Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Acquired: Won
Age Group: Young Adult
Grade: 80% or B-
Buy It: Amazon
Some race to win. Others race to survive.My Thoughts::
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Some riders live. Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
It happened to me once again guys. I had the wrong idea of what this book was about. For some reason I had it in my head as a dystopian read. Corrupt government, forcing people to race in these deadly races and there was no choice about it. The summary just sounded like this. I couldn't understand until I read the book why people would choose to be in the races year after year. Since I love dystopian and that was what I was hoping for, I was a little let down. But not for long.
Once I got used to what the book was ACTUALLY about, I started to enjoy it. Learning about the island culture was really cool and I was able to see why people would choose to be a part of the races even thought they were so dangerous. Though I couldn't help but be mad when people didn't want to include Puck. Tradition is important, but I didn't see a reason for them to not what women to be involved. This added to the conflict in the story and made it more interesting. Even though we do get a little bit of history, I wish we were told more about the water horses and what the world is like.
Puck and Sean were both really great characters. It's easy for me to read about characters and make connections to their likeliness of characters in other books. But it was harder this time. The dynamic of their lives were more old fashioned along with their interests. Plus I've never read a book like this before. Puck's younger brother was so adorable and I loved whenever he was there. I also enjoyed the American horse buyer from Sean's chapters. It's rare to find side characters that you can connect with and get to know along with the main characters.
Overall I think that the plot was new, the love felt real, and the characters were genuine. Though a bit boring at times, I liked this book.
1 comment:
Looks like we both had wrong ideas-I thought they rode through the water to another island, which sounds even more dangerous. It took me almost half the book to figure it out.
I also love the American horse buyer-one of my fave characters in the book!
Post a Comment