Book Review - The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Boys #2
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 19th September 2013
No. Pages: 464
Source: Borrowed
Rating:

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...

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

*slow claps* The blogging community did well when recommending me this series. No, I've not fallen in love with the series - well, I have fallen in love, there's something so unlike anything I've ever read before about this series that just produces so many emotions in me, it is one of the strongest series in any number of ways that I've read in a while, but will I ever completely and utterly love it? I'm not so sure. For now, I can settle for being in awe, inspired and completely enthralled in this series, and Dream Thieves especially.

I guess my biggest issue in The Raven Boys was how easily I was able to slip out of the reading it, and then, for reasons unknown, take a long while to continue reading it, and this yet again happened with Dream Thieves. It's definitely not that the story isn't intriguing and interesting, or that I struggle to stay immersed in the world, these are things I do not struggle with, Stiefvater creates a flow to her writing, something so smooth and so subtle, her world is abnormally beautiful, and her premise' and plots are just utterly wonderful, but there's something, something that makes me avoid picking them up once I've put them down, something that lifts me up out of the story, with the characters and their struggles and enables me to forget close to everything that's happened, not intentionally, just out of a feeling. This phenomenon must just be a personal issue I have, and I can't say I've ever struggled with it before, but it is by far, the only reason Dream Thieves didn't get it's full marks, as everything else about it was absolutely, joyfully perfect.

There are many things I loved about The Raven Boys, from Stiefvater's writing and her words, to her plot and inclusion of mystical and magical Cabeswater and the Welsh Kings, but those things have already been talked about, and they're probably things you've heard any number of people talk about already, instead, what makes Dream Thieves so much better and so much more interesting than The Raven Boys to me, is just how much has changed throughout the series already, how it's changed, and how it helps develop not only the characters, both personally and through other people, but develops the storyline, the plots, the minor clues that creep up within the storyline, and how Stiefvater intrinsically links every feature, every small moment and scene with the next and creates a beautiful masterpiece (I'm aware I'm fangirling, give me a moment), it is what makes this series beautiful.

'He danced on the knife’s edge between awareness and sleep. When he dreamt like this, he was a king. The world was his to bend. His to burn. '

Dream Thieves took what The Raven Boys started, in it's inclusion of magical and mystical, in it's plot and structure and created a beautiful novel that really focused on one of the characters I never expected to appreciate or love, Ronan. His storyline throughout The Dream Thieves, his development and his background that was explored, his emotions and his feelings that were realistic and heartbreaking, his horrors and his nightmares that controlled him and shaped him into who he was, it was all amazingly explored, especially when you consider the second third person narrative, I felt I was with Ronan, every step of the way, no matter how dark and progressively eerie his personality and his thoughts were. Stiefvater used this feature, used Ronan to shape this novel into a much more darker and scarier direction, she created such vivid imagery through Ronan and his nightmares and his dreams, she brought the dreams to life, and her subtle clues and links to everything throughout, both in reality and dream world was just - perfection. Utter perfection.

It wasn't just Ronan that Stiefvater used to develop this series - her use of Adam, god bless Adam gave this series something more, something that almost, at times, felt like too much, but it was just enough just enough of the magical woven into the the realistic, and his development, his feel of separation from others due to his actions in The Raven Boys, his emotions and his fight within himself to not lose himself, it's such a powerful part of Dream Thieves, and his scenes, they definitely, along with Ronan's, gave this installment a darker feel, but at the same time, a very real feel, not once did it feel as though everything happened couldn't be possible. Of course, it wouldn't be possible forget about Blue and Gansey. Blue, Blue is definitely the charcater I feel most connected to, her home life and her family and the love that is shown throughout, it's very beautiful and very honest, it feels real and I really enjoy that aspect of her, but I also adore the other side of her that comes out when around The Raven Boys, her charisma and charm, her snark and her humour, her intelligence and her strong beliefs, how she shoulders that she has power and knowledge beyond her years and can shoulder her own drama and problems, and how mature she is in times when other characters in other novels would easily have sucumbed to beign a childish brat, Blue is definitely an unsung heroine of this series, and she continually proved herself through Dream Thieves. While Gansey, to me, is the least developed of the characters, I adore how he interacts with the other characters and how much Cabeswater and his need to see and belief mean to him. His relationship with Ronan and Adam, how much he wants to feel equal to them, but is never deemed as such, and his real and honest connection with Blue - I admit, I've fallen in love with them falling in love, I cannot help it, Stiefvater writes all of her characters and their emotions, whether it be Blue's or Noah's, or Maura's or The Gray Man, or even Kavinsky and Declan, each and every charcater in this series and how they interact with themselves and each other is done superbly, and I cannot fault it.

'"I wish you could be kissed, Jane,' he said. 'Because I would beg just one off you. Under all this.' He flailed an arm toward the stars.'

The Raven Boys is definitely as good as you've probably heard it is. To be fair, it does and may take you a little while to get into the series at first, it definitely did for me, but the characters and the development they go through is only part of what this series offers. There's a realistic level of reality vs magical, but they meld and work together so wonderfully, it is impossible to imagine that this couldn't and wouldn't happen. Stiefvater has created a beautiful, magical world made of so many little detailed features concerning time and losing yourself, of a world of physics and and hit-men-for-hire, and she weaves not only human emotions, but magical emotions, the emotions of every living thing, it's sensational and really really amazing. When I'm in Stiefvater's world and writing, I adore it, I could soak and bathe in the words, the writing and everything in between, and I could forever be in a world with these character and their families, their little quirks and personalities, but there's something that separates me from this series so far, and I'm hoping that something doesn't stick around.