THE RAVEN CYCLE

THE RAVEN CYCLE

The Raven Cycle is a book saga, written by the English author Maggie Stiefvater, that is composed of four books: The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King. A few months ago, I read the first one in English and, in this writing, I will try to explain its plot; although it is a bit complicated.

The Raven Boys tells Blue Sargent’s story. She lives in a little village, called Henrietta, where there’s two kinds of people: the ones, like her, that must have a job to bring money home, and the ones, like Richard Gansey III, that have everything done in their life and only have to worried about look pretty. Despite that, Blue’s family is a little bit different than the others. Her house is full of women, women with psychic powers. Starting by Maura (Blue’s mother), Neeve and Jimi (Blue’s aunts), Calla and Persephone (Maura’s old friends) and ending with Orla (Blue’s cousin).  The curious thing is that each one of them have wonderful psychic powers, as I said; all, but Blue. However, it’s true that she’s able to intensify the powers of the others when she is near them. Due to that, every St Mark's Eve, Blue goes with his mother to the cemetery; where they see the spirits of all people born in Henrietta who are fated to die during the next twelve months. Maura asks them their names and then she tells her daughter to write them down. Because of Blue's lack of psychic abilities, she’s usually unable to see the spirits; except one day, when she saw a teenage boy named Gansey. Blue’s whole family had told her, during all her life, that she would kill her true love with their first kiss. Something that Blue didn’t believe, until that night. What had happened had only two explanations: that boy was her true love or she was going to murder him.

Gansey Richard III was always with Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish; and the three of them were known as The Raven Boys because they studied in the Aglionby Academy, the most prestigious one in all Henrietta. They were also known by Gansey’s obsession to find the sleeping Welsh king, Glendower. As fate, Blue met them by chance and join their search. 

The question is, how Gansey will die? 

or how Blue will kill him?

To my mind, this book is quite interesting. The story is unique; I have never read anything like that before. As I see it, the author’s style is so good, because, at any time, you get tired of reading. The chapters are pretty short and they always end at the time of greater tension, that makes you hurry to turn the page.  Actually, I have already finished reading the first three books and I'm waiting for the last one to be published. It's pretty stressful because the author loves making cruel jokes on twitter that makes you think about not reading the next book.

LAURA ALONSO MOLINA

The Maze Runner: Run or Die

PLOT

  When Thomas woke up in the cold and dark lift, the only thing he could remember was his name. Every other memory about his life seemed to have dissapeared. He could remember concepts such as what a mother is, but he couldn’t remember his own.

  When he stopped feeling dizzy and looked around, Thomas realizad that he was in what seemed like a big box with  a lot of other things like supplies or weapons.

  Thomas also realised that the box was moving, upwards to be exact, but he didn’t know why was moving or where was going. Half an hour after the boy woke up, suddenly the box stopped moving. The ceiling dissapeared and the boy was blinded by the sun light when he looked up, but still could hear something, noises, some voices.

   Thomas didn’t understand them, though; they talked English, but using weird words like shank or shuck-face.

  Thomas only could see shadows at first, but they soon turned into shapes, people who bended down in the hole he was in, observing. The boy was scared, but his fear faded away when he could see their faces, they were boys - there wasn’t any girl- around his age, teenagers, they couldn’t hurt him.

  Someone threw a rope in the box and Thomas climbed it until reach the exterior. Everybody went silence and someone spoke:

“Nice to meet ya, shank,” the boy said. “Welcome to the Glade.”

This is how Thomas start his new life in the Glade, the part of the Maze where the 
The Maze is a structure made of huge wall of stone with a square shape divided into 9 equal squares; the one in the middle is the Glade and the other 8 are little mazes that connect with the others. In the Glade Thomas meet Chuck, the last boy who arrived to the Glade, and Newt, one of the first arrivers. Chuck hasn't been there for so long, but explains to him what hr knows about the Maze. Apparently, every month a boy arrive to the Glade in the same circumstances that Thomas did. The only thing that they have for sure is that to escape they have to solve a code that is hidden somewhere in the Maze. For this bussiness, a group of Gladers called Runners enter every day in the Maze and go over its corridors trying to search for any clue to solve the mistery. But the problem with the Maze  is that it closes every night and it is impossible to scape due to the huge walls. Plus, inside the Maze appear extrangers creatures half-monsters half-robots called Grievers that inject venom  to whoever that is in the Maze. This venom can be mortal, but if someone survive, that person will remember some things about  their lifes before the Maze. This is called the Changing.

