Welcome to Day 3 of The Raven Cycle Week! Today's subject is one that is incredibly dear to my heart: the epic friendship between Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah.
I love, love, LOVE the evolution of their relationship. It ranks up there with some of my all-time favorite literary friendships: Harry/Ron/Hermione, Will/Jem, Chaol/Dorian. That's some mighty fine company to be among, and Blue and the Raven Boys undoubtedly belong there.
While Blue initially harbored a deep dislike for all Aglionby students, and I totally understood her mindset, the more time she spent with Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah, the less she saw them as the usual snobby Aglionby types with gargantuan senses of entitlement. Being the new addition to a firmly established group of friends isn't easy, and I loved watching the quartet gradually expand to a quintet, as though the boys had been waiting for Blue to join them all along because she fits in with them so naturally.
My attempts to describe what exists between Blue and the Raven Boys will always be inadequate compared to Maggie Stiefvater's own exquisite words. This quote from Blue Lily, Lily Blue is one of my absolute favorite quotes from the series, and it perfectly captures the friendship:
"Orla wasn't wrong, of course. But what she didn't realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn't all-encompassing, that wasn't blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she'd had this kind, she didn't want the other."
And I also just about burst out sobbing when my eyes encountered this quote, also from Blue Lily, Lily Blue, for the first time:
"Now he could see that it wasn't charity Gansey was offering. It was just truth.
And something else: friendship of the unshakable kind. Friendship you could swear on. That could be busted nearly to breaking and come back stronger than before.
Adam held out his right hand, and Gansey clasped it in a handshake, like they were men, because they were men."
These quotes leave no question that there isn't a single thing one individual in the group wouldn't do for the other, or two or three or four others. Yes, they tease each other and even occasionally argue with one another (Ronan is particularly gifted at this), but that's a grain of sand in comparison to the magnitude of their bond. If they find Glendower, I have no difficulty imagining everyone being selfless and asking him to help someone else in the group because that's just how Blue and her Raven Boys are. Theirs is the kind of friendship that endures anything, and even long after I've read the last word of The Raven King, I won't forget Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah. (And Chainsaw!)
Do you love The Raven Cycle, too? Feel free to post this week on any Raven Cycle-related topic and add your link to the linky below! :)
"...as though the boys had been waiting for Blue to join them all along." YES! A million times YES. I adored seeing how they all eventually allowed her in and she became a member of their group ♥ That first quote you shared is one of my favorites too - it always hits me right in the feels! Truly, the Raven Boys + Blue are one of my favorite literary friendships! Another fantastic post here :)
ReplyDeleteI am so, so happy that you fell in love with this series, too. ♥ That quote gets me so emotional, too! I love that Blue and the boys all have such unique personalities, but at the same time, it's like they were fated to meet and be together.
DeleteI haven't actually read this series (I only got as far as a few pages into the first book before thinking it wasn't really for me), but all the passion and thoughts from fellow readers and friends is making me wonder about whether I need to try again. This was such a gorgeous post, Lee, and the friendship sounds really powerful and strong and full of things that should be in friendships, and the quotes were just lovely. They made me really happy, reading, because what a way to write. What a way to put words together and what a friendship to have on a page. *sighs* It's really lovely sounding.
ReplyDeleteYou should definitely give The Raven Boys another try, Romi! :) I was skeptical of it at first because I couldn't get into the previous Maggie Stiefvater book I'd read, but I absolutely fell in love with The Raven Boys. The whole series is so beautifully written, and the friendship is phenomenal. Ah, I could go on for forever about these books, lol.
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