Review: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Boys #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Boys #2)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication date: September 17, 2013
Rating: ★★½

Summary (via Goodreads):

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...

To be frank, I couldn't decide if I should just copy my Goodreads status updates here, or if I should write a proper review. I figured the former might be a bit too snarky for this space, as my 31 Goodreads comments can be condensed into a few key sentiments:

"Go away Adam"
"SO HOMOEROTIC ASDFKDSKFJ"
"THIS BOOK IS SO BORING"
"Go away Adam"

Needless to say, I just don't get the hype.

Certainly there's lots of good things about The Dream Thieves. For one, the prose is heavy and sophisticated, at times reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's surreal, hypnotic writing. What works well in The Dream Thieves is this blend of lucid dream (literally) and vague fantasy, mixed with a healthy dose of present-day culture. I mean, the Gray Man grooving to the Kinks? Yes, please.

Several characters also continue to show strong development. Adam becomes infinitely darker and douchier… (Granted, I stopped caring about him precisely because he turned into a blockhead… I mean, his use of feminism as an insult? Have we not moved past that yet?) We also develop a much more complex picture of Gansey. (In fact, I quite like Sad Gansey. I think I prefer him to Upbeat Gansey.) As for Ronan, this whole book might as well be called The Ronan Show. We get reacquainted with Ronan from a multitude of angles and it's really satisfying. (Insert bawdy Kavinsky-esque joke here.)

There are two moments between Blue and Gansey that stand out in my mind. One is a homesick phone call that Gansey makes from his family's mansion in Washington, DC. The other occurs at night, on the side of a mountain. Both are moments that allow you to see a different Gansey – truer, softer, without all the walls up. I wish that version of Gansey had been explored more in this book.

The Gray Man is a compelling character as well – a hit man that we come to sympathize with, somehow. Maybe it's the fact that he has decent taste in music, or the fact that other characters help us see the good in him. It's funny how thin that line is between good and evil. One might even say that the line is… gray.

To me, Joseph Kavinsky is easily the most fascinating character we meet. In The Dream Thieves, his life literally is sex, drugs, and cars. And yet there's so much more to him. He's one of the few characters whose point of view we don't get to explore. All we know about him is filtered through Ronan's eyes – which is not a bad thing, per se. We just don't get to learn as much about him as we do with the other characters. It's a shame, because he seems to have one of the most unexpected backgrounds and definitely one of the most dynamic personalities.

As you can see, this book is filled with all sorts of characters who have such interesting backstories and so much potential. Unfortunately, Maggie Stiefvater seems to overextend herself because we end up with half a dozen story lines that are halfheartedly developed. Most of her characters are totally underutilized (don't even get me started on Noah) and plot lines are dropped off and picked back up and dropped again.

Not to mention, the pacing is so bizarre. The plot is so slow for the majority of the book – and I mean, dull as dishwater, watching grass grow-slow. I'm guessing at least half of the entire book is pure character development, which means we're reading, for example, about Adam feeling sorry for himself, or Adam with a chip on his shoulder, or Adam being an entitled jerk. (GO AWAY ADAM.) I'm a sucker for character development, but when it feels aimless, it gets real old, real fast.

This goes on for a few hundred pages… and then in the last 50 pages or so, everything happens all at once and you're just like, "…what? Where did that come from? Why did this book have to drag on and on for that to occur?" It is very much a slow burn, but the problem is that you feel the heat for 400 pages and eventually all you want to do is go jump in a pool and swim away.

Simply put, this book was not for me. It felt too meandering and stray. Good prose and complex characters do not a strong story make.

On Diversity: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Last week, I finished reading Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before and I'm working on a review for it, but first can we just celebrate this rare sighting of the Asian-American protagonist?! HOORAY! Balloons! Noise! Confetti everywhere! In recognition, I'm sharing some of my favorite quintessentially Asian-American moments from the book.

1. Asian Grandma Realness

He loves Korean food. When my grandma comes to visit, he won't leave her side. He'll even watch Korean dramas with her. She cuts him pieces of apple and peels clementines for him like he's a baby. My grandma likes boys better than girls.

2. The No-Shoes Rule

"Is this for the PTA bake sale?" Peter brushes past me and starts taking off his sneakers. "You guys are a no-shoes house, right?"

3. Probiotic Yogurt Drinks

Without turning around, he lifts his hand up for a high five and Kitty leans forward and slaps it heartily. "Hey, gimme a sip of whatever it is you're drinking back there."

"It's almost gone, so you can have the rest," she says.

Kitty hands it over, and Peter tips back the plastic container in his mouth. "This is good," he says.

"It's from the Korean grocery store," Kitty tells him. "They come in a pack and you can put them in the freezer and if you pack it for lunch, it'll be icy and cold when you drink it."

"Sounds good to me. Lara Jean, bring me one of those tomorrow morning, will you? For services rendered."

4. Halloween. #thestruggle #unfair

"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to pop over to the Halloween store during lunch and buy a red wig and be Mary Jane?"

Smoothly Peter says, "Could you? That'd be great."

"No, I could not. You know why? Because I'm Asian, and people will just think I'm in a manga costume."

5. Korean Stationery Life

Instead I sit down and write Margot a letter on stationery my grandma bought me in Korea. It's pale blue with a border of fluffy white lambs.

Based on personal experience, I've found that one of the challenges of being Asian-American is that you're in an in-between state: Asian, but Americanized. At times it's hard to balance what your family wants and what your peers expect... which is partly why I like this book so much. Lara Jean doesn't tiptoe around her background. And she isn't "weird" for having a no-shoes house, or for eating pungent food, or for having fluffy white lambs on her stationery. She just is. And she's surrounded by people who appreciate where she comes from.

I love all of this culture embedded into the book.

I love this idea of being proud – even if that pride is subtle – of your background.

For those of you who have read To All the Boys, what was your reading experience like? Did you like or even care about Lara Jean's culture? Did you learn anything new, or was it all old news? Discuss! Inquiring minds want to know!

A Brief Intermission: A Northern Light

It's July! July! Where has the summer gone? Hope you all have nice weekend plans to look forward to – this week I'm off to Vermont with some friends for the Fourth of July. So looking forward to getting out of the city.

I'm currently reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, probably the first historical fiction book I've picked up since I was in middle school. It's quite fascinating so far, what with the notes of feminism vs. patriarchy, duty vs. desire, and how sometimes all of those things blend together... Jury's still out on this one as I'm only halfway through, but you have to read this quote, because it is so lovely and I am so obsessed:

My uncle has a beautiful North Woods voice. You can hear the dry bite of a January morning in it and the rasp of wood smoke. His laughter is the sound of a creek under ice, low and rushing.

Are you picturing the hearts-for-eyes emoji? Because that's what I look like every time I reread those words. It's the kind of description that could make you fall in love with someone, don't you think?