Review of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary per Amazon:

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.

Review:

I know that it's been awhile since I've blogged, but I felt called to review this book. I loved the Shiver Trilogy as you all know, but The Scorpio Races just solidified Maggie Stiefvater as one of my top five favorite authors. This book was unlike anything that I have ever read before; it was imaginative, fanciful, believable, violent, and romantic all at once. Like with Shiver, Stiefvater does a wonderful job of creating distinctive voices for her narrators and makes the alternating narration work for the story. The characters were well rounded and Puck's character is a testament to how well the author balances tenderness and harshness in the story. Similarly, Sean's Kendrick's character is handsome and brooding, but with an intelligence that is well-crafted and serves to elevate him beyond the status of pretty boy. What's more, the water horses themselves become characters that we as readers grow to know and to love just as Sean and Puck do.

The Scorpio Races offers a glimpse into a world that is at once grounded in reality and human emotion while still being magical. If this novel is a hint of things to come, I will certainly be keeping my eye on Maggie Stiefvater. Who knows, maybe she just wrote Robert Pattinson's next role!

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