The Raven Cycle is a series of four contemporary fantasy novels written by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The first novel, The Raven Boys, was published by Scholastic in 2012, and the final book, The Raven King, was published on April 26, 2016.
The Dreamer Trilogy is a sequel series that followed the Lynch family along with a cast of new characters. It was released between 2019 to 2022.
Plot The Raven Boys
Blue Sargent lives at 300 Fox Way in the fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia with her mother, Maura, and an assortment of other female relatives. All of the women at Fox Way are psychics, except for Blue, who amplifies psychics' abilities. All her life, Blue's has been told if she kisses her true love, he will die, and so she has decided to never kiss anyone.
On St Mark's Eve, Blue joins her half-aunt Neeve, who has recently returned to Henrietta, in an annual psychic tradition, where the spirits of those in Henrietta who will die within the next year appear along the "Corpse Road." Blue sees a teenage boy who introduces himself only as "Gansey," and Neeve tells Blue that she, a non-psychic, could only see his spirit because he is either her true love, or she will kill him.
The next day, Richard Campbell Gansey III hears his own voice on a recording he made the previous night. He relays this to his friends, Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch. All three are "Raven Boys," so named because they attend Henrietta's prestigious private boys' school, Aglionby Academy. Ronan and Gansey live with another Raven Boy, Noah, in a former factory called Monmouth Manufacturing. Ronan moved in after his father was murdered; he and his brothers were barred from their home in their father's will, and their mother became comatose. Unlike his friends, Adam attends Aglionby on a partial scholarship. He works three part-time jobs to cover the rest of his tuition, and lives with his abusive parents in a trailer park. Gansey is concerned Adam is running himself ragged, but Adam refuses anything he perceives as charity or pity from his affluent friends.
At a diner that night, the boys meet Blue, who works as a waitress. Gansey unwittingly insults her when he attempts to ask her out on Adam's behalf, and Adam suggests a psychic could explain the recording. Later, Ronan brawls against his older brother, Declan, in the diner's parking lot. Meanwhile, the boys' Latin teacher, Whelk, reflects on his own time as an Aglionby student alongside his friend, Czerny, whom Whelk himself killed on St Mark's Eve. He is intrigued to learn Gansey is interested in the supernatural, including ley lines. Ronan finds a baby raven and names her Chainsaw.
Gansey, Adam and Ronan go to Blue's house for a psychic reading, whereupon Blue realizes Gansey is the spirit she saw. Based off his status as a Raven Boy, and their encounter at the diner, Blue vows never to fall in love with him. Nevertheless, she befriends the boys, and shows mutual romantic interest in Adam. Gansey explains they are searching for the Welsh king Owain Glendower. Seven years ago, Gansey was stung to death by hornets, but was revived by a voice that told him he would live because of Glendower. He is thought to be buried on Henrietta's Corpse Road—also called a ley line—but Gansey is certain that Glendower is merely sleeping, and will grant a favor to whoever wakes him.
In their search, the group discovers a mysterious forest on the ley line called Cabeswater, which seems to exist outside of time, and whose trees speak to them in Latin. They also begin to suspect that their search for Glendower is being watched, and Blue tells Gansey about her deadly true love's kiss.
One afternoon, out exploring on their own, Gansey and Blue discover a human skeleton with a driver's license belonging to "Noah Czerny." Back at Monmouth, Noah confirms he has been dead for seven years, killed by his former best friend to awaken the ley line. His remains are reported to the police, and Whelk, realizing he could be implicated, decides to attempt another ritual. He holds Gansey at gunpoint and steals Gansey's supernatural research journal. Blue learns that Neeve was contacted by Whelk for help, though she refused him, and that she returned to Henrietta to help search for Blue's father.
Neeve suggests Blue and the boys wake the ley line, advising that Whelk attempted this with Noah and whoever wakes the ley line will be able to control its power. Adam's father, believing Adam has not given him enough of the income from Adam's jobs, beats Adam severely and deafens Adam in one ear. Ronan intervenes and fights Adam's father, and Adam is forced to report the abuse to spare Ronan being arrested. Gansey helps Adam move his things from his parents' and Blue meets the boys at Monmouth, where she takes a call from a British ley line researcher, who tells her one of his assistants lost their skin when they stepped onto an activated ley line. Adam is unfazed, arguing Whelk will wake if the boys don't, but Gansey refuses. Back at Blue's, Adam asks if he can kiss Blue, and she gently refuses. Frustrated by feeling inferior to his richer friends, Adam goes to wake the line alone.
Under the guise of agreeing to help him after all, Neeve kidnaps Whelk, intending to kill him and obtain the line's power for herself. Whelk escapes and attacks Neeve, attempting to sacrifice her instead, but Neeve suddenly vanishes. The other teens arrive after Adam, but amidst the chaos, Adam breaks off from the group and sacrifices his free will to the line, becoming the hands and eyes of Cabeswater. A stampede of mysterious creatures then barrel through the forest, narrowly missing Blue, Ronan, and Gansey, and killing Whelk. After Noah's funeral, they dig up Noah's body to re-bury him on the awakened line, strengthening his spirit. Ronan reveals that he took Chainsaw out of his dreams.
