"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life'."
-Helen Exley

"A novel is the chance to try on a different life for size."
-Marion C. Garretty

Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stievfater

Pages: 405
Published: October 18, 2011
Some race to win. Others race to survive.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. 
Some riders live.
Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. 
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.


Ramblings: I've heard such great things about this book! I've heard it's a heat-pounding, page-turning read that compares to The Hunger Games, but I honestly didn't feel that way.

Characters: Puck and Sean were pretty great main characters. I loved that they were total opposites and how slowly their lives weave together. They were very similar at the same time and at points I had to look back to the beginning of the chapter to see who was speaking! *Spoiler* But, the kiss at the race lines I felt was so random and sudden! I was really disappointed with how their love relationship came together. I felt as though Stiefvater slapped that into the plot because most stories today have romances between the main characters. *Spoiler Over*

Plot: I can't say that this isn't unique! I love the concept of this book, although I wish the story behind the water horses and how they act and why they eat humans had been explained better. I felt confused throughout most of the book because I was trying to figure out why something was happening. On the plus side, I loved the concept of the races and how upset they were that a girl was joining! The plot was pretty slow moving except for the 20 pages of racing. I really only wanted to keep reading to see how the races turned out. It wasn't very exciting to me.

Overall: I am happy to finally have read this book, although I am disappointed in the overall experience of reading this book. I wouldn't pass it up, just don't have too high of expectations for it.

Overall Rating: 3 Stars
Cover Love 2 Hearts

2 comments:

  1. I'm really sad you didn't totally enjoy this because I LOVED it! I get what you mean about it being fairly slow, but I thought it worked quite well for the tone of the story.

    The Cait Files

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  2. Awww, it's too bad you didn't like this one as much as everyone else, Katie! Because just like Cait said on the comment above me -- (Hi, Cait!) -- I absolutely loved it! x) It wasn't the most action-packed or fast-paced book out there, but the way it was set up was kind of like a contemporary book with a hint of killer-water-horse magic, which I thought was really sweet. :)

    Awesome review, Katie!! Hopefully you like the next book you read much better! :) <3

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