The Raven Cycle

The Raven Cycle is a series of Young Adult urban fantasy novels written by Maggie Stiefvater. The series is composed of four novels:
* The Raven Boys, published 2012
* The Dream Thieves, published 2013
* Blue Lily, Lily Blue, published 2014
* The Raven King, published in 2016
The series is available in audiobook form and has usually been well-received critically, winning a number of awards and accolades. The author commented that while not being the one to sell the most among her series, it is the one with the most active fandom presence.
On April 10, 2017, Tor.com published an article stating a TV adaptation was in the making.
==Overview==
===Synopsis===
The series focuses on the meeting and adventures of Blue Sargent with the four "Raven Boys" Richard Gansey III, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Noah Czerny, so nicknamed because they wear the uniform of the nearby all-boys private school Aglionby Academy. 
The series follows Blue and the boys as they are pulled deeper and deeper into Gansey's quest for the mythical Raven King along the ley lines of the world. It deals with fantastic and magical themes, tropes of forbidden love and star-crossed romance, but also more prosaic concerns such as figuring out one's sexuality, looking for one's family, poverty and privilege, drug abuse, physical abuse, death, grief, mental illness etc. 
===Characters===
* Blue Sargent is the main female character in the series. She is the only non-psychic member in a working-class household composed of many, many psychic women. It has been prophesized that if she kisses her one true love, he will die, which obviously puts a bit of a damper on her love life. 
* Richard Gansey III is the natural leader of the Raven Boys whose obsession with the Raven King is the catalyst for the series' events. With his Old Virginia moneyed background, he embodies privilege in every sense of the word. 
* Adam Parrish is the brilliant local boy on a scholarship with a troubled family life. 
* Ronan Lynch is the series' lovable asshole.
* Noah Czerny is the boys' somewhat mysterious roommate. 
The books also feature a cast of secondary characters including the psychic women who make up Blue's biological and chosen family, the boys' families and some of the staff and students of the Aglionby Academy. 
==Fandom==
The fandom is most active on Tumblr, where fanfic, fanart, headcanons, edits and meta are regularly posted. TRC is popular among the "aesthetic side" of tumblr, a good chunk of fanworks consists of minimalist edits, gifsets, and photosets, and some consider it Dark Academia. Meta discussion and theorizing is also very common, given the "mature" themes present in the books, as well as the numerous subplots and Maggie Stiefvater's passion for unexpected twists and foreshadowing. Meta about the former tends to have a high chance of generating wank. As with most tumblr-based fandoms, shorter works and askfics get posted on tumblr, while longer fic is posted on ao3 and then shared on the author's tumblr.
As of March 14, 2022, there were 8710 works tagged Raven Cycle posted on AO3. 
===Ships===
The most commonly written pairings are:
* Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, or Pynch: the juggernaut pairing, makes up more than half of the Raven Cycle fics.AO3 Ronan/Adam tag
* Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargeant, or Bluesey: second most tagged pairing on ao3. However, some fans argue this doesn't reflect the actual amount of content present for the ship, given that there is no way to know how many of those stories only include it as a side or minor pairing (a common issue on the archive). AO3 Gansey/Blue tag
* Joseph Kavinski/Ronan Lynch, or Rovinsky: third most tagged pairing and a controversial ship in fandom (expand). Has somewhat declined in popularity after the wank and Pynch becoming canon.AO3 Kavinsky/Ronan tag
A variety of other intra-Raven Boys ships exist, but they mostly show up in headcanon sets and visual fanworks on tumblr (more "casual" fandom activities). Poly ships are more common than in other fandoms, due to the book showcasing a variety of very intense friendships between the main group, who are also shipped in OT5 form. Another example is the Blue/Gansey/Henry OT3, which replaced Bluesey for some fans after TRK.
===Tropes===
Popular general tropes in fic include friends to lovers dynamics, hurt/comfort and mundane AUs. A lot of stories play up the fairytale and magical realism elements of the books, or focus on the chosen family aspect. After the series ended, there was a wave of fluff-y curtainfic about the main five's lives after TRK, compared to more plot-heavy works from before. 
*Gansey Is Glendower
*Road Trip
*Time is a circle
*Alive!Noah
*Kidfic
*Genderbending and racebending
==Example Fanworks==
===Fic===
* Compass by missdeviant, Gansey/Blue, Adam/Ronan, Gansey/Blue/Adam/Ronan, rated Mature. It was one thing to see the women of 300 Fox Way bare-breasted in a pagan rite. It was something else entirely to do the same with boys. (First story posted on AO3.)
* Drive It Like You Stole It by geedygeek, Ronan/Adam, rated Mature. “He wants you,” Gansey said bluntly. Adam sucked in a breath, feeling the words in his whole body. “I’m not saying Cabeswater can do anything about that. But I think it’s important to wonder if it might.”
