Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Dream Thieves

This is intense. Way more intense than the 1st book. This is definitely when it it stops being mostly light hearted magical mystery and starts becoming full on heavy plot. This isn't my usual genre anymore so I cant quote rate it full stats but its very attention grabbing with some very very good, sweet, adorable moments. There's also, in my opinion, quite a few creepy sinister moments to balance it out.

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parisreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense 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

3.5

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thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is a pretty solid follow up to the Raven Boys. I think it does a lot to move our characters forward on their own personal journeys, and it builds upon the established world in some very interesting ways while maintaining the atmosphere and beautiful writing that initially drew me into the first book. Where it runs into a problem is that so much of what makes these books great is in the character interactions and the various relationships (romantic, platonic, and familial), and all of the characters spend the majority of this book distanced from each other, both physically and emotionally. They grow, and that growth will help make the next books better, but it means this book is a bit unsatisfying and very much frustrating.

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keen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

THE DREAM THIEVES delves into Ronan's nightmares as the raven boys (and Blue) adjust to the changes in Cabeswater after their previous adventures. Secrets can kill. Some already have.

The characters are broken and messy, trying to help each other in their various pursuits but not always getting it right. I like the shift in focus from the first book. I especially like getting a lot more of Ronan, in a lot of important ways this is his book just like THE RAVEN BOYS was Gansey’s book.

One thing this series does very well and this book continues is portraying antagonists in a way that makes them at the very least understandable, if not outright sympathetic. I came away with a much more nuanced dislike of a particular villain, and I’m really liking a different one who thus far seems to be pulling off a heel-face turn.

The world-building is a bit lopsided, it's very focused on the characters and the way that the magic affects them but it leaves even more unexplained. It makes up for it by delving into their inner lives in a very intimate way, exploring the nuances of them as people both individually and with each other. It takes seriously the idea that people are a bit different around various combinations of other people, and uses that to heighten and dissipate tension throughout the story. The Raven Boys are the Raven Boys, Blue is Blue, while everything and everyone else matter only as much as they intersects with their lives. No more, and no less. It has a feeling of extreme focus, like nothing else in the world matters to them and their story, with all its complications and obsessions, is all there is.

This wraps up a very major thing left hanging from the first book. Its main storyline was teased earlier but a secondary plot begins here and wasn't present previously. Several major things are introduced and resolved in this book. It left some things hanging to be resolved later. There's a mix of returning and new narrators, and their voices are very distinct from each other and from different narrators in the first book. Some of the plot would make sense without having read the first book, but as a whole this definitely needs the first book and couldn't stand alone if someone read it at random.

I have a couple quibbles related to characterization, but given that the overall arc of this series is that people start out mixed up and confused and bumping against each other‘s hurt edges and then gradually try to get better, it makes it hard to know whether a couple of my sticking points are on purpose or if they are artifacts of unintentional bigotry. Something that was briefly in THE RAVEN BOYS but returns here is the idea that a particular character is beautiful... except for her large nose. Since the book does go out of its way to make a point of addressing stereotypes that lie adjacent to this one and calling them out as harmful, I don’t know what to think about this moment, but it made me uneasy.

Overall I loved this as a continuation of the series but it's definitely a middle-of-the-series book (and it shows). The plot manages to be almost self-contained in its scope but utterly reliant on the first book for its foundation and backstory to sustain its emotional core. The growth and change that happens here is so wonderful because the first book had something else, something harsher, ill-fitting, and tense running through it. The release of that tension and exploration of the characters is fantastic because of how they were before, while also being utterly consistent with them as people. It's progression rather than revision, and done wonderfully.

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gothicmoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Same writing quality and better characterisation for Ronan, Noah (in the beginning), and further explorations of Gansey, Blue, and Adam. However, between Kavinsky's constant (and purposeful) misogynistic comments and Blue's own misogynistic thoughts at Orla... it takes away from the book. Also, the plot doesn't quite hold up, either. <spoiler)I don't understand how Ronan could've been meant to dream something to solve a problem he didn't know he had? The puzzle box ends up being more of a mcguffin than anything else. Also Ronans entire problem is simply because his dad is an ass and never thought him how to dream.

Another downfall is that I simply do not enjoy Gray Man pov.

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