The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) – Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
Publishing Info: September 17, 2013 by Scholastic Inc.
Source: BEA 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: June 10, 2013
Related Posts: Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1), The Scorpio Races, The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3), The Scorpio Races, The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1), The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2), The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4), All the Crooked Saints, Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer #1)

    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...

This was the first BEA book I dipped into and yes, I finished it back in June. It was SO HARD to hold my review until now which is at least closer to the pub date than June… I’m so glad I picked this one up immediately after BEA because THE DREAM THIEVES did not disappoint. It was exciting, horrifying, mysterious, curious, and terribly interesting. I was totally hooked from start to finish.

THE DREAM THIEVES picks up where THE RAVEN BOYS left off…. So if you have read THE RAVEN BOYS (which I suggest you do), there WILL be spoilers for book one in this review… Just watch out! So Ronan. He left us with quite a little shocker at the end of book one and that is what book two is allllll about — dreams. Um. YES PLEASE. You know (actually you probably don’t know) that I usually get annoyed when characters have these weird symbolic dreams that represent what’s going on in their life or are predicting the future. I just think it’s overdone and I tend to roll my eyes at those silly dreams. This book? Nothing like that! The whole dream aspect is freaking amazing. I absolutely love the idea that Maggie Steifvater came up with for the concept of this second book.

Now… For those who have read THE RAVEN BOYS (which I’m you’re still reading by this point, I’m assuming it’s all of you), THE DREAM THIEVES is actually quite different plot-wise. Yes, we still have all the same major characters and the same basic plot points (ley lines, Cabeswater, Glendower, and Blue’s forbidden kiss) but TDT delves so much more into Ronan’s side of the story and we get more answers about Chainsaw, his dreams, and even his father’s mysterious death (which I was dying to know about in TRB). I actually hooked on to this book more than I did book one because it was that much more mystical/paranormal/AWESOME versus all the business with Gansey & Glendower because let’s face it… It was hard (for me) to get into the mythology/history of Glendower in book one. In TDT, Glendower is much more an underlying factor to several events that keep the plot moving versus and actual main plot point. I was incredibly invested in Ronan’s story line! ALSO. There’s this guy called The Grey Man………. You’ll find out more about him in the book but Heidi (Bunbury in the Stacks) and I had a nice conversation about him. Kind of love him as a character (not in a swoony way — Just the way his character was planned out… So perfect.)

Honestly the only reason I didn’t give this book a full five star knock out review was for two reasons: One being that Maggie Steifvater’s writing in The Raven Cycle series is beautiful and twisted, but sometimes I feel like the style is a bit over my head, if that makes sense. I get the feeling that if I was an English major or something that this would have totally made sense… Like there was something I was missing as far as class or knowledge of writing styles. I don’t know how else to say that, but I just felt like the writing was a little over my head at times and it got complicated for me to follow. I’m not saying I wanted Maggie to write everything so boring and straightforward, but me personally — I just got lost in the writing style just a bit. The second thing preventing me from giving it a flat out five star review was that I just had expectations for a little bit more from the ending. It was certainly good and very exciting, but I guess I just expected it to end similar to book one (though I don’t know why since this was so different) but it was just a little different than what I expected so I was slightly thrown. I actually thought part of it was a bit fantastical for the way the whole book went (which is a silly thing to say considering the whole book was awesomely fantastical), but I just felt like this one scene didn’t fit the mood of the rest of the book. And this didn’t affect my overall opinion too much, but I would have loved to see that magic of Cabeswater in detail again! I just loved that in TRB.

That aside, I think fans of THE RAVEN BOYS will absolutely be wowed by THE DREAM THIEVES! There were so many amazing elements to this story, new and exciting characters, answers from previous mysteries and new ones to look forward to. I absolutely loved reading it and I can’t wait for the next book in the series… Although I will have to!

Ronan Lynch // Character Obsessions: Chainsaw, dreams, the mystery of his parents.
RONAN. Loved him in this book. Broody. Mysterious. And has a freaking awesome ability. I’m so glad we got to really see so much of his personal story since he was just building up to be a main character in book one. I’m so glad we got to see so many layers of Ronan as well as his family (totally forgot about his other brother Matthew…?) and so, so many interesting mysteries about his past.
(Richard) Gansey // Character Obsessions: Glendower, ley lines.
I still kind of love Gansey. He doesn’t play AS big of a role in this book as the first, but of course he’s still majorly connected to the central plot and we get to see a couple different sides of him here. His role kind of changes, I think, and I actually really like the direction his story line took.
Adam Parrish // Character Obsessions: Blue Sargent, ley lines.
For being such a big part of THE RAVEN BOYS, I feel like we were missing so much Adam in THE DREAM THIEVES. Considering how book one ended, I was hoping to get sooooo many more details in book two, but it seems that Adam is a bit of mystery. I’m really hoping for things to get explained in book three! Adam’s role has also majorly shifted in this book and he’s actually becoming quite a different Adam. It’s incredibly interesting to see these changes but I just wish we had gotten to see a little bit more of his story in detail here.
The Grey Man // Character Obsessions: The Greywaren, Maura Sargent, hit-manning, The Kinks, brothers.
I really hope you guys love The Grey Man like Heidi and I do. He’s an awesome villain-type character and even after the book is over, I really, really, really want to know more about him and his past!

Kept Me Hooked On: Whatever supernatural phenomena are going on in this series. Look, I don’t know how all these kids have supernatural talents but I am digging it! Between Ronan, Noah, Blue, Adam… Gansey’s obsession with making this Glendower thing real. I am all in, here.
Left Me Wanting More: Adam!! He was SUCH a big part of book one and TRB ended in such an EPIC way that I felt like his details never really got wrapped up like I hoped in TDT.

Addiction Rating
BUY IT!

This is one you do not want to miss! I think if you loved THE RAVEN BOYS, this book will blow your mind just a bit. Definitely one I want to keep on my shelves!!

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