* Close Your Eyes and Shut Your Mouth by ecaitlin, Ronan/Adam, rated Teen: Five times Ronan slept at Adam's, and the one time Adam asked him to.
* Roses on Parade by Jamesina, Ronan/Adam, rated Explicit: Adam accidentally ends up in Ronan's dream and Ronan is very Ronan about it and Adam is very Adam about it. Gansey is also briefly very Gansey about things. Alternate summary: Adam has feelings and hyperventilates about it for 9,000 words. (That fic that's on everybody's rec list.)
* King by the Roadside by nimmieamee, Adam/Blue/Gansey/Noah/Ronan (& intra-ot5 ships), rated Explicit: Richard Campbell Gansey III has never had any run-ins with bees. He's never stepped on a hive. He's never suffered any stings. He knows nothing about ley lines or Welsh kings. Then he loses everything, and has to learn. (Longest fic in the tag, notable for the fork in the road setting and the OT5)
* you're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece by Klavier, Ronan/Adam, Blue/Gansey, OT5, rated Mature: It wasn't that Adam listened to the comments from other Aglionby boys about "the brain and the brawn" or took any of their gold-plated opinions into account. It was the fearless, almost insubordinate, nature of Ronan's rolled up sleeves. Two handprints encircled his wrists, a deep violet, darker than any mark Adam had ever seen. Gansey sported a matching color on both palms, as if he'd dipped them completely in paint. (Notable for being a Soulmate AU in which all the gangsey members are soulmates with each other)
* keep those eyes wide by Fahye, (2015), podfic by Rhea314, podfic by RevolutionaryJo.
===Podfic===
*Like Young Volcanoes by shoemaster (podfic) by Rhea314 (Kavinsky/Ronan, 2015)
*(Podfic) too much to believe (too much to deny) by Hananobira (Gansey/Blue, 2016)
*somewhere in the between by Kess (OT5, 2016)
*Adam Parrish and the Scientific Method by poorchoices [podfic ] by Rhea314 (Adam/Ronan, 2017)
*Here by impersonal_villain and sallysparrow017 (Gansey/Blue, 2020): a radio play-style work created for pod_together
===Art===
* blue + her raven boys. by theopteryx, digital portrays, posted to Tumblr April 14, 2015.
* Ronan Lynch (of The Dream Thieves written by maggie-stiefvater) by Cassandra Jean, posted to Tumblr Jan 24, 2015. 
* The Raven Cycle + instagram digital manips set by quiclsilver, posted to Tumblr June 2015.
* happy place nsfw Adam/Ronan/Gansey fanart by w0lftails, posted to AO3 December 2021.
* Talking about dead Welsh Kings by LineCrosser, posted to AO3 December 2021 as part of the TRC Winter Exchange 2021.
===Vids===
*The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater Dream Cast by Selah0412, added to YouTube Dec 28, 2012. 
*The Raven Boys Trailer (FANMADE) by Jenni Bontekoe, added to YouTube March 5, 2014.
*Promotional trailer for The Raven Cycle as a Netflix Original Series by kavinskyjoseph
*he was a king by sexybritishllama
*her raven boys by loseyourmindnb
*the raven boys│opening credits by WimzeeVids
===Zines===
*The Raven Arcana, a tarot-themed Raven Cycle fanart zine project.
*Under All This, a Bluesey fanbook containing art and writing.
*It Should Be So
*TRC Lookbook
*Under All This
===Meta===
*know how i kept saying i was going to write an essay about adam parrish and cabeswater by bisexualhenrycheng, dealing with Adam Parrish and dissociation
*Adam & Opal by irrelephant, about Adam/Opal similiraties and how their interactions in TRK give closure to Adam's arc
*Gansey clearly has PTSD by czarrish
==Meta Issues==
The author is active in social media and has commented about some of the meta issues raised by the book's fans. For example: Tumblr post about racebending Ronan and the book's failings regarding ethnic diversity, posted to her Tumblr in June 2015. 
She has also written about her own peculiar position as a sometimes unwilling participant in her own fandom, and the challenges that this poses: 
==Resources==
*AO3 fandom tag
*The Raven Cycle Tumblr tag
*contents of maggie stiefvater's brain, the author's Tumblr
*The Raven Boys - Animated Book Trailer by Maggie Stiefvater, by Maggie Stiefvater, posted to YouTube June 4, 2012.
*The Raven Cycle Edit References, a tumblr database of images to be used in edits
*Raven Cycle Fanartist Net, a tumblr focused on sharing/promoting TRC art
*Pynch Week, a challenge providing a set of Adam/Ronan prompts across seven days. Last updated in 2018.
*The Raven Cycle Big Bang, you know how this works
*Raven Cycle Rares, one-stop tumblr for everything rarepair in The Raven Cycle and The Dreamer Trilogy. They also maintain an active AO3 collection
==References==
Category:The Raven Cycle