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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
The concept of this book is odd. And trying to explain it to other people was difficult. I will say that like Incarceron, this book was a good weird book. The book itself we lyrical, I have always wanted to live on the strand. Love to live by the ocean and this book I feel captures the love of it.
I am afraid of horses. Don't know what it is just, kinda don't like them. So I liked that this book is about flesh eating horses, though I wish she would have called them kelpies so I didn't have to spend the entire book mispronouncing the sea horses name. I liked the kitchen witch magics that they used on the horses the color red, salt, counter clockwise, lead and the like.
I didn't like how difficult it was for me to tell the two points of view, and that it took me a while to get most of the characters placed. I'm glad I got this as a 2.99 ebook, as I feel this is a good price for this book.
Weak reasons for this girl to enter a race, pretty nice villains. The repetitious talk of riding horses and the ocean got to me after a while, however poetic they were. Nothing graphic except some minor man eating horses eating some men and sheep and dogs. Nothing farther than a kiss.
For teens looking for a slightly morose love story, set against a background of horses and the ocean. For tweens 13 and up.
I am afraid of horses. Don't know what it is just, kinda don't like them. So I liked that this book is about flesh eating horses, though I wish she would have called them kelpies so I didn't have to spend the entire book mispronouncing the sea horses name. I liked the kitchen witch magics that they used on the horses the color red, salt, counter clockwise, lead and the like.
I didn't like how difficult it was for me to tell the two points of view, and that it took me a while to get most of the characters placed. I'm glad I got this as a 2.99 ebook, as I feel this is a good price for this book.
Weak reasons for this girl to enter a race, pretty nice villains. The repetitious talk of riding horses and the ocean got to me after a while, however poetic they were. Nothing graphic except some minor man eating horses eating some men and sheep and dogs. Nothing farther than a kiss.
For teens looking for a slightly morose love story, set against a background of horses and the ocean. For tweens 13 and up.
I love this book. I've never read books about water horses and I found this to be really interesting. I love that Puck overcame so many trials. I loved how strange and other Sean Kendrick was. I loved the strange island the story is set on. A good story.
First: July 24 to July 27, 2012.
Again: October 2015. I still love it.
First: July 24 to July 27, 2012.
Again: October 2015. I still love it.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In the year of our Lord 2020, the dumpster fire era, I have read my first Maggie Stiefvater book. And in keeping with the theme of this year, I am tragic fool for not having read it sooner.
Why did no one tell me this was a horse racing book?! Albeit a fantastical water horse race, but still! Growing up I was obsessed with horses and for a while I harboured a dream of being a race jockey. Seriously. At age 11 I read the Seabiscuit autobiography twice, so this was a perfect read for me. In my limited experience, I found this to be a great representation of horse racing, especially for the time it appears to be set in.
This world was so easy to settle into. I found myself imagining Thisby as a small island off the coast of England or Ireland, set in the 1920's or so. The lore of this island was such a delight. Every October, the sea throws onto shore the fierce and feared capaill uisce, carnivorous water horses that will sooner eat you than let you touch them. But touch them the residents do, because they need to race them. Men across the island capture these horses, train them to eat butchered meat instead of fresh, and ride them every year on November 1 in the Scorpio Races.
The whole thing seemed so far-fetched and ridiculous when I first picked it up, but Stiefvater has an absolute winner here. It is captivating, dangerous, at times devastating, and not without its own sense of high-stakes whimsy. The characters are engaging and vivid, the plot strong and well-paced, the stakes real and believable, and the romance a perfectly swoony slow-burn. In fact, the book is told from the alternating POVs of those two lovebirds.
Why did no one tell me this was a horse racing book?! Albeit a fantastical water horse race, but still! Growing up I was obsessed with horses and for a while I harboured a dream of being a race jockey. Seriously. At age 11 I read the Seabiscuit autobiography twice, so this was a perfect read for me. In my limited experience, I found this to be a great representation of horse racing, especially for the time it appears to be set in.
This world was so easy to settle into. I found myself imagining Thisby as a small island off the coast of England or Ireland, set in the 1920's or so. The lore of this island was such a delight. Every October, the sea throws onto shore the fierce and feared capaill uisce, carnivorous water horses that will sooner eat you than let you touch them. But touch them the residents do, because they need to race them. Men across the island capture these horses, train them to eat butchered meat instead of fresh, and ride them every year on November 1 in the Scorpio Races.
The whole thing seemed so far-fetched and ridiculous when I first picked it up, but Stiefvater has an absolute winner here. It is captivating, dangerous, at times devastating, and not without its own sense of high-stakes whimsy. The characters are engaging and vivid, the plot strong and well-paced, the stakes real and believable, and the romance a perfectly swoony slow-burn. In fact, the book is told from the alternating POVs of those two lovebirds.
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I really wanted to read The Scorpio Races after hearing the dynamic speech Maggie gave about where the idea came from at the National Bookfest. I loved that she drew inspiration from an old Celtic legend and managed to update the lure in a modern and believable way. It's easy to not question the fact that there are killer horses that dwell in the sea or the fact that for pure sport, people from all over the world want to ride them. I guess my problem lies in the fact that, once again, what I got was far different than what I expected to get. I'm not saying the book wasn't enjoyable but it definitely took me awhile to really get into it. There were some parts that I loved and other parts that just didn't jive.
