Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary (from Goodreads):

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

Review:

So, I feel like I’m the first one to say this, but I just have to: I was a little disappointed with this installment. Maybe my expectations were a little too high. There are two things that happened here that go on my red flag list for things I can’t stand in series. One is repetition. And two is filler (which I will get to later).

I didn’t hate this book. How can I possibly hate anything this fantastic writer has to say? There were still some fantastic elements to the story. The character development, of course, was at a great all time high. Reading about all these slightly darkened characters is always a good time. I need to take a moment to bask in the wonders of Mr. Gray. I love this guy to pieces. Also, added to the witty cast of intellectuals was Malory (another gem of a character).

I will forever have a place in my heart too for Noah, Ronan, Gansey, and Blue. Seriously, what unique, interesting, and heart-felt characters. You can’t help but want them to find what they are looking for.  I feel like there is still so much more to know about all of them too, and this adds to the story. They are these bottomless pits of interesting, and you never get bored with their histories.

So, as one can imagine, the characters again were top notch. It was the story/plot that took a bit of a nose-dive for me. It felt like a filler book to me. Not a lot happens. Things moved at a glacial pace, so my reading of it also moved at glacial pace. It took me over a week to read! And while I get that not all character-driven books can have a ton of plot, nor do they always need to, I just felt like this was missing too much. The first two in the series had plots that grabbed me the entire time. This just never grabbed.

In talking about it with a volunteer at my library (who also is a big Stiefvater fan), we both kind of came to the same realization at the same time: maybe this book didn’t even need to happen. I think we’d both be okay with going from Dream Thieves to book 4. It’s sort of how I felt about Insurgent. Did anything really happen that was that relevant to the story as a hole? Maybe 1 or 2 things…as far as I can tell, but couldn’t those 1 or 2 things have been added to a marvelous final installment, as compared to a lengthy book 3 where not much happens? We both just felt it was too long for what was accomplished.

Then there’s the repetition. The thing we are supposed to get from all the characters is this: they don’t all know each other as well as they thought. This is repeated several times. I feel like this is demonstrated enough without even being one sentence, let alone what felt like several sentences. I got this from books 1 and 2 without all the repetition needed. Let’s move on.

I’m also not totally sure how I feel about Adam’s character, and I’ve said this in past reviews too. He’s my least favorite. I feel bad for him because of the hot mess that is his life. But, I never really cared for him like the rest of the characters, and I’m not sure why. It is so easy to love these amazing people Stiefvater is so crafted at creating, but for some reason I just can’t come to love Adam. Sadly, a lot of this book seemed centered around him (maybe another reason why I wasn’t feeling it as much).

All in all the characters are a treat to read about. Even if the book was 10 times worse than this was, I still would have finished it because I will finish all Maggie Stiefvater books. The lady knows how to write, and definitely knows how to write characters. I just wasn’t feeling the plot, and I got annoyed with the repetition. Not a lot happens, though things are certainly setup nicely for the next installment. I give it a 7.5/10.