Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Published by Scholastic on September 17th 2013
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
Source: Publisher
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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...
Maggie Stiefvater is one of the most talented writers I know, she has a crazy unique lyrical voice that gives her stories a touch of wonderment. With “Raven Boys” , the beginning of a new series she absolutely outdid herself in my opinion and I ended up being head over heels about this book. Needless to say I was mega excited for the next book in the series…
What happened?!?!?
.. and I can ask this question for many aspects about the book. What happened with the wonderful story of these amazing characters that are out to search an old mysterious and magic king. What happened with the characters I felt so hard for last time. What happened with the love I had for this story and what happened now in the story?
I’m sad to admit this, but this story let me down completely. I felt horribly disconnected from the whole story and from the characters. While reading, I didn’t get lost in the book, I was too confused what’s going on most of the times.
So, there is a Dream Thieve and now what?
The main POV shifted to Ronan in this book – which is fine, but also then ….not. Telling Ronan’s story made not so much sense for me and I had a hard time understanding where it all fits in the grand sheme of things. I loved Ronan as a character so much, yet here I was just indifferent about him.
Feelings.. oh Feelings..
All these other characters Maggie Stieveater carefully developed in book 1 totally got pushed to the sidelines without much progress. I loved this whole bunch kids, these wonderfully quirky and unique characters – but here in this book I just didn’t feel the magic! A lot of what I’m telling you here about why I didn’t like the book has to do with my own personal feelings. While reading, emotions and feelings are the most important part for my reading experience. I need to dive into a story, I need to be able to get lost in it and I need to feel! Either I need to fall in love with the story, or I need to fall hard for the characters or something else that makes me feel! Here, I was most of the times way too confused to feel anything else than .. well, confusion!
The only saving grace here is Maggie Stiefvater’s writing which is so insanely beautiful and lyrical!
Bewitched Rating
Bottom Line
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater sadly couldn’t live up to it’s amazing processor “The Raven Boys”, the wonderment from the first book is lost in a completely different story lines that made us wish to go back where it all begun in the first place. I felt disconnected from the whole story and the characters and was left in confusion.
Sequel syndrome or something else? It makes me so sad that I didn’t like the book! What do you think, is it just the Second Book or Sequel Syndrome and shall I give the last book another chance or something else?
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Oh, thank GOD! Someone who isn’t gaga over this book!! I REALLY liked the first one but this one’s just left me cold. I’ve lost the reasoning behind their little quest and the characters lost their quirk and just got annoying to me. Sadness!
Mary @ BookSwarm recently posted..Speed Date and Giveaway with Quentin and Aryal: KINKED by Thea Harrison
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Sorry this didn’t live up to all the praise. It’s nice to see honest reviews for it though!
Jillyn recently posted..Review: You Are Mine by Janeal Falor
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WOAH! I was shocked to see this in my inbox. I DNF The Raven Boys so I can’t really comment much.. but I remember how you loved that book, and it’s so rare that I see you give such a low rating! I’m so sorry that this book didn’t live up to the first one for you! š I hate it when that happens. *hugs*
Ashley recently posted..Waterfell by Amalie Howard
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Thanks so much for this review. I felt the same way. I actually read it months ago and still can’t bring myself to write a review. I was so conflicted and so disappointed not to love it like I did Raven Boys. I’m probably going to have to mostly re-read it to write the review.
Alison (@AlisonCanRead) recently posted..Feature and Follow Friday #173
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That is so sad to hear! I really loved this one. I’m not big on the whole Glendower thing – so I loved when Ronan seemed like the lead in this book. I admit there could have been much more from Blue but I love Ronan. I was only sad there wasn’t a perspective given over to Noah.
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Nooooo!!!!!! IĀ“ve been shocked by how many people haven’t liked this book and am bummed to see you didn’t like it much either!
IĀ“m still really curious about it and plan to read it but now I’m not quite as excited.
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Ah, well, you did better than me. It took me three tries to get through Raven Boys, but because it got such rave reviews I finally made it through the audio version. I didn’t really like it much. So, when I heard this book was mostly about Ronan, what little desire I had to read it died. Just not the book (or series) for me…good thing there are other books for me, and there are other readers who will love this one!
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