Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle #2

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: September 17th, 2013

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 437

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Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

After the masterpiece that was The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves definitely does not disappoint.

The events of this book take place shortly after the end of The Raven Boys. While this book is once again told from multiple points of view, it primarily follow's Ronan's story.

Ronan's story is incredibly interesting. First of all there's the obvious reason, the fact that he can take things out of his dreams. Who wouldn't love to be able to do that? You know those like orange and yellow plastic children's tricycles? I had a dream I was riding an adult sized one of those. I'd totally take that out of my dream so I could be riding in style.

I loved getting a deeper look into Ronan's character. He's had it rough with his father dying and being forbidden from ever going back home where he grew up with his family. I loved the little glimpses into seeing what Ronan was like before everything went to crap for him. I loved learning more about his relationship with Gansey. Gansey sounds like he would be such an amazing friend. He's so thoughtful and generally amazing! AND RONAN AND CHAINSAW ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER! I love his relationship with his bird.

His relationship with Kavinsky was interesting too. I don't know what I thought of Kavinsky. He was kind of an over-the-top douchebag. But he really helped out Ronan in his time of need! I think I felt kinda bad for him almost.

While I did really enjoy the deeper look into Ronan's character, I felt like it came at the expense of all of the other characters. I wanted to know more about everyone else! I wish the page time would have been perhaps at least a little bit more even.

First of all, I'm gonna talk about Noah. I love love love Noah. He is my favorite and in this book, I was hoping to learn more about him. But I was disappointed on that front because Noah wasn't really present in a lot of this book. My absolutely favorite part of this book was when Blue and Noah were hanging out at Monmouth Manufacturing after Gansey and Adam went back to Gansey's parent's home. I loved all the silly things they did to pass the time together. That scene made me smile!

Now on the opposite end of the spectrum, Adam. In the end of the first book, I was starting to think I didn't like him, but maybe there could be hope for him. After reading this book, I am firmly Team Anybody-But-Adam. What happened to the sweet boy he was in the beginning?! I understand things have been rough for him, but how he interacted with Blue in this book pissed me off. All acting like he is entitled to getting kisses from her when she's made it abundantly clear that she doesn't want to. And then angrily demanding answers about it from her. Nope. No sir.

I hope that he kinda evens out now that he was balanced by Persephone. I don't want to not like him. I can see why he would have reason to be angry, but like these people only want what's best for him!

Now for Gansey and Blue. I didn't get NEARLY enough of them in this book. I love the relationship I can see forming between them! I love the friendship they have and how they can call each other whenever they need the other. AND I LOVE THE MOMENT THEY HAD IN THIS BOOK! I just can't even get over how much I adore the two of them. I don't feel like I can add too much on to how I felt about them in the first book because we didn't get to delve too deeply into them in this one.

I loved the Blue's family was still a big part of this story. I just adore what they add to the books. And then the introduction of the new 'villain' was interesting to me. I love how he tells everyone his occupation is a hit man and no one even bats an eye. "Oh, you're a hit man? Cool, cool."

So I already mentioned that I can definitely see Gansey and Blue getting closer. I saw a liiiiittle bit of evidence that Pynch will be a thing, but I still haven't seen much of it! So obviously I'll be seeing them as a thing in the next book! I'm excited.

Overall, this was definitely a satisfactory sequel. Like the first one, it starts off a little bit slow, but not slow in a bad way. The writing was excellent again. I feel like it felt the same as the first book, but also at the same time kind of lacked some of the eeriness that the first book brought to the table? I don't know, but I still loved it!

I am super excited to pick up the third book! I don't know if I should just dive into it or if I should knock out some of my priority ARCs first... DECISIONS!

Have you read this series? What did you think of this one? Am I alone in my intense dislike for Adam?