There's a lot riding on the second book in a series-- especially when the first book was nothing less than magnificent. It can either makes the series even better, or completely ruin it. The Dream Thieves is the former of the two options.
The Dream Thieves delves even further into the world of the Raven Boys, and opening the reader's eyes to even more of the well thought out world, and to see even deeper into the already loved characters from the previous novel.
If you have yet to read the Raven Boys, I have a review for it that I posted rather recently. I highly recommend that you read it (the book) as it is a truly different and unique reading experience. However, if you have yet to read book one, you should probably not read further-- there won't be spoilers for The Dream Thieves, but there will be some for The Raven Boys.
"A secret is a strange thing. There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know. The second is a harder kind of secret: one you keep from yourself. Every day, thousands of concessions are kept from their would-be confessors, none of these people knowing their never-admitted secrets all boil down to the same three words: I am afraid. And then there is the third kind of secret, the most hidden kind. A secret no one knows about. Perhaps it was known ones, but was taken to the grave. Or maybe it is a useless mystery, arcane and lonely, unfound because no one ever looked for it."
As expected, The Dream Thieves is a lot about Ronan Lynch, a character who I already fell in love with in the duration of the first book. Ronan is an aggravating character-- that's how he was written to be. The reason he's so aggravating is because you can't help but like him, but sometimes he just makes bad and annoying choices that leaves one wondering what in the world was that boy thinking? The answer is that he wasn't. While I found myself getting a little irritated at Ronan during this book, I still couldn't help but love him even more than I already had. Why? Because in this book, we get to see into Ronan's mind and Ronan's backstory. My definite favorite thing about Ronan is how he doesn't show his emotions outwardly, which makes when he does those little things that shows he cares seem even greater (and even more cute.) An example of this from the first book is when Ronan angrily kills that wasp/hornet in Gansey's room. It shows his underlying love for his best friend/ brother, and the action, though small, is very endearing. While reading this book, I couldn't stay too annoyed at Ronan for too long, because whenever I started to feel annoyed, he did something endearing. It's the small things that count.
"All of us have secrets in out lives. We're keepers or kept-from, players or played. Secrets and cockroaches-- that's what will be left at the end of it all."
As I expected, the plot of this book was just as intriguing, unique and riveting as the first. I suspect the next book will be the same. Even though it seems with these books the plot is a little all over the place, by the end of the book everything ties together in a perfect little knot, leaving the reader wondering how they didn't connect the dots beforehand. I love trying to unravel mysteries in my mind before they are unraveled completely in the book, which is partially why I love these books so much. Since they are so different, half the time I don't know what to expect. It's fantastic.
"A tiny part of Gansey's brain said: You have been staring for too long.
The larger part of his brain said: ORANGE."
Gansey, as usual, is lovely and always endearing. He doesn't need little actions to make him endearing, he just is. I love his character, how he cares immensely for his friends and how dedicated he is. He's just-- ugh. I cannot put my feelings about him into words. Let's just say they're positive and I love him.
Adam, Adam I was feeling a little less go Adam in this book than I had in the last one. He has a lot of pent up anger, which is probably why I wasn't quite as sympathetic towards him at times. I still have a sneaking suspicion he may do something in an effort to climb to the top. Like I said in my last review-- Adam has a lot of darkness in him, and in this book you get to see it more clearly. Don't get me wrong, I still like Adam very much, but I'm just saying that he has a dark side, and I'm not totally sure what to expect from that.
Then there's Noah, sweet Noah. During most of the first book I was unsure how I felt about Noah-- we didn't see a lot of him for the first half. Then he and Blue became friends and I saw how sweet and adorable his character is. I've loved him ever since. Noah struggles with his own mysterious problems in this book. They mostly stemmed from his being dead, but were interesting none the less.
"They were a good pair. Both incapable of opening up without cutting someone."
