The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Publication Date:  September 17, 2013
Publisher:  Scholastic Press
Series:  The Raven Cycle #2
Pages:  439
Genre:  Supernatural
Synopsis:  If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take?

Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself.

One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams.

And sometimes he's not the only one who wants those things.

Ronan is one of the raven boys—a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan's secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface—changing everything in its wake.

Review:  There is only one question of this book:  why did I not read it sooner?  I read The Raven Boys nearly a year ago and have only just now read The Dream Thieves.  That is ridiculous.  But I think it is because I loved The Raven Boys so much that I didn't think I would have any love left to give for the sequel.  I was so wrong. So completely wrong.

Maggie Stiefvater's writing continues to astound me.  She has such a lyrical, ethereal quality to her words that makes you feel as if you are actually in Henrietta, searching for magic along with the Raven Boys. The book is somehow both witty and full of heart aching emotion. There are so many revelations and possibilities, grown around nightmare worlds and intricate plot.

The magic is stunning, as always.  Only, now, it has a darker perspective.  Ronan, the dream thief himself.  He steals objects from his night time world and brings them back to this mundane one.  But what happens when nightmares become reality?  And that's the thing about magic--someone else is always trying to take it away.  Maggie Stiefvater created this dream place and made it seem so real, so natural.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out these books are dreams themselves.

The characters this author paints onto this canvas of this book are stunningly realistic.  I am almost convinced that they are living, breathing humans themselves, rather than ones made of paper and ink.  

Ronan is the new perspective we gain in this book.  I admit, I was uncertain about him going into this book.  Now, I can't fathom why. Ronan is dangerous and damaged, two of my favorite qualities in a character.  Dream thief, Raven Boy, car racer.  There's so many layers to him, each one poured over the top of another.  I still feel like we haven't seen the entirety of him.  I, for one, am eagerly anticipating getting to the heart of him.  

Blue, cursed, non-physic Blue.  She is sensible and quirky and downright fantastic.  I wanted more of her than I got, but I was just being greedy.  I do want more of the story of her curse unraveled, though.  I need to know how, why, who, what, when, where?  

Gansey has always intrigued me.  I think, in an odd way, I relate to him the most.  Seeing as I am not a wealthy teenage boy attending a prestigious private school, I can't exactly fathom why.  There is something so endless about him, something forever and wondering. I don't want him to die, as we all know he must, since the first chapter of The Raven Boys.  I haven't gotten my fill of him yet, so I hope Stiefvater will hold off on throwing him to the wolves.  Just for a little while, at least.

Adam irks me.  His excessive pride, his anger, the way her never admits when he needs help.  He has so many friends who are there to love and support him, and yet he continues to insist he is alone. Nothing good can come from that.

As for the others, Mr. Gray peaks my interest the most.  His troubled past, his motivations.  He is the bad guy, but he isn't.  You could say he exists in a gray area.  I know, that was a bad pun.  But he is certainly morally ambiguous.  I like him.  Another, Kavinsky, is a nice addition to the plot.  I did not like him, nor did I relate to him, but I enjoyed his story.

The Dream Thieves is such a powerful book, making you want to start of on your own adventure to find magic that surely must exist. The web of lies and secrets and mysteries is astounding.  I am almost afraid to read Blue Lily, Lily Blue, for who knows what kind of predicament I'll be thrown helplessly into next?   

4.5 Keys