A boy who can pull objects from his dreams draws the attention of a dangerous hitman as the group's secrets deepen.
- Score
- 81.5
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- multi
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers who loved The Raven Boys almost universally praise this instalment as a worthy — often superior — continuation: Ronan's expanded focus earns him a passionate following, and Stiefvater's prose is widely described as dreamlike, poetic, and deeply immersive, with the audiobook narrated by Will Patton again cited as a highlight. The Gray Man's unexpected humanity and complexity is a standout for many readers. The most consistent criticisms are slow pacing, reduced screen time for Blue and Gansey relative to book one, and an overarching Glendower plot that barely advances — readers who want propulsive fantasy plotting find the book frustratingly elliptical. A smaller chorus criticises some of Stiefvater's metaphors as overwrought or deliberately opaque. Goodreads sits at 4.22 stars across roughly 190,000 ratings, suggesting it satisfies most existing fans while rarely converting sceptics.
Read it if
- · Readers who fell for Ronan Lynch in The Raven Boys and want his full, messy, magnificent backstory
- · Fans of literary, atmosphere-first YA fantasy where prose and character carry more weight than plot momentum
- · Anyone who loves found-family dynamics with real friction — brotherhood, rivalry, and impossible loyalty all at once
Skip it if
- · You need a clear, forward-moving plot — the Glendower quest barely advances and the narrative is deliberately dreamlike and oblique
- · You haven't read The Raven Boys — this book plunges directly into established relationships and mythology with no orientation
- · Explicit romance or spice is important to you — physical intimacy is almost entirely absent by design
If you liked this
- · For fans of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater — essential continuation of the same world and ensemble cast
- · For fans of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor — lyrical prose-first YA fantasy with a protagonist who dreams things into existence
- · For fans of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — sumptuous, atmospheric storytelling where mood and prose trump conventional plotting
- · For fans of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — morally complex ensemble cast with a volatile, deeply compelling anti-hero at the centre
In this series
Part of The Raven Cycle — read in order:
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