Review: The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Stephanie Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read the books years ago and, while I enjoyed it, it didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I liked the characters for the most part but the story was confusing and kinda messy.

Sadly, I felt very much the same about this graphic novel adaptation - if even more confused.

There's no time taken to build the setting or the characters, so what we get is mostly a mess of things happening. I've read the story before and I STILL found it hard to follow.

On that note, I don't know how well this will be read by those who haven't read the books. This very much strikes me as fan service; it banks on the popularity of the books rather than trying to build a story that will grab new readers.

The artwork, while cute, didn't reflect my interpretation of the characters, and some parts of the action were too muddled to follow. Some interesting techniques used but it really didn't work for me - the style strikes me as childish and more frivolous than the tone of the story calls for.

I think, sadly, the graphic novel just doesn't hold up to the novel. There's too much nuance in the book that gets missed in this format, and for grahpic novel fans that have no experience of the book, I think this one is just too 'out there'.

I wouldn't recommend it to the uninitiated, but fans of The Raven Boys should be happy just to have more, and to see characters they love brought to life.

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