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The Raven King is the fourth and final book in The Raven Cycle by author Maggie Stiefvater.

The Raven King
The Raven King Cover Official
Attribution
Author/s

Maggie Stiefvater

Cover artist

Adam Doyle

Narrator

Will Patton

Publication Information
Publisher

Scholastic Press

Release Date

April 26, 2016

Pages

439

Chronology
Preceded by
Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Followed by
Opal: A Raven Cycle Story

Synopsis[]

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who takes things from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey…and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.

Plot[]

In the prologue, Gansey admits to himself that the events of St. Mark’s Eve revealed he will die within the year.

At 300 Fox Way, Maura, Calla, Jimi, Orla, Gwenllian, and Artemus gather to assess Gansey’s doom and their future. After laying out five full tarot decks they come to several conclusions which are not clearly explained to the reader.

At Aglionby Academy, Gansey’s mother calls asking him to help arrange a congressional fundraiser there the following weekend. Adam senses the ley line greatly weaken, and realizes Ronan has dreamt something big.

Meanwhile at the Barns, Ronan is attempting to dream an armour to protect Gansey from bee stings. He is almost successful but a strange darkness is destroying Cabeswater and he wakes, unintentionally bringing his dream guide, Orphan Girl, with him. She appears as a waifish young girl whose legs end in hooves.

Blue has been suspended from school for a day and returns to Fox Way. Noah manifests vividly, but becomes upset when Gwenllian points out he is only able to do so because of her and Blue’s mirror powers. He shows Blue his true form, revealing that his soul is significantly decayed. Blue asks if he wants to leave the world of the living, but he says “not yet”.

Gansey, Ronan, and Adam pickup Blue in the Camaro. They are intercepted by Henry Cheng who is shocked to see Orphan Girl through the Camaro’s open tailgate. They take Orphan Girl to Cabeswater to live with Aurora Lynch, who shows them a tree that is oozing darkness. Three women with red hands and Blue’s face appear and walk towards the group, Cabeswater does not take them away until Gansey commands it.

Blue returns home and tells the psychics she wants to warn Gansey of his fate, unexpectedly they agree she can. They then tell Blue they foresee her traveling and changing the world, and encourage her not to feel bound by Fox Way.

In an old ferry five hundred miles away, the nearly identical Laumonier triplets, who are often referred to as one person, are discussing Henrietta and whether they should take action now that their rival, Colin Greenmantle, has left the town. One of the triplets begins buzzing and speaks in Piper Greenmantle’s voice. She addresses Laumonier as “Dad”, and requests they spread word that she plans to auction a very powerful magic item in Henrietta.

At his job in a warehouse, one of Adam’s hands moves of its own accord and he remembers his promise to be Cabeswater’s hands and eyes. Ronan has a nightmare that the people he loves are being “unmade” and calls his brother Matthew to confirm he is okay.

The next morning, Adam and Gansey are working as ushers at “Raven Day” an annual celebration of Aglionby school pride. For the tenth anniversary of the event, Adele Czerny gives a speech revealing that Noah, her older brother, came up with the idea for students to make and fly ravens before his death. Gansey thinks that the Noah they know is far less than when he was alive. For the first time in years, Gansey starts to “hear” hornets and reenact his death, until Henry Cheng brings him a glass of water. Henry invites Gansey and his friends to a toga party that evening. Adam feels something in his eye and goes into a bathroom, where he sees that his left eye has started moving independently. Black spills out of one of the stalls, at the last second Cabeswater comes to his aid. He floods the bathroom and the water washes the black down the drain. Adam realizes something was attacking both he and Cabeswater.

Adam visits Blue at Nino’s; after hearing she is going to the toga party with Gansey he confronts her about their relationship and accuses them of lying by omission.

Maura recounts first meeting Calla then Persephone twenty years earlier while hitchhiking in West Virginia. She and Mr. Gray are driving around Henrietta, following a bad feeling she has. Her feeling leads them to the vacation property where the Greenmantles had stayed and they find Noah writhing on the bathroom floor. They bring him back to Fox Way and the psychics agree to let him stay as long as he likes.

Gansey and Blue arrive at the toga party at Litchfield House where Henry Cheng and his friends live. Blue quickly warms to the group and they enjoy themselves.. They leave after no one at Fox Way answers Blue’s calls.

Ronan agrees to anchor Adam while he scrys to get in contact with Cabeswater. They decide to try to drive towards the source of the black. Adam realizes the source is inside Cabeswater, but has accidentally directed Ronan to the trailer park where his parents live. After seeing Robert Parrish, they leave to get Orphan Girl. In Cabeswater the black has spread, and Ronan reveals the black is both there and in his dreams because he dreamed Cabeswater into being, although it already existed in some form. They find Orphan Girl and leave.

Gansey drives Blue home, and upon arriving she is filled with dread. Inside, a corrupted Noah appears and claws Blue’s eye. He stops when Gansey commands him to “be Noah”.

Piper Greenmantle arrives at Colin's Boston home with a swarm of wasps. At her command, they cover him and sting him to death. Neeve Mullen tries to warn Piper not to ally herself with the demon.

Ronan and Adam arrive at the hospital, where Blue is being treated for her injuries, she has stitches but will keep her eye. Gansey tells them that he and Blue are together.

Declan Lynch gets a call from a contact in the magical artifacts trade named Seondeok. She tells him there are rumors of a big sale coming up in Henrietta.

Henry takes Gansey into a small, dark, dirt basement at Aglionby. He tells Gansey he was kidnapped at ten years old and held captive in a similar basement for five days while his mother bartered with his captors. He then puts a buzzing insect into Gansey’s hand. When he turns on the light, it is a magical robotic bee he calls RoboBee which he can direct with his thoughts. He reveals it came from his mother, Seondeok.

Declan picks Ronan up from school and warns him about the dangers of being a dreamer. He also tells him of the upcoming sale in Henrietta, and that he has taken over their father’s magical artifact trade. Declan plans to take Matthew to D.C. to keep him safe, but Ronan decides to stay and defend Henrietta.

First Henry, then Gansey and Adam come to pick Blue up from school. Ronan called Gansey, Adam, and Fox Way to meet him at the Barns. There he is throwing a going away party for Matthew’s benefit, but it is really a “war council”. Adam and Ronan kiss.

Piper tells Neeve she plans to sell the demon. Neeve tries to escape to warn Fox Way, but Piper catches and kills her.

Blue, Gansey, Ronan and Adam discuss the events of the last few days. Adam asks Gansey if he knows about Blue’s cure, and tells him about the kiss with Ronan. They decide it is time to find Glendower.

Henry Cheng is kidnapped by Mr. Gray outside Lichfield house. He takes Henry to a grocery store where Blue and Gansey are waiting to talk about the auction. Two Laumoniers arrive and confront Mr. Gray, but Blue quickly pretends to be an employee and asks them to move their cars, allowing the teens to escape.

At the Barns, Adam kisses Ronan, confirming his feelings.

Gwenllian attempts to get answers about the demon from Artemus, but he runs and disappears into the beech tree in the backyard. Noah and Blue see this and are shocked.

The next morning, Adam wakes in Declan’s room at the Barns. He and Ronan decide to dream. Cabeswater is now full of the black. Adam finds Ronan in the dream, and Orphan Girl shows them Aurora has been killed by the black.

Blue, Gansey, and Henry are eating with the Gansey family. Helen questions Gansey privately, and he admits he has made an agreement with Headmaster Child to give Monmouth Manufacturing to Aglionby in exchange for Ronan’s diploma.

Maura and Mr. Gray arrive at the Barns and wake Adam and Ronan. The third Laumonier appears with a gun, and Mr. Gray kills him.

The group convenes at Fox Way. Ronan stays in his BMW, stricken with grief. Blue uses the language puzzle box to communicate with Artemus in the dream language. Artemus comes out of the tree and tells her he is a tir e’lintes, a humanoid race which can live inside large trees along ley lines. They are mirrors like Blue and Gwenllian. He tells her Maura found him in a tree years before, and that he accompanied Glendower when they fled Wales. He also reveals that the demon can be killed if someone dies willingly on the ley line. The group spends the night at Fox Way.

Gansey wakes up in the night and follows Noah to the attic, where Gwenllian is waiting. She encourages him to take action, and he commands the darkness outside to show him to Glendower. A flock of ravens appear and Gansey follows them in the Camaro.

Ronan, Blue, and Adam realize Gansey has gone and begin dreaming and scrying to create a device to follow him.

The Camaro breaks down, but Henry has used RoboBee to track Gansey, and they continue to follow the ravens in Henry’s Fisker. The ravens lead them to the place where Gansey died. Gansey goes into a cave opening beneath the house, after walking for a while he is surrounded by buzzing insects, but just in time Henry, Blue, Adam, and Ronan arrive and will the hornets out of existence. They find Glendower’s tomb, but he is only a skeleton.

They emerge to find they lost an entire day in the cave and Gansey has missed his mother’s fundraiser. They stop at a rest stop on the way back to Henrietta; Adam is possessed by the demon and attacks Ronan. They bind and blind fold Adam.

Seondeok, Laumonier and Mr. Gray are at the auction when Piper arrives with the demon. The potential buyers are horrified, and Laumonier kills his daughter to stop her quest for power.

The teens stop, finding the road flooded with blood. Adam scrys and Persephone tells him the demon has no right to his hands and eyes, he wakes back in control and sees the demon unmaking Ronan. Gansey decides to be the sacrifice and stop the demon, he kisses Blue and dies.

Noah experiences time in a circle, and reveals he is the one who told Gansey he was saved by Glendower the first time Gansey died. He then slips from time.

After Gansey’s death, the demon has disappeared. The remaining teens decide to ask Cabeswater to sacrifice itself to resurrect Gansey. It agrees, and uses bits of the group’s humanity to build a new life for Gansey.

In the epilogue, Adam confronts his parents one last time, and asks to attempt a normal relationship. His mother says she wants to hear what he does in the future, but they make no other effort to reconnect with him. Meanwhile, Henry, Gansey, and Blue are at Kavinsky’s Mitsubishi lot on directions from Ronan to find Blue’s graduation gift. They have decided to take a gap year and travel together. They find Ronan has sent them to his first copy of the Camaro, the one with no engine, to be their transport for the trip. At the Barns, Ronan has named Orphan Girl Opal and is attempting to dream a new Cabeswater.

Trivia[]

  • The Raven King contains at least eighteen different points of view.

Gallery[]

Covers[]

Videos[]

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