Get Ebooks The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle)
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.
Series: The Raven Cycle (Book 2)
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 30, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 054542495X
ISBN-13: 978-0545424950
Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (388 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #14,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #44 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends #118 in Books > Teens > Romance > Paranormal #122 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Paranormal & Urban
I love a lot of books. And yeah, no surprise, I adore this one. But mostly? I'm jealous as S*** of Maggie Stiefvater for having written this. Because this is the kind of fiction you don't just adore with your heart: if you're like me, you pour over it for hours, trying to understand the evil brilliance behind each uniquely flawless turn of phrase, each effortless plot twist, the knot at the end appearing out of nowhere, perfectly tied.I mean, as a human being, how in the holy hell do you even DO that?The characterization in this was subtle and vivid as all hell and fantastic. They didn't seem like character types, and they didn't seem like people you'd meet in life. They seemed more interesting than that, all of them, just every kind of quirky. The semi-antagonist character was a fantastically well-written Dean Koontz style villain: spare and deliberate, with one deeply weird hobby and a confident presence. His big moment at the end was Dean Koontz style, in the best way. For those of you not familiar with that author, I'll put it this way: I love a good fight scene. But sometimes, you come up with something even better.This novel contained the most elegantly written framing for murder I've ever read, and three of the most natural slipping-into-love kind of relationships I've seen grace the page. It was crazy entertaining and nothing at all like a normal story that you read in a book. But most of all...Every. Single. Word. fell into place as if it could never have been anywhere else but RIGHTTHERE. I glow for a week if I can write a PARAGRAPH like that, and this woman wrote an ENTIRE BOOK OF IT. I don't know if I should be awed, furious, or explosively demonstrative. Possibly all three. Off to do that now.
The ley line has been awakened, but the Raven Boys have a new slew of troubles -- nightmares, vanishing energies, and a mysterious hit man.But don't worry. While Maggie Stiefvater unveils new problems in "The Dream Thieves," she also deftly dovetails them into the subplots of the first Raven book, such as Ronan's magical dream abilities or Gansey's search for the mythical Glendower. While nothing is really resolved here, the subplots progress far enough to entrance the reader, and promise strange and magical things for Book Three.Blue and the Raven Boys (wouldn't that be an awesome name for a band?) are still on their quest for Glendower, especially now that Adam has wakened the ley line. But now the line seems to be going wild, blinking out and surging ay random. This is also disrupting poor Noah, who keeps blinking out, and causes erratic behavior from the increasingly-troubled Adam.But the most unrest comes from Ronan, whose abilities are becoming more intense, especially as he starts acting recklessly around the school monster, Kavinsky. Then a clandestine trip back to the family estate reveals a shocking secret about his family -- and that secret may not only reveal the truth about Niall Lynch's murder, but of Cabeswater itself.And because we need a solid one-book storyline to ground the floating plot threads, a hit-man known as the Gray Man comes to Henrietta. His goal: a mysterious Lynch family artifact known as the Greywaren.In "The Raven Boys," Maggie Stiefvater conjured a number of subplots -- Ronan's dreams, Glendower, Adam's troubles, Gansey's impending demise. But it's only in "The Dream Thieves" that they start to weave together into a truly unified story... well, almost. It deals mostly with the subplots other than Glendower, with the promise that the Raven King will be the third book's focus.And Stiefvater's writing is absolutely exquisite, full of glimpses of wild savage beauty and darkness ("It was full of things from his head, beaks and claws and flowers and vines stuffed into screaming mouths"). It can hop from shadowy, terrifying things (the night horrors) to scenes that border on whimsy (Blue and the Boys investing all of Niall's "dream things").While Gansey and Adam are still important figures, Ronan Lynch really takes center stage in this story -- Stiefvater explores every nook of his mind, from the flapping crow-like demons he accidentally pulls out of his dreams to his fierce love for his mother and younger brother. Especially touching is his relationship with Gansey, which is finally defined and fully realized in a way that feels wholly organic.There's not a lot of romantic movement with Blue, Adam and Gansey, but there is a cute little subplot about Maura dating the Gray Man. In fact, the Gray Man receives a surprising amount of development for a villain, with Stiefvater exploring how he thinks on a day-to-day basis, and what might inspire him to change.The biggest problem is Kavinsky -- while he provides a pretty epic twist, he's a thin, underdeveloped mass of devilish nastiness compared to the other characters. I would have liked a bit more motivation beyond, "I'm a selfish cruel psychopath.""The Dream Thieves" is a strong follow-up to "The Raven Boys, exploring one of the more tormented characters of the trilogy. And Maggie Stiefvater leaves you desperately hungry for the next chapter.
If you love words, you have to read this book! Second books are traditionally the character development tomes that are not normally as exciting as book 1 or book 3, but are needed to round out the story. Since Maggie Stiefvater excels at both character development and plot advancement because of her masterful use of words, book 2 is not just a filler but a brilliant work of art.In the first book we got the object of the mission (finding Glendower) and who was the leader (Gansey). We also got the budding of an attraction between Adam and Blue, but the foreshadowing that Blue's real true love would be Gansey whom she saw herself lovingly kissing in a vision. And let's remember, Blue's true love will die when she kisses him. In The Dream Thieves we get a better perspective on some of the crew making up the expedition that Gansey is leading, specifically Ronan. While, in my opinion, the story still centers around the group, we are given little tidbits of information about Ronan specifically that help us to understand his "viper in the grass" persona. We are also introduced to a new bad guy (the previous one was killed off) named the Gray Man, who was just as fascinating as all of Maggie Stiefvater's other characters. Here's what we learn:The Grey Man: has been hired by Professor Colin Greenmantle, for the last five years, to find the Greywaren which he believes is an instrument or relic that allows the owner to take objects out of dreams. We learned that Ronan can do this and suspect that he is the Greywaren that the Grey Man is looking for. While mysterious, he is as forthcoming as Noah was when he said, "I have been dead for seven years" and no one took him seriously. The Gray Man is asked his job and he truthfully declares, "I am a hit man" and apparently the truth is stranger than fiction because no one is phased by his words. For a bad man, you really want to like the Gray Man and find him suspiciously charming. It's like he half-heartedly struggles with deciding to be good himself, but never really puts any effort into it.Ronan: Ronan can bring things back from his dreams and knows how his father made all his money beacause: "I am just like my father" page 37. Ronan feels that "All of his secrets felt dangerously close to the surface". We discover how important Ronan is to the search for Glendower as he discovers his abilities to bring things out of his dreams and what that means for Cabeswater. We really get to know and even like Ronan as we watch him make mistakes and learn to like himself.Adam: Made a deal to be the hands and feet of Cabeswater at the end of The Raven Boys. Now he is feeling the effects of his sacrifice which has got him all out of balance and hallucinating. He has to discover how to deal and communicate with Cabeswater and finds that his relationship with all the group has changed drastically, but not as much as he has himself has chaanged.The Beginning of Blue and Gansey's romance: While Blue and Gansey did not change much in this story they are still struggling to find "that more" that each of them feels they are capable of, while at the same time discovering "more" in each other:"Gansey who prized honesty above nearly every other thing, knew it (a lie) when he heard it. Blue Sargent cared whether or not he was interested in Orla. She cared a lot. As she whirled toward the truck with a dismissive shake of her head, he felt a dirty sort of thrill". page 195Blue crumpled the edge of the (Gansey's) sheet against her nose. It smelled like mint and wheatgrass, which was to say, like Gansey."I have a crush on Richard Gansey".In a way, it was easier than pretending otherwise. She couldn't do anything about it, of course, but letting herself think it was like popping a blister.Of course, the opposite truth also seemed self-evident."I don't have a crush on Adam Parrish"Maggie has admitted to wanting to make her readers "feel" enough to cry and my instincts are that just like Noah and The Grey Man being very direct about who they are, Maggie is not fooling around when she says that Gansey will die (and from Blue's Kiss). Every bone in my body wants to rebel against her taking the story in this direction and I grasp at the fraudulent belief that she will "bring him back" somehow for a happily ever after, but I don't believe it in my soul. I believe I am on a journey that I have been told will end badly, but I have refused to take the warnings seriously and will have no excuse when the prophecy is fulfilled as defined. Blue and her mother experience the same fate: Missing loves.A lot more profanity than the first book (because it is Ronan!) (sh**t, gd, JC, MF, f-word), divination, psychics and overall creepy people that really make this story come alive. (smile).Would I/Did I buy it? Yes HardcoverWould I read it again? YesWould I recommend it to friends? YES!!!!!
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