i love maggie stiefvater. if i could be a sixteenth as creative as her, i could die happy. she probably vomits art.

i first stumbled across the wolves of mercy falls a couple of years - at costco actually - but i didn't pick it up then because i was still trying to convince myself that i was a rock and didn't enjoy sappy love stories. jump ahead to this year and after being bombarded by pretty fan-made collages and fanfiction on tumblr, i decided to give it a go. well, technically, i really wanted to read the raven cycle, but someone told me to read twomf first so i could see how much stiefvater improved. more on that later.

i liked twomf. it was sweet. sam and grace were cute but i was much more of an isabel and cole person myself (i kept picturing cole as a taller, buffer, matty healy tbh). i'll probably read it again on a lonely day when i'm abruptly aware of my singleness. though, even then, i might just go straight to sinner to get my angsty-love fix.

reading twomf was definitely not a chore, but by the end i did feel like hurrying along just so i could hear about the raven boys that everyone was raving about. and, boy, was i not disappointed. did stiefvater improve? holy shit, yes she did. her writing is so poetic and ethereal that i can only dream of reaching it through big words and crappy alliteration like 'belligerently benevolent' or 'phantasmagoric phengite'.

and for the first time in my life, i fell in love. with five people at once but whatever. blue is everything i want to be. gansey is everything i want to have. i love adam's bravery, ronan's confidence and noah's devotion. these characters were so intricate and real that i never wanted to leave them alone.

even the whole premise of the series is so... majestic. it's set in a modern world touched with welsh kings; a quiet town with deep roots. it bleeds intrigue and mystery with dark secrets and unnamed characters. speaking of names, they all blossom gorgeously in your mind. glendower and cabeswater - they roll around in your head and settle in your thoughts.

for the most part, i forgot i was reading about teenagers. they had kind of reached an immortal level. as a teenager myself and being surrounded by teenagers on the daily, i've learnt a thing or two, and blue and the raven boys'* capacity for deep thought and constant maturity is not a behaviour that my species always demonstrates. but, in its own kind of way, the raven cycle is like an eccentric coming-of-age story. there's the whole thing about finding your friends, finding your purpose and being told that you'll kill your true love with a kiss. all common teenage dilemmas.

after seeing the legit stunning cover for the raven king and fully realising that the final book in the series will be called the raven king, i am beyond excited. it will definitely be my priority when it comes out rather than doing VCE.

*they should totally start a band

(born in 1998 and have a voice to share with the world? click here to find out how you can be heard!)