Ok what did I just read? One of the most underrated YA Fantasy novels with beautiful worldbuilding, storytelling, and equally understandable and loveable characters? Yes, yes, a hundred times yes. To be honest, when I first began this book 4 days ago, I thought the writing style was a bit difficult to digest, but got intrigued by the story anyway. Then sooner, the writing grew on me, and so did the plot and the characters. What amazed me about this book is that — wait there's a lot of things, but first things first — seemingly unimportant characters had their own roles too. For example, at first I didn't think much of Whelk and just deemed his presence insignificant, just like Ronan did. But then when he got a chapter for himself, I realised, well maybe, he ain't that unimportant after all. And that's exactly how it turned out. And I LOVED the twists. As someone once said, the best twists aren't the ones you can't see coming, but the ones which make you go, "Why didn't I see that coming?", and that's EXACTLY the twists of this magnificent piece of fiction. At first, when I read that Gansey died, but was brought to life, for someone who didn't deserve to die lost his life, I thought, "Oh, Czerny maybe." But then when I heard it was Noah it made even more sense 'cuz of course he just turned out to be disturbingly honest and not sarcastic, when he said "I have been dead for 7 years". And that was such a beautiful twist. And the even better twist was when I found out that Noah is Czerny, who was murdered by his so-called best friend WHELK. Wow. Just wow. And the characters, oh lord, how can one write them so beautifully such that every single one of them got their own, unique characteristics, but can still be understood and loved deeply — except Whelk, Adam's parents, and Declan; Well can Declan be spared? I'm not sure, I'll let you know later. Gansey — the boy who is both aged and ageless in a single glance, or like from Adam's eyes, "Adam was struck, as he occasionally was, by Gansey’s agelessness: an old man in a young body, or a young man in an old man’s life.". The Gansey who loved all his friends more dearly than he did himself; the Gansey who accidentally threw fancy words in between seemingly mundane conversations, not to sound fancy, but because that's how he grew; the Gansey who always tried to be the reasonable one and put on a smile on his face even when he wasn't alright. And Adam. Such a realistically complex character, is he. Adam who'd rather die a proud man than ever chose to bow his head; Adam who believed so much in his principles and loathed pity; Adam who KNEW he was being abused, but still felt a strange love towards his abusers — his parents — and was aware of his Stockholm Syndrome. And what about Ronan? He's yet again such a beautifully written complex character whose actions betray his cold exterior. Ronan, who witnessed something no child should and was forever undone by the sight and put on a cold armour to protect himself from vulnerability; Ronan who always pretended he didn't care about anything, but his actions betrayed his exterior; Ronan who cares about his friends more than he'd ever like to admit to the world; Ronan who adopted a little crow and named her Chainsaw; Ronan who didn't think twice before beating Adam's dad. Now Noah is undoubtedly the one who deserves the least hate, for he's such a sweet soul — the sweetest soul, is he. Noah who was such a good friend to Whelk despite the latter being difficult to love and undeserving of it; Noah who, even after 7 years of his death, found it difficult to digest his best friend's betrayal; Noah who had never lied; Noah who never snitched, despite probably knowing everyone's deepest and possibly darkest secrets; Noah who was undoubtedly such a sweet friend to the 3 younger Raven Boys even as a ghost; Noah who immediately liked Blue and felt more human with her. And finally, our main protagonist, Blue. Blue who loved being helpful, but often wished helpful was less of a synonym of useful; Blue who swore she wouldn't cross paths with the Raven Boys, yet did; Blue who has high self respect and didn't take too long to be offended by what she thought Gansey offered in their first official meet; Blue who came to understand Gansey and Ronan despite her negative first impressions; Blue who immediately felt like home to Noah, and was immediately loved by Adam; Blue who had such a beautiful relationship with her family. There are even more reasons why these characters stole my heart, but these would suffice for now. Overall, on reading this book, I felt I was a part of this universe and the whole ley line adventure along with the Raven Boys and Blue. The writing style, which I came to adore, also offers vivid imagination capabilities to its readers. In a nutshell, I'm obsessed with this book, and am quite disappointed that I didn't read it sooner. But it's as they say, better late than never. So yes. 5/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