Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Scorpio Races [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Maggie Stiefvater [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: October 18th, 2011 by Scholastic Inc.
Format: Hardcover; 409 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Award Winning Reads Challenge.

Are you ready for this?  Steel yourself and gird your loins, because this is going to be one of those reviews.  One where I gush unabashedly about my love for a book in a way that should be totally shameful and embarrassing but I don’t care one bit because I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Each year, the island of Thisby plays host on the first of November to the Scorpio Races, featuring the deadly horses from the sea.  Many of those who sign up will not see the finish line.  

There are too many people on horseback today trying to prove themselves, trying to prepare, trying to get faster.  They haven’t discovered yet that it’s not the fastest who made it to race day.

You only have to be the fastest of those who are left.

Sean Kendrick has won the races for the past four years and is the man to beat, though Puck Connolly is determined to try.  No woman has ever ran the races, let alone on an island horse rather than one of the water horses, but Puck has concluded that the races are her only option for the future she needs.  Unfortunately, winning is the only option for Sean Kendrick as well.

I’m about to say something about this book that can be said so rarely.  I’ve read tons of reviews, I’ve seen the awards, I’ve experienced the hype, and yet, The Scorpio Races was nothing like I expected.  I love when a story can really take me by surprise.  This one drew me in so that I did not feel the need to try to predict what would happen, I was content to absorb it, and could not have been more happy with what I found.  The Scorpio Races was so beautifully written with moments such as this:

There are moments that you’ll remember for the rest of you life and there are moments that you think you’ll remember for the rest of your life, and it’s not often they turn out to be the same moments.  But when Peg Gratton turns around and chalks my name on the list, white on black, I know, without a doubt, that it’s an image I’ll never forget.

I adored Puck and Sean, and the relationship between them that while important to the story didn’t encompass it.  Both characters are strong, brave, hard-working, and fiercely in love with their animals and their home.  Their affection is one borne of mutual respect, very similar to the relationship each has with their horse it is built on trust, understanding, and requires very little words.  Each of them desperately needs to win the races for their own reasons, but instead of the competition driving a wedge between them, it draws them together and makes them both stronger.  I myself wasn’t sure how I wanted the book to end up, and felt my own stomach knotting with nervous anticipation as the races approached as if I myself were participating.

I think my strongest attachment to The Scorpio Races wasn’t even the characters, but the setting.  Maggie Stiefvater manages to expertly create her setting as its own character, something that is so rarely done well, and I love love loved it.  The island was its own personality, with desires, characteristics, and being, and the water horses were tied to it so closely.  Personally, it reminded me so much of Prince Edward Island in Avonlea books and the Road to Avonlea TV series, but you know...with killer sea horses.  It just made me want to spend windy fall days on the beach in fisherman’s wool sweaters drinking tea from a thermos.  

My heart was warm upon finishing this book, it filled up up in places I didn’t even know needed filling.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I cannot wait for The Raven Boys, Stiefvater’s new quartet to premiere this fall.  I enjoyed Shiver, but I loved The Scorpio Races.  You can see some definite progression over four books, and I am hoping she can keep up the momentum in a new series.

Recommended for: Pretty much any YA fan--it totally stands up to the hype!  Also horse lovers and fans of quieter romance.

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Making real life November Cakes of course! They're not quite as pretty as intended because I didn't have the time to make icing beautiful, but that hardly affects the taste. People, these things are AMAZING. Maggie Stiefvater posted the recipe here, and I highly suggest you try it.

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Galley Smith

Review: Daughter of the Centaurs by Kate Klimo

Title: Daughter of the Centaurs [Amazon|GoodReads]

Author: Kate Klimo [Website|Twitter|Facebook]

Standing: First in the new Centuriad series.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Published: January 24th, 2012 by Random House Books for Young Readers

Format: Kindle edition; 384 pages.  

