I’m reviewing an ARC, but the book just came out this week (so go, get it!). I absolutely loved Stiefvater’s werewolf books! I know the books have gotten a lot of mixed reviews, but I just fell in love with Stiefvater’s writing style and character development. Her characters (while capable of rather remarkable things) are always just so authentic; they read like actual people you might know. And I love soaking up her words like a sponge, reading her books nice and slow and letting everything sink in.
However, the one book everyone seemed to love but me was The Scorpio Races. I just didn’t get it.
Why did everyone love this one, and not love the beautiful werewolf books?
Seriously, I am still baffled by its reception. Any way, I had no idea what to
expect with this one. Would it be more like her first series or more like the
book I don’t get? I wasn’t sure I was even going to read it because the premise
for it didn’t really grab me. It sounded so much like other things I have read,
and I wasn’t sure if I could let any other books ruin my love for this author
(who definitely knows her craft).
I am so glad that I gave this a try! I loved it! She has
wowed me with her characters (no big surprise there), she has wowed me with her
writing style again, and she’s finally wowed me with her story too! I’ve
learned that this hasn’t been a good year for publishers trying to get across
what their books are about. The description made this book sound like it would
be another Sam/Grace type romance, but the romance was not a big part of this
story at all. I mean, it was there, but it was mostly just hinted at with
visions of the future and possible what-ifs to come later in the series.
Stiefvater goes back and forth among characters again. There’s
Blue (I think I liked the name, Puck better), Gansey, Adam, and Whelk who all
get some chapters to themselves, though mostly it centers around Blue, a girl
who has grown up relatively normal amongst a family of psychics. Blue has grown
up believing in the supernatural, well, because she lives in the supernatural.
She knows her family (and the many women living in her house) can all do things
that normal people cannot explain. And she also knows that she helps them do
it. All Blue needs to do is sit in at a reading and she makes the readings go a
lot more smoothly (or as her mother calls it, “louder.”)
She has also grown up in a house of women who have routinely
told her never to fall in love. It has been predicted early on that whoever
Blue kisses (and falls in love with) will die. On St. Mark’s Eve (April 24th),
everything changes. Blue goes to the cemetery every year with her mother so her
mother can see all the people who will die this coming year. She sees the
ghosts of those who will soon pass away. And Blue helps her see them. This year
though, Blue sees one ghost too.
She speaks to him and learns that his name is Gansey. There
are only two reasons for why Blue would see this ghost (and none of the others,
who apparently all walk through her and do something to her energy, making her
go to sleep for a long time); either he is the boy she will fall in love with
or she will end up killing him. Gansey also believes in the supernatural, or at
least he really wants to believe in it.
Gansey is on this ultimate quest to look for Glendower, a medieval legend who is rumored to have never died,
but instead to have been asleep for centuries. He’s supposed to grant one favor
to the person who is able to find him. And the only reason Gansey is a Raven
boy (named for his school) is because he has tracked down everything he has
learned about Glendower to this location of the world.
Gansey has a crew of Raven boys who all
work on this quest together. And while not a lot is said about what favor each
boy wants, it’s fun guessing what it is each would ask for from the mysterious
Glendower. Stiefvater magically connects everything! She connects the boys’
quest with Blue and her ability to magnify other people’s powers. She connects
the energy of psychics to the energy of the earth. There’s family mystery,
vague predictions, and so many different stories woven together. One story
revolves around the teacher Whelk, who has his own experiences going after
Glendower that are just so creepy.
There’s human sacrifices, mysterious
fathers, and a lot of research and investigating! Believe it or not, Blue
doesn’t fall for Gansey right away (even though I did!); she falls for his best
friend: Adam, another Raven boy. She connects with him right away and he gets
her involved with the adventures. Adam and Blue live on the same side of (the
rather Foot Loose kind of divided) town. They both see money in a way that none
of the other Raven boys do. But it soon becomes clear that even though Blue and
Adam hold hands sometimes and like to work side by side while investigating
magical forests, that Blue and Gansey are meant to be.
Adam’s story is powerful too though. He
comes from an abusive family and he has such an interesting friendship with
Gansey. And while I’m not really talking about the other boys, they were
fantastic too. All of them were such interesting, unique characters. I loved
the other story from the past about the two other boys looking for Glendower. I
loved the mystery and obsession of Glendower himself. I loved the slight
supernatural moments. I loved all the stuff about energy. I loved everything
written about power and money and how everyone views it so differently. Blue’s
family was so much fun to read about too!
But the best moments, hands down, were
the ones were Blue and the boys were exploring and learning about Glendower
together. Some of the scenes were pure magic. The prophecies, the predictions,
the trees that speak Latin(!), the ghosts, the politics, and all the characters
just pushed this story along so beautifully! I was on the edge of my seat
wanting to know things the whole time. There was one big twist that I did not
guess at all! I literally went back in my reading to make sure that Maggie
wasn’t pulling my leg.
I cannot wait for the second book in
this series, though as with the Shiver
books, it’s hard not having a feeling for how it will all eventually have to go
down, and you can’t help but hope for some other outcome. This was well
written, the characters were fantastic, the story was intriguing, and there
were so many smaller elements that all wove into everything so perfectly and made
this book just stand out for me. I give it a 10/10.
gr8 revie . on my wishlist
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