Blue is as strongly opinionated and passionate in this book as she is in the first. It's great to see how her relationship with all four of the Raven Boys has developed. I'd like to see her relationship with Ronan develop further sometime, but you can see in this book that they definitely like and trust each other more than they did in the last, so I guess I'll have to settle for that. For now. I especially loved seeing Blue and Gansey's friendship develop further.
One of the things that I love about this series that might surprise you is that the romance takes a back seat. Like a way back seat. It's there, but it's hardly important. As some of you may know, I am a great lover of romance, being a hopeless romantic myself, but making a gigantic romance would unsettle the perfect balance of everything that this book has to offer. I actually have been enjoying the slow building romance between the characters.
"Ronan ran a hand over his shaved head. "I didn't want to mess up my hair.'"
New characters are introduced in this story-- the most prominent one being The Gray Man. Who shows up in the very beginning to beat up a certain character that some people may dislike, but I can't help but like. Apparently I have an affinity for liking characters that others don't. The Gray Man, like the rest of the characters in this story, has an intriguing personality and past. He's definitely not a flat character-- nor it seems, are any other characters in this series.
Anyway, here's the 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.
Of The Raven Boys, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Maggie Stiefvater's can't-put-it-down paranormal adventure will leave you clamoring for book two." Now the second book is here, with the same wild imagination, dark romance, and heart-stopping twists that only Maggie Stiefvater can conjure.
SPOILERS BELOW
If I could dream something and take it, I'd probably take a pet tiger. Who needs Ravens when there are tigers?
My first reaction to Declan getting beaten up was that I didn't want him to die!! Why is that? Because I like his character-- he has a lot of pressure on him, taking care of his two younger brothers. Also, he was the only child who neither of his parents favorited, that must've been rough. I just can't help but like Declan, and not just because I pity him, but because I suspect that there's so much more of his character that we have yet to see. I also really want to see Ronan and Declan make up again. I want to see them be able to understand each other and be brothers again. Sure, Ronan has his surrogate brothers, but sometime I hope him and Declan can work through their issues-- it's evident that they care at least a little bit for each other. I wish I could've seen more of their interacting in this book, especially because it seemed to be mostly centered around Ronan. I wouldn't put it past Declan to die for his brothers later in the series.
I found it seriously cute and emotional that Declan called his brothers first before calling 911.
Ronan was just great in this story-- I thought that it was adorable that he paid for Adam, and hilarious that he threw Noah out the window. It was also funny and slightly cute that Ronan felt warmed that his friends were burying a body for him. I loved seeing deeper into Ronan and Gansey's relationship-- especially from Ronan's point of view. He saw it kind of as the Ronan-and-Gansey show, and I found that rather endearing as well as the fact that Ronan was upset that Gansey was going to DC without him/ not upset, just didn't want him to leave. Then there's that interesting very obvious hinting at the idea that Ronan is gay. Well. Dang. Guess he can't be added to my (very long) book boyfriend list. He can go to the list of I-wish book boyfriends along with Alec Lightwood.
Shall we quickly talk about Kavinsky? I don't like him. I didn't like him, and the more I got to know him, I disliked him more. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it was written to be, anyway. But still, I was not expecting him to die that way. It was all very quick and strange. Then again, this whole series is a little strange. I never would've guessed that Kavinsky was like Ronan, not until he actually told him. Maybe I was a little behind on that one, though, it wasn't really as gasp reveal for me. More of an, oh, I should've caught that. It was sad that Kavinsky felt so alone that he felt the need to make himself a friend as well as force Ronan into hanging out with him (by kidnapping Matthew.) Though, the second part might've been because Kavinsky liked Ronan a lot.
Alright. Blue and Gansey. Since the first book, even though there was no romantic connection between the two, I SHIPPED THEM SO HARD. This book just made me ship them even more, their relationship was adorable and had me squealing (I can never think of Jane the same way again. It has completely removed my distaste of the name after reading Jane Eyre (Sorry Jane Eyre Lovers, it just wasn't for me.)) THE KISS? Hit me hard, right in the feels. Gansey is a good guy, though, and loyal to his friends. Which is why he won't really do anything with Blue. That makes me like him even more, because of how loyal and caring he is. It was also adorable when Gansey was watching Orla, but found Blue even more appealing. Haha the calves and 100% thing just had me squealing excitedly. (yeah, if you haven't guessed, it's weird being around in the house when I get excited or any kind of emotions while reading. My family has just learned to accept the weirdness.)
They mentioned a Blue lily in this book
Just briefly I want to talk about Maura and the Gray Man. I liked their relationship and enjoyed the teasing, cute nature of it. though, I thought they thought they were in love with each other a little quick. It was hilarious that the Gray Man was thinking of Maura while he was killing. Not like in a I-will-kill-you way, but thinking about their date and what not.
Last time I can't remember if I mentioned how messed up I thought the dad's will was. Now I see why-- because everything was asleep and not working at home. I guessed that his dad had dreamed up his mom (his being Ronan), and I was very proud when I was right.
For the last thing of this post before I get back to Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Noah. How creepy was it how he reenacted his death and then didn't even remember it? He's having some probably appearing and disappearing in this book, but that's not that big of an issue. I really hope he's able to stick around after the last book and stay with his friends-- he's really sweet and like basically everyone else, I LOVE HIM. I especially loved Noah and Blue's "girl's day" when Gansey and Adam were out at DC and Ronan was out. And then they kissed and I just couldn't help but laugh because it was so awkward. Though, it was rather poignant when Noah said he'd ask Blue out if he was alive, and she said she'd say okay.
Just some quick mentions now-- Adam and Blue's breakup made me sad, even though I want GanseyxBlue, I care about the relationships in this book, and it just hurt me when they broke up. I hope their relationship is okay after that-- it wasn't really covered later, not that there was enough time to really cover it, anyway. Now I'm also just going to say if Persephone x Adam becomes a thing, I might have to throw something. No. Just No.
Thanks for reading,
Anj
The Dream Thieves delves even further into the world of the Raven Boys, and opening the reader's eyes to even more of the well thought out world, and to see even deeper into the already loved characters from the previous novel.
If you have yet to read the Raven Boys, I have a review for it that I posted rather recently. I highly recommend that you read it (the book) as it is a truly different and unique reading experience. However, if you have yet to read book one, you should probably not read further-- there won't be spoilers for The Dream Thieves, but there will be some for The Raven Boys.
"A secret is a strange thing. There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know. The second is a harder kind of secret: one you keep from yourself. Every day, thousands of concessions are kept from their would-be confessors, none of these people knowing their never-admitted secrets all boil down to the same three words: I am afraid. And then there is the third kind of secret, the most hidden kind. A secret no one knows about. Perhaps it was known ones, but was taken to the grave. Or maybe it is a useless mystery, arcane and lonely, unfound because no one ever looked for it."
As expected, The Dream Thieves is a lot about Ronan Lynch, a character who I already fell in love with in the duration of the first book. Ronan is an aggravating character-- that's how he was written to be. The reason he's so aggravating is because you can't help but like him, but sometimes he just makes bad and annoying choices that leaves one wondering what in the world was that boy thinking? The answer is that he wasn't. While I found myself getting a little irritated at Ronan during this book, I still couldn't help but love him even more than I already had. Why? Because in this book, we get to see into Ronan's mind and Ronan's backstory. My definite favorite thing about Ronan is how he doesn't show his emotions outwardly, which makes when he does those little things that shows he cares seem even greater (and even more cute.) An example of this from the first book is when Ronan angrily kills that wasp/hornet in Gansey's room. It shows his underlying love for his best friend/ brother, and the action, though small, is very endearing. While reading this book, I couldn't stay too annoyed at Ronan for too long, because whenever I started to feel annoyed, he did something endearing. It's the small things that count.
"All of us have secrets in out lives. We're keepers or kept-from, players or played. Secrets and cockroaches-- that's what will be left at the end of it all."
As I expected, the plot of this book was just as intriguing, unique and riveting as the first. I suspect the next book will be the same. Even though it seems with these books the plot is a little all over the place, by the end of the book everything ties together in a perfect little knot, leaving the reader wondering how they didn't connect the dots beforehand. I love trying to unravel mysteries in my mind before they are unraveled completely in the book, which is partially why I love these books so much. Since they are so different, half the time I don't know what to expect. It's fantastic.
"A tiny part of Gansey's brain said: You have been staring for too long.
The larger part of his brain said: ORANGE."
Gansey, as usual, is lovely and always endearing. He doesn't need little actions to make him endearing, he just is. I love his character, how he cares immensely for his friends and how dedicated he is. He's just-- ugh. I cannot put my feelings about him into words. Let's just say they're positive and I love him.
Adam, Adam I was feeling a little less go Adam in this book than I had in the last one. He has a lot of pent up anger, which is probably why I wasn't quite as sympathetic towards him at times. I still have a sneaking suspicion he may do something in an effort to climb to the top. Like I said in my last review-- Adam has a lot of darkness in him, and in this book you get to see it more clearly. Don't get me wrong, I still like Adam very much, but I'm just saying that he has a dark side, and I'm not totally sure what to expect from that.
Then there's Noah, sweet Noah. During most of the first book I was unsure how I felt about Noah-- we didn't see a lot of him for the first half. Then he and Blue became friends and I saw how sweet and adorable his character is. I've loved him ever since. Noah struggles with his own mysterious problems in this book. They mostly stemmed from his being dead, but were interesting none the less.
"They were a good pair. Both incapable of opening up without cutting someone."
Blue is as strongly opinionated and passionate in this book as she is in the first. It's great to see how her relationship with all four of the Raven Boys has developed. I'd like to see her relationship with Ronan develop further sometime, but you can see in this book that they definitely like and trust each other more than they did in the last, so I guess I'll have to settle for that. For now. I especially loved seeing Blue and Gansey's friendship develop further.
One of the things that I love about this series that might surprise you is that the romance takes a back seat. Like a way back seat. It's there, but it's hardly important. As some of you may know, I am a great lover of romance, being a hopeless romantic myself, but making a gigantic romance would unsettle the perfect balance of everything that this book has to offer. I actually have been enjoying the slow building romance between the characters.
"Ronan ran a hand over his shaved head. "I didn't want to mess up my hair.'"
New characters are introduced in this story-- the most prominent one being The Gray Man. Who shows up in the very beginning to beat up a certain character that some people may dislike, but I can't help but like. Apparently I have an affinity for liking characters that others don't. The Gray Man, like the rest of the characters in this story, has an intriguing personality and past. He's definitely not a flat character-- nor it seems, are any other characters in this series.
Anyway, here's the 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.
Of The Raven Boys, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Maggie Stiefvater's can't-put-it-down paranormal adventure will leave you clamoring for book two." Now the second book is here, with the same wild imagination, dark romance, and heart-stopping twists that only Maggie Stiefvater can conjure.
SPOILERS BELOW
If I could dream something and take it, I'd probably take a pet tiger. Who needs Ravens when there are tigers?
My first reaction to Declan getting beaten up was that I didn't want him to die!! Why is that? Because I like his character-- he has a lot of pressure on him, taking care of his two younger brothers. Also, he was the only child who neither of his parents favorited, that must've been rough. I just can't help but like Declan, and not just because I pity him, but because I suspect that there's so much more of his character that we have yet to see. I also really want to see Ronan and Declan make up again. I want to see them be able to understand each other and be brothers again. Sure, Ronan has his surrogate brothers, but sometime I hope him and Declan can work through their issues-- it's evident that they care at least a little bit for each other. I wish I could've seen more of their interacting in this book, especially because it seemed to be mostly centered around Ronan. I wouldn't put it past Declan to die for his brothers later in the series.
I found it seriously cute and emotional that Declan called his brothers first before calling 911.
Ronan was just great in this story-- I thought that it was adorable that he paid for Adam, and hilarious that he threw Noah out the window. It was also funny and slightly cute that Ronan felt warmed that his friends were burying a body for him. I loved seeing deeper into Ronan and Gansey's relationship-- especially from Ronan's point of view. He saw it kind of as the Ronan-and-Gansey show, and I found that rather endearing as well as the fact that Ronan was upset that Gansey was going to DC without him/ not upset, just didn't want him to leave. Then there's that interesting very obvious hinting at the idea that Ronan is gay. Well. Dang. Guess he can't be added to my (very long) book boyfriend list. He can go to the list of I-wish book boyfriends along with Alec Lightwood.
Shall we quickly talk about Kavinsky? I don't like him. I didn't like him, and the more I got to know him, I disliked him more. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it was written to be, anyway. But still, I was not expecting him to die that way. It was all very quick and strange. Then again, this whole series is a little strange. I never would've guessed that Kavinsky was like Ronan, not until he actually told him. Maybe I was a little behind on that one, though, it wasn't really as gasp reveal for me. More of an, oh, I should've caught that. It was sad that Kavinsky felt so alone that he felt the need to make himself a friend as well as force Ronan into hanging out with him (by kidnapping Matthew.) Though, the second part might've been because Kavinsky liked Ronan a lot.
Alright. Blue and Gansey. Since the first book, even though there was no romantic connection between the two, I SHIPPED THEM SO HARD. This book just made me ship them even more, their relationship was adorable and had me squealing (I can never think of Jane the same way again. It has completely removed my distaste of the name after reading Jane Eyre (Sorry Jane Eyre Lovers, it just wasn't for me.)) THE KISS? Hit me hard, right in the feels. Gansey is a good guy, though, and loyal to his friends. Which is why he won't really do anything with Blue. That makes me like him even more, because of how loyal and caring he is. It was also adorable when Gansey was watching Orla, but found Blue even more appealing. Haha the calves and 100% thing just had me squealing excitedly. (yeah, if you haven't guessed, it's weird being around in the house when I get excited or any kind of emotions while reading. My family has just learned to accept the weirdness.)
They mentioned a Blue lily in this book
Just briefly I want to talk about Maura and the Gray Man. I liked their relationship and enjoyed the teasing, cute nature of it. though, I thought they thought they were in love with each other a little quick. It was hilarious that the Gray Man was thinking of Maura while he was killing. Not like in a I-will-kill-you way, but thinking about their date and what not.
Last time I can't remember if I mentioned how messed up I thought the dad's will was. Now I see why-- because everything was asleep and not working at home. I guessed that his dad had dreamed up his mom (his being Ronan), and I was very proud when I was right.
For the last thing of this post before I get back to Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Noah. How creepy was it how he reenacted his death and then didn't even remember it? He's having some probably appearing and disappearing in this book, but that's not that big of an issue. I really hope he's able to stick around after the last book and stay with his friends-- he's really sweet and like basically everyone else, I LOVE HIM. I especially loved Noah and Blue's "girl's day" when Gansey and Adam were out at DC and Ronan was out. And then they kissed and I just couldn't help but laugh because it was so awkward. Though, it was rather poignant when Noah said he'd ask Blue out if he was alive, and she said she'd say okay.
Just some quick mentions now-- Adam and Blue's breakup made me sad, even though I want GanseyxBlue, I care about the relationships in this book, and it just hurt me when they broke up. I hope their relationship is okay after that-- it wasn't really covered later, not that there was enough time to really cover it, anyway. Now I'm also just going to say if Persephone x Adam becomes a thing, I might have to throw something. No. Just No.
Thanks for reading,
Anj
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