When I heard The Scorpio Races was based on legend, I expected it to be much grander and far more mythical than it actually was. I wanted to get immersed in this fantastical world and lose myself in all the action. Really, most of the good action doesn't happen until the race (at the very end of the book). And don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with little to no action, it's just that I wanted there to be more of it. In reality, The Scorpio Races is more a story about people, more specifically, it's about the lives of Puck and Sean. Told from their POV's in nearly alternating chapters, we're given a first-hand account of their inner turmoil and struggles. It's a coming of age sort of book where we watch this boy and this girl grow into these strong, central beings. They make choices that alter the course of their lives and they have to live with the price that it costs them. And while I thought the killer horses were going to be central to the story, they sort of become a rotating backstory to the people that ride on them and the island that depends on them. Again, nothing wrong with this, it's just not the story I was expecting to read. And honestly, I'm not a big horse person. Killer horses I can get down with, but regular horses, they don't really float my boat if you know what I mean. Suffice it to say, the man-eating part really does make all the difference for me.
Where Stiefvater does succeed is with her remarkable character introspectives and timeless writing style. Maggie knows her protagonists inside and out. They are real people with real lives and real problems. You learn to feel for them and bond with them and care about them which is what kept me turning the page through to the very end. And her prose is so compelling, spell-binding that you feel like you are really there on a misty morning, listening to the waves crash against the shore as you watch the craziness unfold on the beaches below. World building is definitely her strong suit. The Scorpio Races was my first experience with Stiefvater's writing and though I was somewhat disappointed, the story was still good once I accepted it for what it was. And can I just say, kudos to her for not making Sean and Puck become merciless victims of insta-love! For once, this is a YA relationship that slowly builds from mutual respect to friendship to the start of love and I, for one, loved that. Rock on, Maggie!
Rating: 3.5 Stars
I really wanted to read The Scorpio Races after hearing the dynamic speech Maggie gave about where the idea came from at the National Bookfest. I loved that she drew inspiration from an old Celtic legend and managed to update the lure in a modern and believable way. It's easy to not question the fact that there are killer horses that dwell in the sea or the fact that for pure sport, people from all over the world want to ride them. I guess my problem lies in the fact that, once again, what I got was far different than what I expected to get. I'm not saying the book wasn't enjoyable but it definitely took me awhile to really get into it. There were some parts that I loved and other parts that just didn't jive.
When I heard The Scorpio Races was based on legend, I expected it to be much grander and far more mythical than it actually was. I wanted to get immersed in this fantastical world and lose myself in all the action. Really, most of the good action doesn't happen until the race (at the very end of the book). And don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with little to no action, it's just that I wanted there to be more of it. In reality, The Scorpio Races is more a story about people, more specifically, it's about the lives of Puck and Sean. Told from their POV's in nearly alternating chapters, we're given a first-hand account of their inner turmoil and struggles. It's a coming of age sort of book where we watch this boy and this girl grow into these strong, central beings. They make choices that alter the course of their lives and they have to live with the price that it costs them. And while I thought the killer horses were going to be central to the story, they sort of become a rotating backstory to the people that ride on them and the island that depends on them. Again, nothing wrong with this, it's just not the story I was expecting to read. And honestly, I'm not a big horse person. Killer horses I can get down with, but regular horses, they don't really float my boat if you know what I mean. Suffice it to say, the man-eating part really does make all the difference for me.
Where Stiefvater does succeed is with her remarkable character introspectives and timeless writing style. Maggie knows her protagonists inside and out. They are real people with real lives and real problems. You learn to feel for them and bond with them and care about them which is what kept me turning the page through to the very end. And her prose is so compelling, spell-binding that you feel like you are really there on a misty morning, listening to the waves crash against the shore as you watch the craziness unfold on the beaches below. World building is definitely her strong suit. The Scorpio Races was my first experience with Stiefvater's writing and though I was somewhat disappointed, the story was still good once I accepted it for what it was. And can I just say, kudos to her for not making Sean and Puck become merciless victims of insta-love! For once, this is a YA relationship that slowly builds from mutual respect to friendship to the start of love and I, for one, loved that. Rock on, Maggie!
Rating: 3.5 Stars
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2025
It's a book I want to crawl inside and live in for forever. I take back what I said two years ago about the ending. And I'm not sure what I meant about details of the story, probably a greater explanation of the magic in the book, but honestly it doesn't really need it that much anyway.
I had a rough night two nights ago, and listened to a bit of the book before going to bed. I woke up the next morning thinking of Thisbey, an epilogue, and George Holly. I'm really grateful that this book, with it's kindness and gentleness in the face of a harsh and unforgiving world, exists.
2023
There's something so human about wanting to control things that would sooner kill you than see you live, and then forming deep, inseparable bonds with those things so powerful that all involved are changed for good.
This is one of those books that gets you between the ribs and sticks with you for a long time.
It's not without flaws. Some of the details of the story don't make much sense if you think about it for too long. It feels truncated at the end, not quite enough to feel completely satisfying, but not bad enough to be a cliffhanger either. I don't really buy the romance either, though it is a mercifully minor part of the story.
But it's gorgeous and lovely and full of life and love and power. And that would cover even more flaws than it actually has.
It's a book I want to crawl inside and live in for forever. I take back what I said two years ago about the ending. And I'm not sure what I meant about details of the story, probably a greater explanation of the magic in the book, but honestly it doesn't really need it that much anyway.
I had a rough night two nights ago, and listened to a bit of the book before going to bed. I woke up the next morning thinking of Thisbey, an epilogue, and George Holly. I'm really grateful that this book, with it's kindness and gentleness in the face of a harsh and unforgiving world, exists.
2023
There's something so human about wanting to control things that would sooner kill you than see you live, and then forming deep, inseparable bonds with those things so powerful that all involved are changed for good.
This is one of those books that gets you between the ribs and sticks with you for a long time.
It's not without flaws. Some of the details of the story don't make much sense if you think about it for too long. It feels truncated at the end, not quite enough to feel completely satisfying, but not bad enough to be a cliffhanger either. I don't really buy the romance either, though it is a mercifully minor part of the story.
But it's gorgeous and lovely and full of life and love and power. And that would cover even more flaws than it actually has.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated