Man Crush Monday: Ronan Lynch

“Man Crush Monday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Roadside Reader meant to show some loving to our favourite literary males! From obvious choices like your Jace Herondales and Mr. Darcys, to more obscure or debateable characters such as the Nicolas de Lenfents or Heathcliffs of the world, here is your chance to make your case on their behalf!”

“And you, Ronan,” Niall said. He always said Ronan differently from other words. As if he meant to say another word entirely–something like knife or poison or revenge–and then swapped it out for Ronan’s name at the last moment. “When you were born, the rivers dried up and the cattle in Rockingham County wept blood.”

It was a story he had told more than once, but Ronan’s mother, Aurora, insisted it wa a lie. She said when Ronan emerged, the trees all grew flowers and the Henrietta ravens laughed. When his parents bickered back and forth about his birth, Ronan never pointed out that both versions could be true.

I’ve got a thing for the broken ones. The dark ones that others might cross the road to avoid if they saw them coming the other way. Not that I’m naive or foolish enough not to keep my distance too. But I’m more willing to dig a little deeper and find out what makes them tick, and maybe see if there’s a little light hiding among all those shadows. In Maggie Steifvater’s The Raven Cycle series, she does just that by giving us a character that we are not meant to like. A character that is dangerous, perhaps even deadly.

And Ronan was everything that was left: molt en eyes and a smile made for war.

But even as she describes him thusly, we also meet a young man who is loyal to his friends–friends who can see beyond the molten eyes and recognize a kindred spirit for what it is and what it can be. His loyalty and undying love also extends to his family, though not necessarily to his father who has caused all the trouble in Ronan’s life, and who Ronan fears to become.

Ronan isn’t exactly a teddy bear under the razor blade persona, but his relationship with Noah is adorable, and his reverence for Gansey is one of the many elements of friendship that make me love this series. And then, of course, there’s Chainsaw, the little raven that Ronan lovingly snatched from dreams and cares for with delicate hands.