Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Published: October 18th 2011 by Scholastic Inc.
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads summary:
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 chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
Emma's thoughts:
Oh. My. God. Reading this, I am once again reminded of why I love Maggie Stiefvater's writing so much. Simply magical, really. The way she phrases her words, the detailed description of the settings, the characters. It makes me feel as if her stories come truly alive.
On the small island of Thisby, we meet Sean Kendrick and Puck Connolly. We're also introduced to these mythical creatures, capaill uisce. Water horses. Dangerous, predators, and beautiful. In my mind, I see an image something like that ------------------------------------>Not quite so skeletal, but big, daunting and dark.
The entire concept of these water horses utterly fascinates me. They're creatures from the ocean, but on the land, they become these ferocious monsters that eat flesh, and yet, are an attraction. No matter how many people they have eaten or killed, people still want them, people still dare to sit on their backs and race with them.
Puck Connolly is the first female to ever enter the competition. She's barely an adult and doesn't even dare to ride a capaill uisce. No, she races on her land mare that everyone mistakes for a pony.
I love love love Puck. She's so strong and brave and confident in ways I could never be. Fierce and a quite stubborn, she really creates quite a stir in Thisby. Orphaned and living with two brothers, she's grown up to be pretty much independent. Well until her older brother decides to leave. SOMEHOW, I don't think entering a race where people actually die, is a great way to convince him to stay, even for a while longer. Not the way I'd go about it, but anyways.. it showed me just how much a jerk her brother is! Right, just leave your siblings because you can't pay for the freaking house...
So Puck enters this race, and she's mocked and treated a joke. It's a man's race. I love the fact that Puck doesn't really care about that. She's doing what she has to do, because she needs to win. I admire that she knows that people are going to think what they're going think and she doesn't need their blessing to prove to the men that a girl can win the Scorpio race.
And Sean Sean Sean! He's got the 'dark, mysterious, and brooding' appeal down pat. 'The dead speak more than he does.' He's focused, determined, the four-time winner of the races and quite the horse whisperer. For someone who speaks the bare minimum, he's got so much to say. At the age of nineteen, he's probably maturer than the majority of the island.
It's great that we get both perspectives of Puck and Sean. They're both such interesting and unique characters, it's hard not to feel a connection. By the end of the book, I couldn't help but to feel nostalgic. I've decided this is why I like series. I get to be excited and anticipate the next book. Puck and Sean's story is over, but it's one that will stay with me for a long while.
Overall rating: 5 stars~ Another heart-stopping and breath-taking story by Maggie Stiefvater!
First:
People say my brothers would be lost without me, but really, I'd be lost without them.
Favourite:
“I say, 'I will not be your weakness, Sean Kendrick.'
Now he looks at me. He says, very softly, 'It's late for that, Puck.”
Teaser:
They haven't discovered yet that it's not the fastest who make it to race day.
You only have to be the fastest of those who are left.
No comments:
Post a Comment