Saturday 21 September 2013

Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Published by: Scholastic Press
Release date: 17th Sept 2013
Series: Raven Cycle #2
I got it from: Amazon

Quote: 
Quote: "His eyes were frighteningly alive, the curve of his mouth savage and pleased. It suddenly didn't seem at all surprising that he should be able to pull things from his dreams.
In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys."

Goodreads summary:
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...

My review:
I haven't been this excited about the prospect of a book for a long time. Ever since I read The Raven Boys I've been waiting, with baited breath, for The Dream Thieves to come into being. As the publication date got nearer, I became more impatient and any book that wasn't The Dream Thieves couldn't satisfy me.

I managed to time re-reading The Raven Boys perfectly, so that I finished it on the day The Dream Thieves arrived. I didn't start it until the following day though - I needed that small amount of time to soak up all of The Raven Boys and prepare myself. Because I knew it was going to be big. I was not wrong.

Stiefvater's writing has reached a new level with this series. Every single sentence has the feeling that it has been very carefully considered, while still somehow managing to flow naturally and with an energy that will bite you if you're not careful. It's like reading a ley line. Here is a book that you cannot read when you're tired. There is so much going on, and all of it, every single word, demands your complete attention. If you miss something, you will be sorry. I suspect that when I read it again (which I suspect will happen quite soon), I will find even more magic, fall even deeper in love.

I refuse absolutely to give away anything when it comes to this book. The summary, as you can see above, is short and intriguing. It's a very hard book to write about without revealing something essential. There are things which are set up in the Raven Boys which you can't possibly see how they might pan out, and when events conspire to make these things happen it is somehow both surprising and obvious. Stiefvater must surely have access to some place like Cabeswater herself, as I really can't see how all this could have happened inside one brain, in order.

Th Dream Thieves is many, many things. It is, at turns, loud, subtle, gentle, dangerous, perplexing, serious, amusing, warm and awesome. It is, at all times, beautiful, riveting and wonderful. There is just so much of it. It contains magic, and it is magic. When I saw it on NetGalley, I requested it with some trepidation, and I was actually happy when my request was declined. Because this is the type of book that needs to be made of paper. It needs to be bound, or it might fly away. If you've read The Raven Boys, you know what you want, and you can rest assured that it will not disappoint. If you haven't read The Raven Boys, do so immediately.

Thank you Mrs Stiefvater. I had unreasonably high expectations, and you have exceeded them beautifully.

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