The Dream Thieves Several weeks have passed, and it is now summer vacation. Aware that Gansey is meant to die within the year, Blue is determined to find Glendower so they can use his favor to ask for Gansey's life. Blue comes by Adam's new home above a church, but is upset when Adam attempts to kiss her, and Adam grows angry. His concerns about whether he has inherited his father's rage are interrupted when the ley line briefly vanishes. Meanwhile, a hit-man known as the Gray Man arrives in Henrietta on the orders of a man named Colin Greenmantle, searching for an artefact called the Greywaren.
Gansey's mother is running for office and Gansey invites Adam to a fundraiser in D.C., in the hopes Adam might attain an internship or some other favor from a wealthy, well-connected attendee. Adam asks Gansey if it's strange Blue doesn't want to kiss him, unaware that Gansey knows of Blue's kiss prediction, and agrees to come to the fundraiser. That night, Ronan dreams of the Orphan Girl, as he has many times before, and she asks him to take her with him. Ronan goads a fellow Aglionby student, Joseph Kavinsky, into a street race. At Fox Way, Maura and the other psychics are concerned about Adam, in the wake of his deal with Cabeswater. The teens leave for Cabeswater just as the Gray Man arrives, seeking psychic advice on the Greywaren. He candidly reveals he is a hit-man, and he and Maura flirt.
The teens find Cabeswater has vanished. That night, Ronan unwittingly pulls creatures from his nightmares. Gansey and Ronan kill one creature, but the other escapes. The next day, the boys and Blue bury the nightmare at Ronan's home. There, all the living things, including Ronan's mother, are asleep. With Calla's help, they learn this is because they were pulled from dreams by Ronan's father, and that Cabeswater was also pulled from dreams. The Gray Man breaks into Monmouth to search for the Greywaren. Gansey and Blue begin to feel drawn to one another.
At Fox Way, the Gray Man asks Maura to dinner, and she accepts. Gansey confronts Kavinsky about Monmouth being broken into. Kavinsky freely admits to having broken in, but insists he didn't destroy anything, and tells Ronan he looks forward to their next street race. Ronan later has a charged, suggestive dream about Adam, who then morphs into Kavinsky. The Gray Man's date with Maura goes well. After, with Blue's help, Maura deduces the Greywaren is Ronan, though the Gray Man doesn't know it.
Gansey and Adam go to D.C., and Malory calls, having figured the reason Cabeswater vanished is the ley line lacks energy. With Gansey gone, Ronan dreams a set of keys for Gansey's Camaro, and Noah lets Blue into Monmouth. Blue admits to herself that she has a crush on Gansey. Noah offers to kiss her, and she agrees, since he is already dead. Ronan steals the Camaro and races Kavinsky, whereupon the escaped nightmare then returns. Kavinsky shoots it dead, but not before it wrecks the Camaro. He then tells Ronan to simply dream Gansey a new car, revealing that he is a dreamer as well.
At the fundraiser, Adam feels out of place. He and Gansey argue about Adam's deal with Cabeswater, and Adam begins to hallucinate apparitions. Later, Adam vanishes from the fundraiser only to be found miles away, having seemingly blacked out. On Ronan's phone, Kavinsky texts Gansey about the wrecked Camaro, then offers to teach Ronan how to pull larger things from his dreams, and to do so deliberately. Unbeknownst to either, the Gray Man sees them, and realizes the Greywaren is a person, not an object. After a few attempts, Ronan successfully dreams a second Camaro, and Kavinsky is infuriated when Ronan leaves, choosing Gansey over him.
Once back in Henrietta, Adam demands to know why Blue won't kiss him, and Blue tells him of the prediction about her true love. They break off their not-quite-relationship and Persephone, another Fox Way psychic, helps Adam understand his hallucinations. He learns he must uphold his deal to be Cabeswater's hands and eyes. Blue, frustrated by her feelings, calls Gansey to take her for a drive. They share an intimate conversation and almost kiss, then agree to never speak of it again.
The Gray Man does not want to kidnap Ronan, so calls Greenmantle and lies that he is keeping the Greywaren for himself, which will draw attention away from Ronan. The Gray Man also reveals to Ronan he was the one who murdered Ronan's father, on Greenmantle's orders. For cheating him, Greenmantle learns the Gray Man's real identity and sets the Gray Man's psychopathic brother on his trail.
With Persephone's help, Adam fixes small interruptions on the ley line, allowing the energy to flow clearer and strengthen Cabeswater. However, it will not be enough if Kavinsky continues to pull so much from his dreams. Ronan realizes Kavinsky has kidnapped his younger brother, Matthew, as retribution. At a party, Kavinsky is excited when Ronan tells him their dreaming is destroying a world, and dreams an enormous dragon made of fire. Adam and Perspehone hurry to clear the ley line to give Ronan enough energy to dream a countermeasure. The Orphan Girl tells Ronan that there are many dream thieves, but only one Greywaren, and he dreams an enormous, white night-horror, which fights Kavinsky's dragon. Ronan rescues Matthew from the trunk of a car and Kavinsky dies by his own dragon.
The Gray Man confronts and kills his brother, then returns to Henrietta. Having figured a loophole in the wording of his father's will, Ronan dreams a new one that will allow him and his brothers to return home. The group take Ronan's mother to Cabeswater, where she wakes up, and Blue finds a note from Maura saying that she, like Glendower, is underground.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue