The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)

by Maggie Stiefvater

[paperbackjedi]

The ley lines are awake, but acting strangely and no one understands what the hell is going on. Adam’s sacrifice has made him… different and no one is talking about it. Ronan can take things out of his dreams and Gansey is still Gansey. Blue is struggling with her feelings for two very different boys and Noah just wants everyone to get along. Not to mention, they have some unsavory people hot on their trails who are looking for what they’re looking for. Basically, everything’s a mess, but they know they’re onto something big and continue to unravel the mystery of Glendower.

I want to start by talking about Stiefvater’s prose because it is UNMATCHED. Honestly, her books read like poetry– especially The Raven Cycle books. Her writing draws you in and steals your breath. It creates this pleasant hum under your skin as you read and I just can’t even adequately explain how she makes this sort of magic. But she does. It’s rare that you find diction and tone like this in YA novels. The Dream Thieves is written in third person, present tense and shifts between characters fluidly (though most of this novel focuses on Ronan Lynch while The Raven Boys focused on Blue). I suspect the next two books in the series will focus Adam and Gansey’s perspectives respectively.

The plot picks up shortly after The Raven Boys with Ronan explaining his gift to his friends and struggling to figure out exactly what he’s supposed to do with it. I will say that you lose sight a little of what’s going on because you spend a lot of time in Ronan’s head and you learn about his life and the things he has been dealing with. Sometimes, I completely forgot what the “goal” was for our group of magic seekers. The search for Cabeswater begins anew as the ley lines act up and cause our heroes/heroines to question everything they’ve learned. New characters are introduced and we start to see villains cropping up to claim the magic of the ley lines for their own purposes. It’s becoming clear that each person is key in this search for the truth in a way that we can’t begin to understand. Gansey struggles with his relationships after Adam’s betrayal and the increasingly complex feelings he has for Blue (while she does the same). The only constant is Ronan, who just wants to make things better for everyone in his own way. Noah, as a result of the malfunctioning ley lines, flickers in and out, but acts as Ronan’s confidant and savoir in many cases, providing comic relief and some incredibly poignant scenes.

I don’t want to give too much away because the mythology in this book is stunning and I want you to discover the magic at your own pace. I will say that if you’ve read The Raven Boys, you might be disappointed at the shift in the storytelling to Ronan’s character. I was surprised– out of all the boys, he was my least favorite. But after reading The Dream Thieves, I love him so much more than I ever expected I would. The book also falls a bit shorter on the romance than The Raven Boys, instead choosing to focus on friendship and brotherhood. I was actually really impressed with the time spent illustrating the different sort of relationships the characters have with each other. They transcend most literary tropes and are subtle and intricate. Often times, I only realized things much later after reading passages. But it truly is beautiful and strange and wonderful and I want everyone I know to read these books.