Title: The Dream Thieves
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: September 19th, 2013
ISBN: 0545424941
Rating: 5/5
Cover Impressions: Again, beautiful.
With an even higher average rating on Goodreads than The Raven Boys, (with a magnificent score
of 4.26 out of 5 stars) The Dream Thieves
certainly promised something extra special. Let’s get right to it:
Synopsis: 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…
Review: It’s a rare and
momentous occasion when a sequel as anticipated and sought-after as The Dream Thieves lives up to its predecessor and
surpasses expectations in every possible way. The Dream Thieves is, in all my personal definitions of
the word, a perfect book. Maggie Stiefvater said that it
had all her favourite things in it, and it quite clearly has all my favourite
things in it too. It – along with The
Raven Boys – has become one of my all-time favourite books.
In this instalment, the focus
takes a slight shift from the lure of ley lines and deadly kisses and the hunt
for the Welsh king Owen Glendower, and rests instead on Ronan Lynch’s ability
to bring dream to reality. We have magical night terrors, impossible languages,
an unpredictable Anglo-Saxon-poetry-loving hit man, and illegal street-car
races. It’s a slow-burn plot, and explosive and exciting all at once. Unlike in
the The Raven Boys, where the story line followed a mostly linear fashion, The Dream Thieves has multiple threads criss-crossing
at different stages, some given more attention than others. It’s difficult
predicting what the climax will be, or where it will be, until it actually
happens.
A lot of the time, The Dream Thieves feels quite character-driven, and as
the characters are the main reason that I’m so hopelessly in love with this
series, it could not be more fitting. The star of this show, though, is
Ronan. With his savage smiles and his uninviting remarks. With his humourless
laughs and his heartbreakingly hidden acts of compassion.
Stiefvater is the queen of
pacing and never rushes any aspect of the development here. The third person
multiple point of view is almost mind-blowingly flawless giving us the
perfect glimpses into the friendships and careful relationships from all
crucial angles.
Overall, I give The Dream Thieves five out of five stars,
it’s impossible not to.
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