The Raven Kings by Maggie Stiefvater
Summary: This is the fourth book of the Raven Cycle series. This review will contain spoilers for the earlier books. Here are my reviews for The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
One favor. Whoever awakens the Raven King will be granted one favor. And while saving the life of the one among them who was predicted to die sounds like the pretty obvious choice, the arrival of more sinister entities in Henrietta brings with it some complications.
Meanwhile, something is causing the trees in Cabeswater to die, and Blue, Gansey, and the rest of the boys need to figure out what to do before they run out of time completely.
Thoughts: I finished this book two weeks ago, and I STILL don't know what to say about it. I really can never do these books justice with my summaries, because honestly, these are not "plot books," in my opinion, but "character books." Yes, there is some action, and yes, there's an overarching goal or quest, but the true draw of this series for me was, again, in the richness of the characters and some of the larger issues that are addressed through them (gender, social class, sexuality, domestic violence, privilege, etc.).
As a whole, I don't think The Raven Cycle will be for everyone, but I think that people who are into it are super into it. Like, ardently into it. And I am now one of those people. I LIVE for the mythology, the extreeeeemely slowburn romance, and the extra-precocious teens. But I can see how some people might find it slow reading, or very dense, or just not their style. But I definitely recommend at least giving this series a try.
I'm looking forward to someday rereading this, because I feel like I will pick up more and more with each reread.