Review | The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

2013-09-30 · by ·
The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)The ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, and as a result, strange things are happening in Henrietta. Adam, having made a personal sacrifice to wake the lines, seems to be withdrawing more and more from his friends. Ronan, rough as ever, is falling into deeper and deeper dreams, and the consequences of his dreams are becoming more real and terrifying by the day. Gansey and Blue… well, there are some truths that person tries to ignore, but it’s becoming increasing more difficult for these two to ignore what is becoming ever more obvious to them.

Henrietta’s energy surges are attracting a slew of visitors. Most of them dangerous, all of them mysterious. And what is with fellow Aglionby student Joseph Kavinsky? All of Stiefvater’s characters in the Raven Cycle series are converging in the small town of Henrietta and there just may not be enough room to hold them all there, especially when the search for Glendower is added to the equation.

After I finished reading The Dream Thieves, it took me a day or two to process everything that happened and I’m still really wanting to talk to someone else who has read the book to get their take on things. The more I think about the book, the more the word ‘trippy’ comes to mind.

The Dream Thieves leads reader down a darker road than The Raven Boys did, but Stiefvater’s characters are so complex and intriguing that it’s not a darkness that weighs the storyline down. It’s more of a mysterious and alluring darkness.

I think Maggie Stiefvater is a fantastic writer. Her stories seem so fresh, creative, and innovative. Her characters are complex and have a good mix of black, white, and gray to them. The overarching story of the Raven Cycle series is a complex one and Stiefvater holds her cards fairly close to her. Sometimes while reading this series I feel a little frustrated because I want to know more about the storyline than Stiefvater gives readers at certain points. I don’t necessarily feel that this is a fault of the series, but I am hoping it is a very carefully constructed plan to lead readers along without revealing too much too soon.

Overall Rating:   3 of 5 stars false/4 of 5 stars false I really can’t decide if this is a 3 or 4 star book for me. I want to know so much more about Glendower and the fate of all the characters that I feel like I need more information before making a concrete verdict.

Parent’s guide:

  • Sex: some kissing with a boy and girl, implied homosexual feelings of one of the characters
  • Language: a handful of swear words including a few f-words
  • Violence: quite a bit – fight scenes, some men are killed, an evil and dangerous creature, explosions, guns
  • Drug Use: multiple references and descriptions of teens using various substances, alcohol drinking

Does The Dream Thieves, or another book we’ve mentioned on Attack of the Books! sound interesting? Do authors a favor and pick up a copy of one of their books from Amazon. It puts bread on their table and helps them keep writing good fiction.

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Filed Under: Fantasy - YA, Science Fiction -YA, Young Adult Fiction · Tagged: , , , ,
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