Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves


Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release: September 17th 2013
Genre: Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, YA
#2 in the Raven Cycle 
Series: The Raven Boys (#1), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (#3), The Raven King (#4)

Plot:

The second installment in the all-new series from the masterful, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater!

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

Review:

Ah, I've waited so long for this, so long. And the wait was definitely worth it, because this did not disappoint.

After receiving the news that my pre-ordered hardcover copy wouldn't be delivered until next Monday — meaning, almost a week after its release, I actually went ahead and bought this on my kindle yesterday. And I read and read until I really couldn't anymore because I had to study for exams and do homework and all that. And I only did so grudgingly, tearing myself from this book. I always looked down to see which page I was on, but not in the way of "When does this finally end?", but rather more in anxiety and nervousness because I didn't want it to ever end.

Let me just quickly start with writing. I loved it so, so much, I am very much in love with Stiefvater's writing style. I could just eat her writing and I'd literally read anything written by her, be it even her grocery list. Let me quote things like, "his smile was bulletproof", which are just so nice and at the same time bizarre metaphors and they are absolutely perfect to describe what they want to describe. Her word choice is absolutely flawless. And then we have beautiful, melodic things like, quote, "the bass thundered through Blue's boots." I just.. wow. Amazing skill. I am in awe. I could sit here and gush over how much I love her writing style all day long.

Ah, and the characters. As you might remember, there was lots of build-up to them in The Raven Boys, so I guessed this would be mostly plot only. But boy, was I wrong. While there was a lot of action and so much plot, there wasn't any shortage of character development and character arcs either. And yes, while the book did mostly focus on Ronan, we also learned a lot about Adam and Noah, as well. Blue and Gansey didn't get as much attention, but I think they will get more of that in the next two books, so it doesn't really matter.
Stiefvater has built an amazing and wonderful set of characters with these series and I loved seeing them evolve in this second book. Adam exploding and redeeming himself, Noah coming to terms with and talking about himself, and Ronan was the very highlight of this book. This is what I call character development extraordinaire, I am so impressed with how much Ronan has pushed himself during the events of this book. At the end of The Dream Thieves, he is so vastly different from the Ronan we got to know in the prequel.
Also, there are some new characters that are awesome and we even get some character arcs for characters like Maura, or Persephone. I didn't expect that at all, and it was a very welcome surprise.

Plot was so artfully done. Not knowing who is the real antagonist until the last 70 pages, and always wondering what is going to happen next. I love to be kept guessing, and I held my breath the whole time. There are some questions still left unanswered and some that weren't even really touched at all during this book, but there's still two more chances coming for them to get answered, so I'm not that worried yet. Just let me say that I'm both satisfied and craving for more at the same time after having finished this.

To conclude, I can honestly say this couldn't have been more perfect. Not in any way. A very successful sequel to a breathtaking series, and I absolutely can't wait for more. The wait is going to keep me on my toes again, I'm sure. Sigh.

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