One of the persons who have survived is Gally, a Glader that Thomas meet his first day in the Glade. Thomas has no memory of Gally, but Gally says that he remembered him during the Changing and distrusts Thomas for this reason.

Thomas get to pass his first day in the Glade  more or less succesfully with the help of Chuck, but the next morning something happens.

  Newt is showing Thomas around and explaining him how things work in the Glade and how is everybody organized. They are organized into sections depening of what do they do. The ''leaders'' are Newt and Alby, those who have the higher positions in their jobs and have been there the longest. They are also Keepers, the sub-leaders of each section of the Glade. The leaders and the Keepers are the ones that participate in the Gatherings, meetings where important decissions are taken.
  Suddenly, when Newt is evpaining Thomas all these things, an estrident alarm breaks the peace in the Glade and Newt starts to run in direction to the Box. Thomas follows him and ask him what's happening. That alarm is the one that sound every month, when a new boy arrives the Glade like Thomas did. It's impossible that someone arrives the day after Thomas did, but the alarm is clear. All the Gladers go to the Box and after half an hour, the Box finally opens.

   Surprisingly, a girl is inside the Box. Thomas can't see her a first due to all the people sourrounding her, but he manages to get near the girl. The girl seems dead or, at least, unconscious, but she wakes up momentarily and says the folllowing words before fainting again: ''Everything is going to change''

  Later, Alby finds a note in the fist of the girl, a message from the creators of the Maze: ''She is the last one. Ever.''

  Now, the Gladers have to find a way to get out of the Maze. Will they find it?




CHARACTERS

Thomas

  He is the main character in the book. Is around 16 years old and 1.75 meters. We don't know much about him at first -in fact, he doesn't even know much about him either-, so we can only guess how he was before he arrive to the Glade. Along the book, Thomas proves to be loyal, intelligent, brave and a great leader.





Theresa

  She is a mysterius girl that appears in the Box the day after Thomas arrives the Glade, something that never happened before. She arrives with a message saying that she and Thomas are last ones who will ever arrive to the Glade and that she has actived the Final, whatever that means. Phisically, she is descibed as a tall 16-years-old girl with long dark hair and light eyes. Along the book, we can see that she is a really intelligent and strong. Also, she has a telepathic link with Thomas, but we don’t know why or how.

Newt
  He is Alby’s second-in-command. Newt is friendly and nice, so he becomes one of the firsts friends of Thomas in the Glade. He is the same age as Thomas or a bit older. Newt is tall, strong, blond and has a slight British accent. He is a leader and can keep calm in really difficult moments. He used to be a runner, but his leg was injured so he couldn't run anymore. Also, he became the leader after Alby isn’t capable anymore due to the Changing.

Alby

 He is around 17 years old,one of the oldest in the Maze. He was one of the first ones to arrive the Glade, like Newt. Alby is black, tall and strong and used to be the leader of the Glade until Newt had to do it for him because a Griever injected venom on him and he isn’t capable to do it anymore.

Minho

 He is a Keeper and one of the best friends of  Newt and Alby. Minho is a little bit older than Thomas and doesn’t have a loT of friends because he is impulsive and sarcastic all the time. Minho is a runner so he is strong and fit, also he is asian.

Chuck:

 He was the last one in the Glade befote Thomas. Is the youngest, just 12-years-old, so nobody wants to be friends with him. When Thomas arrives, Chuck befriend him quickly and since that moment is like his little brother. Chuck is  chubby and short and may not seems special, but in the book we cann see how important he is.

Gally

 

 He distrust Thomas since the start because he saw him when he passed through the Changing. Gally is younger than Thomas, but taller and stronger. Also is a Keeper, so a lot of people believe him when he says that Thomas shouldn't been trusted.

CONTINUATION AND MOVIE

  The Maze Runner: Run or Die is just the first part of this trilogy; there are two books more; The Scorch Trials and Death Cure

  Also, there is a prequel called The Kill Order that explains what happped before Thomas arrived to the Glade.




Also, a movie is hitting theatres in September of this year starring Dylan O'Brien as Thomas and Kaya Scodelario as Theresa. Here is the trailer of the movie .

Agustina Páez Rueda