Source: ARC copy from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge

Malora was born with an affinity for horses, and desires nothing more than to follow in her father’s footsteps as a horse wrangler and hunter.  After leatherwings ravage her family’s settlement, destroying both men and horse, her mother sends her off into the plains with Sky--her father’s horse that was too big to be carried off--in order to secure her safety.  She begins a herd of her own, strong, black, fast horses, encountering no other being for three years.  When her herd, and Malora, are captured by a group of centaurs seeking horses to compete in an annual race, Malora finds herself surrounded by a completely foreign culture and way of life.  Malora determines the comforts of civilized living are worth losing her freedom, but she must determine how much she is willing to sacrifice.

So.  Okay.  I have to get this off my chest.  I like genre bending, but I’m quickly getting sick of books trying to pass off fantasy as science fiction in order to somehow jam it into trends that are currently more popular.  Daughter of the Centaurs was constructed like the opposite of Star Wars.  Instead of “A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away...” it supposedly is set “A long long time in the future right here on earth...”.  I cannot for the life of me understand why this was necessary.  There’s no explanation of the history of how centaurs and other creatures came about/if they were always there, and this would be fine if it weren’t supposed to be our world.  The only time this reality is even brought up within the story is through books, which I also had a huge issue with.  This is supposed to be so far in the future that humans are considered “living fossils” and yet our physical books have survived.  Not survived in that they were printed on high quality linen paper and preserved well in safe environments; survived in the sense that wealthy centaurs actually have our physical books like Dr. Seuss which was probably printed on highly acidic paper and they read them in their homes and what not.  Plus if Stephenie freaking Meyer is one of the “great” literary names that survives the test of time in a completely unironic way alongside the likes of Austen, Shakespeare, and Dickens, I WILL RISE FROM THE GRAVE AND CUT SOMEONE.  Honestly I really wish Daughter of the Centaurs had just embraced the fantasy label and either cut out the aspects that tied it to our current society, or provided stronger ties to make it more believable, as is, the story was weakened.

The narration of Daughter of the Centaurs is at times perfect.  It’s told in the present tense, making it very reminiscent of an oral tale one would hear spoken around the camp fire.  This works beautifully in the beginning of the story, while Malora is on her own save for her horses, but becomes slightly less effective as the story progresses.  The world and story that Klimo has constructed have a great base, but could use some trimming.  Daughter of the Centaurs could have made a good stand alone story, but I did not like most of the allusions towards future plots.  For example, Malora has visions of meeting a man in the future.  I loved that this story had no romance in it, as this is always refreshing, but the foreshadowing of a future romance to me seemed forced and irrelevant to the current story.  Again, this came across somewhat as an attempt to shove this book into a popular trend, and it would have been best left alone. There's a chance this is me just being a stick in the mud about preferring this story as a stand alone.

I did very much enjoy the featuring of centaurs as main characters.  I’ve never read a book where this was done before, and the society constructed with them was very interesting, if intentionally frivolous.  Malora comments at one point that she herself is more horse than the centaurs themselves, and for all intents and purposes, this is true.  Centaurs seem to be largely ashamed of their horse halves, attempting to cover any horselike scent, and going modestly clothed in order to minimize their animal half.  This aspect of the story was very well done, and created a nice counterpart between horse loving Malora and the horse shaming centaurs.  The power of olfactory stimulation from scents was very unique as well.  Orion, one of the centaurs to initially discover and befriend Malora, has a profession of creating scents--oils or perfumes that the centaurs use to disguise their horsey smells--and they have a powerful affect on Malora.  When Malora inhales the created scents, she is able to have visions associated with that smell, even if it is another’s memory.  Finally, the horse lore in Daughter of the Centaurs was fantastic.  Malora’s knowledge of and skill with horses is so well presented, her interactions with the animals easily became my favorite part of this story.    

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Probably not, it was a very interesting premise, and it could have been a decent contained stand alone, but I’m not planning to continue with the series.

Recommended for:  Horse lovers, those interested in younger YA reads--Malora is 12-15, making this book older than middle grade, but more juvenile than most YA books out there.

Real life repercussions of reading this book: I miss riding!  I haven’t been for more than a decade, but I used to ride all the time as a kid.  Yeah...I did 4-H.  Check the awesome wrangling prowess (and highwaters):