17347389Title: The Dream Thieves

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: September 2013

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book Two

Synopsis can be found here.
NetGalley review.

Review:

 

Dear Maggie,

Let me start off by saying that my friends and I are fans. We have met you before at various book signings. In fact, you recognized my one friend Laura from a previous signing and commented she had “crazy eyes.” This is not untrue and she is still so thrilled that you recognized her, she speaks of the encounter to this day, a good two years later, with a dreamy look on her face and a slight mischief in her eye. (aka “the crazy”)

I’m a fan of yours, my earlier favorite being The Scorpio Races. Until I read The Raven Boys. And well, tied for first. And now…

Of course, I couldn’t believe my luck when I got my hands on a copy of The Dream Thieves. (The book reading Gawds do listen!) I am not going to lie- I tried to NOT read The Dream Thieves. I had other things to do (food shopping, chores, going to work so I can pay my bills and feed carrots to my bunnies) and other things to read (contracts for work, deadlines, bloggy stuff etc.) And so for a good, long eternity, the kind of time that stretches out before you like Camus’s Stranger in the dessert or the wait for Godot or the seasons and seasons of X-Files before Mulder and Scully realize they should be together, I resisted the urge to start reading the sequel.

I know. A full 24 hours. I almost died.

You see, I fell in love with your Raven Boys. With Gansey, a ball of emotion and drive, he can barely admit things to himself, such as how he feels about our dear Jane. Adam, this prideful and conflicted boy with his deep rooted desires to fly up and up and at the same time longs to be driven down to his unfortunate family. Ronan, equal parts destructive and nurturing, vengeful and forgiving, furious and loving. And Noah who hovers between worlds yet doesn’t belong to either. I should also mention how much I adore Blue. Sensible, young yet mature Blue. The outcast among outcasts.

Their friendships are what drives the story, making everything open and possible. It’s this rooted  love that propels the reader into this beautifully magical world. You can imagine my heartbreak then as these relationships, grow and mature and splinter and break. Each of the boys is tested and in different ways, succeed and fail. How all the friendships are only certain for this moment in time, this current moment, and may not exist afterwards. (Or does it as we’ve learned in this new world time is not linear.) Darker than the first book, I dove deeper into the strands of pride and jealousy, especially the complicated friendship between Adam and Gansey and how book two changes everything.  It is beautiful in its darkness. The Raven Boys focused on Gansey and Blue. I am pleased  Ronan and Adam had center stage for this book.

Therefore Maggie, let me express my love of The Dream Thieves along with my heartbreak. Because like Blue, somewhere along the way, I felt that they had become my Raven Boys too, a solid group of untouchable closeness, loyalty and emotion.  But you see, I can’t visit Henrietta for a while. I can’t return to them and find out what their next steps are, if they find Glendower the sleeping King. How magical Cabeswater affects Adam and the boys. What is in store for Maura and the Grey Man. And if the predictions are true- Will Blue’s first kiss be her true love who dies?

Not until you publish the next book.

Until then, I am equally satisfied and anxious with anticipation. I am searching for Glendower. I am waiting for the flickering Cabeswater.

Tell me a secret-

What happens next?

Best,

Kimberly

Rating 9 Ridiculously Awesome like Cookies and Ice Cream