The Scorpio Races

by Maggie Stiefvater

[ladygrey]

This is the kind of book that is maybe, technically, young adult. But it doesn't feel like it. It reminds me of the books I loved growing up, before YA was even a genre. [b:The Blue Sword|407813|The Blue Sword (Damar, #1)|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563198223l/407813._SY75_.jpg|2321296] and [b:The Hero and The Crown|77366|The Hero and the Crown (Damar, #2)|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386642407l/77366._SY75_.jpg|2321243] and the Time series by Madeleine L'Engle. The kind of books you had to find in the juvenile section of the library because there was no YA section but it was clear they didn't really belong there either. The Lumetere Chronicles would fit in this as well. Stories that are rich and languid and have these very real worlds and deep, engaging characters.

Just based on the description I expected the story to be like Hidalgo with the big sprawling horse race. It's not. So, that took a bit of adjustment. I liked that the story was a lot about the choices these characters had to make and how they brought themselves to that place. How they had to reconcile what they needed to do and what they wanted and what they were forced into and what it cost them. It wasn't a fast story but it would have been to flat and hollow if it was.

[a:Maggie Stiefvater|1330292|Maggie Stiefvater|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1587234813p2/1330292.jpg] is so good with tone that it penetrates into the marrow of the story. And this is such a Maggie Stiefvater world - rough and hard and bloody but also strong and strangely beautiful if the magic calls to you the way it does to the characters. I liked that it's a very haunting sort of magic.

And the characters... it was easy to like Sean Kenndrick right away. Puck Connelly took a little bit, partly because Puck is just such a not-girl's name. I liked her better once she was Kate Connelly for a while and I liked when Sean Kenndrick knew her as Kate Connelly. And I'm curious why Maggie Stiefvater insisted on full names through so much of the story but I kind of liked it. I hated Gabe there for a while, but then I forgave him, like I knew I would eventually. Because Maggie's characters are also, almost always, redeemable. Even, somehow, the bad guys. Because I didn't hate Mutt in the end either, though I never really hated him the way I despised Gabe.

I loved, loved the slow burn of the romance. And the way it took me by surprise even though it was totally obvious. The way it wasn't full of what [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] would call silly sweethearts kind of love but was deeper than that - this connection of these people drawn to each other who trust each other more than they trust anyone else and those quiet moments - those sparse words that have so much more impact than something as simple as a kiss.