her true love, who if she kisses will result in his death. That did not sound interesting at all, but after checking out Maggie's tumblr I found out it was about awesome psychic women, magic and dead Welsh kings. Then there was a chapter sampler which was just awesome and made the book seem well written and magical, so I was then immediately on Amazon buying it. The story is written in 3rd person, with switching points of view to show how different characters are feeling and how their complicated relationships work. This style was utilized incredibly well. I feel like in YA first person is used far too often so audiences can pretend to be the female narrator however this to me often leaves supporting characters (other than the main love interest who is always descried in incredible detail) feeling a little flat and lacking personality. With the way Maggie told the story you really do understand the characters and their actions a lot better than you ever would if it was Blue narrating the story as (initially) an outsider. The book definitely didn't go in any way I might have expected, although with a story this unique and fresh I didn't really expect anything at all. There's far too many Young Adult novels that now fit into a predictable story arch but this book was so different that even if it could have fit into a story arch it probably would have rebelled against what ever one it was meant to fit into. Nothing in the book felt predictable and no characters felt like stereotypes that could have been plucked from anywhere and just sort of fit in. They all felt unique and different and so at times you felt like they were all completely in synch and other times they were completely at odds with each other and themselves due to the spanners that kept being thrown into the works. I loved this book and I can't wait for the sequel in this series. I thoroughly recommend this to people who are looking for a good paranormal filled with a magical air to it and want a storyline unlike one they've read before.