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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
This book was hard to get through, and then the easiest thing - it took me 11 days to read the first 150 pages and 3 hours to get through the rest. It starts slow, then builds up until you can’t put it down, but man is the start slow.
However, the characters were good, and the concept was great. The world building was fantastic - you could feel Thisby, the island they live in, taking shape around you. And I mean physically feel it, which is the only reason I didn’t ditch this book. I’ve mentioned my problems with the plot and how slow it was at the beginning (or, at the very least, not fast enough to hook me.) The romance in this is slow, and inevitable, and not the main source of drama so much as two characters being drawn to each other and understanding each other. I personally loved this -I’m here for carnivorous water horses, not boy-and-girl fall in love.
Favourite characters;
-Puck/Kate, our hero, this sensible girl who doesn’t want anything to do with the races mentioned in the title, but who actually stays sensible instead of losing her head when a boy pays attention to her. She only loves her horse and her brothers, and spends most of the time annoyed at the latter. She’s tough and stubborn as hell. I love her.
- I have a soft spot for Finn, one of the aforementioned brothers, an all-around dork who only loves his siblings and his car and his cat. He’s just a good kiddo.
Favourite relationships;
- Puck, Finn, and Gabe (the last brother) for sure. These siblings who love each other but don’t at all understand each other, dealing with their own crap and how it inevitably affects each other. Gabe, leaving a place he hates, and his little siblings desperate to make him stay while dealing with the problems that life throws at three teenagers living alone. Puck and Finn bantering and being dorks.
SPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILE
Favourite scene:
- Puck riding Corr near the end, because damn, that writing was beautiful.
However, the characters were good, and the concept was great. The world building was fantastic - you could feel Thisby, the island they live in, taking shape around you. And I mean physically feel it, which is the only reason I didn’t ditch this book. I’ve mentioned my problems with the plot and how slow it was at the beginning (or, at the very least, not fast enough to hook me.) The romance in this is slow, and inevitable, and not the main source of drama so much as two characters being drawn to each other and understanding each other. I personally loved this -I’m here for carnivorous water horses, not boy-and-girl fall in love.
Favourite characters;
-Puck/Kate, our hero, this sensible girl who doesn’t want anything to do with the races mentioned in the title, but who actually stays sensible instead of losing her head when a boy pays attention to her. She only loves her horse and her brothers, and spends most of the time annoyed at the latter. She’s tough and stubborn as hell. I love her.
- I have a soft spot for Finn, one of the aforementioned brothers, an all-around dork who only loves his siblings and his car and his cat. He’s just a good kiddo.
Favourite relationships;
- Puck, Finn, and Gabe (the last brother) for sure. These siblings who love each other but don’t at all understand each other, dealing with their own crap and how it inevitably affects each other. Gabe, leaving a place he hates, and his little siblings desperate to make him stay while dealing with the problems that life throws at three teenagers living alone. Puck and Finn bantering and being dorks.
SPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILERCORNERSPOILE
Favourite scene:
- Puck riding Corr near the end, because damn, that writing was beautiful.
Wavered between 3 and 4 stars. Enjoyed this book though it was very different than I expected. No dystopia per se - just a remote Irish island whose shores are inhabited by vicious, predatory water horses who can only be controlled by special, quasi-magical rituals (drawing a circle in the sand around them, tracing their veins with iron...). Every year they are raced on the beach in a deadly contest. The writing developed good dramatic tension but veered into excessive angst at times (though there were some great moments of dry humor in the dialogue). The romance was predictable (and, like another reviewer, I found that the two "voices" were not clearly distinguishable) but it worked ok in the context of the book.
Good God, I already stopped reading after 3 pages. "I lick my teeth - they taste like salt". What the hell is this? Some beginners fan fiction? Also, in those 3 pages things are already repeated a few times which makes me think that the rest of the book will be the same: repeated, long and exhausting. No thanks. By the way, this books has been on my wishlist for 7 years ... only to be given away after 5 minutes. Wow.
I DID NOT EXPECT THAT ENDING TO MAKE ME CRY WTF
I was fully ready to give this a confident 4 stars bUT I WANT TO GIVE IT 5 BECAUSE MY INNER HORSE KID IS IN TEARS
I was fully ready to give this a confident 4 stars bUT I WANT TO GIVE IT 5 BECAUSE MY INNER HORSE KID IS IN TEARS
I had forgotten what a fantastic book this is. It's literal magic. Also somehow its a book that while so clearly is fantasy because it has monster horses from the sea, I often forget because the characters feel so incredibly real.
Also highly recommend the Owl Crate playlist on Spotify "The Sea Sings to us Both" to listen while reading it, very much sets the mood.
Also highly recommend the Owl Crate playlist on Spotify "The Sea Sings to us Both" to listen while reading it, very much sets the mood.
So I obviously loved this, hence the rating but and this is a freaking big BUT; what was that for an ending I mean it was kind of beautiful but I am sad like really saddddd. I had a couple more pages to go and didn’t even thought about the upcoming author’s note or the acknowledgements. I flipped the page and there it was; The end
I wish we would have gotten a little glimpse in the future. A short epilogue maybe...😥
Looking back maybe there are little hints what may happen in the coming years and I guess i have to be contend with what we got ☺️
I wish we would have gotten a little glimpse in the future. A short epilogue maybe...😥
Looking back maybe there are little hints what may happen in the coming years and I guess i have to be contend with what we got ☺️
The Scorpio Races is a great book! From the moment I started it I was sucked into the world of Thisby. I was intrigued by the complexity of the characters and the relationships within the story. Maggie Stiefvater is an amazing author and really knows how to create an imaginary world that seems so real. I was sad to see the story end.
What if you lived on an island where every year carnivorous water horses came from the ocean and were raced for a prize? That’s the life lead by Puck and Sean. We are introduced to Puck, whose parents were both killed by the water horses. She lives with her two brothers and her older brother has decided he can’t handle living on their island anymore and decides to move away, leaving Puck and her other brother alone. She decides to enter the races to keep her brother there for at least a couple more weeks. We then meet Sean; he’s a multiple time winner of the races and has a special connection with not only the ocean but the water horses as well. Throughout this book we are taken on a journey of the races.
Maggie has stolen my heart. I love her books. This is the second book of hers I have read and it just cemented my love for her! I connected with the characters and the story line is fantastic. I will recommend this book to anyone and I have already recommended this book to several people. No content warnings.
Maggie has stolen my heart. I love her books. This is the second book of hers I have read and it just cemented my love for her! I connected with the characters and the story line is fantastic. I will recommend this book to anyone and I have already recommended this book to several people. No content warnings.