Book Reviews: The Dream Thieves

Rating: Fire 

So I finally finished the second book in Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series, and let me just say, WOW! Somehow she manages to leave me breathless at the end of each book, craving more. Her writing is so lyrical and beautiful, I feel like her books truly are art. I also will warn that there are minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t read the first book yet. 

“Ronan Lynch lived with every sort of secret.”

The Dream Thieves focuses more on Ronan, although it continues to have revolving point of views. The crew is still attempting to find Cabeswater and wake up Glendower, but they have a new weapon: Ronan can steal things out of his dreams. And after waking up the ley lines in the previous book,  they are going to need it, because everything suddenly is spiraling out of control. Adam struggles to deal with his new identity, Ronan’s dreams become more intrusive and sinister, and the crew has to deal with another group in Henrietta also investigating the same thing. 

Honestly, my plot paragraph is pretty short because the plot is still kind of murky to me. It’s really good, as always, but it’s one of those stories where you don’t totally know what is happening until the end of the book. Everything feels unrelated, and it seems hard to tell what direction the book is going in. I personally like this, because it is a breath of fresh air from the cliche and predictable plots nowadays. Still, it can be frustrating to be so confused while reading the book and feel so in the dark.

“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them.
Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness.
Her raven boys.”

Character wise, I love most of them. Gansey, Blue, Maura, Persephone, Calla, Ronan, Noah: all great characters. But I think I’m about to state an unpopular opinion, so please don’t hate me. I really dislike Adam. From what I’ve gathered, he seems pretty popular, which I can see why, but I just can’t get behind him. His pride is so infuriating, especially when he lets it get in the way of his family and friends. There’s a big difference between charity and accepting help from your friends, and Adam has yet to realize that. Friendship is a give and take, and just because Gansey and Ronan want to help him out doesn’t mean they don’t see Adam as an equal. I think Adam just creates a lot of problems for himself because of his pride, and if he just accepted help from his friends when they offer it he wouldn’t have so many problems. And I understand why he refused some help. Some help was too large and would feel like charity, but others were small and really were done out of the goodness of their heart, and the fact that they don’t like to see their friend suffering. And it isn’t like Adam never helps them out, he just doesn’t help financially. But intellectually, he is always lending to his friends, so I think Adam just looks at it all wrong and causes too many problems for me to like him.

Kavinsky also gave me the creeps, although he was more of a side character and so will get a less large rant. I just really don’t understand him and Ronan’s relationship. There’s some sexual tension there, but ultimately they hate each other? Like they aren’t friends but have some weird sort of understanding, but there also is so much sexual energy between them. Not that I want Kavinsky and Ronan, because Kavinsky is a homicidal ass and pretty terrifying and honestly has zero goodness in his heart in my opinion.

“He was brother to a liar and brother to an angel, son of a dream and son of a dreamer.”

As I said earlier, this book focuses primarily on Ronan, and really rounds him out. Previously he was portrayed as vicious, but now his relationship with his younger brother Matthew really softens him. Also, he goes to church, and we get to see more of how he cares for Gansey. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still vicious, but we get glimpses of the boy he used to be in this book. 

Also, small side note, but Maggie Stiefvater introduced a new character, Mr. Gray Man, who is actually so funny and amusing. Like, he’s a hit man, so idk if it’s morally correct to like his character because he’s killed so many people, but he’s entertaining and intelligent and actually a pretty decent guy. He and Blue’s relationship is sweet and a cute addition to the story.

“It was mint and memories and the past and the future and she felt as if she’d done this before and already she longed to do it again.”

My last note is on Gansey and Blue. They are really starting to kill me. Like, talk about a slow burn! They have so much chemistry together, but can never be together because of Blue’s stupid curse. But this is where they start to grow closer together, and so many sparks fly between them. I’m sad because they’d be so amazing together, and I really want Maggie Stiefvater to put me out of my misery, but I know that long term I’d be more sad if she did. 

Overall, I’m so happy I read this book. Thank you to everyone who recommended it to me haha. It’s beautiful and unique and breathtaking, and so unlike any other book I’ve ever read before. 

What do you think of this book? What do you think of Adam? Who is your favorite character?