It would appear
that multiple books I wanted to review based on my “Unofficial Criteria” came
out this fall. Good thing I mentioned my Unofficial Criteria list, as last
month contained one-book-only reviews!
Here is another … (with possible
spoilers ahead)
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In dreams, there
be monsters. Just ask Ronan Lynch. As vexing as usual, Ronan has a very big
secret. He can take things out of his dreams. Car keys. A wooden box. A Night
Terror. The discovery of Cabeswater in the first book affects the storyline of
this one. Ronan is tied to Cabeswater, but how? Why? Could the answer be at The
Barns, the childhood home he’s been banned from since his father’s death? Ronan
has a lot to come to terms with. Unhappy, handsome, vicious Ronan is more
complex than he appears. He isn’t always a sarcastic, toxic drunkard. On rare
occasion, he’s even kind … but don’t get used to it.
Richard Campbell Gansey the III is a
desperate man. Er, teenager. He is elite-of-the-elite at Aglionby Academy, like
the picture-perfect poster-child of the school and even has a name practically
reeking of importance. Surely he uses his suave side most of the time. But
right now he’s desperately searching for the long-lost, practically
mythological, Welsh king Glendower. He feels Glendower’s revival must be close
since the awakening of the ley line, but he’s not finding him. Nor are his
friends. Something is off about the line. Sometimes there are surges to suggest
the ley line is overfed, but there are also outages to suggest that the line is
starved.
Seeing apparitions is not normal,
yet Adam Parrish is seeing them. He has connected himself to Cabeswater, but he
doesn’t know what the forest wants from him. What does he want for himself?
Does he even know anymore?
Blue Sargent is back in the story,
though Noah Czerny isn’t as much. There’s also the appearance of the Gray Man.
He’s been sent to retrieve the Greywaren
for his boss, Dr. Colin Greenmantle. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know exactly
what a Greywaren is. Is it a box?
The second installment in
Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle is
magical. Not magical in a nice-vacation-to-Walt-Disney-World way, but in a
darker, more secretive way. The atmosphere isn’t light and fluffy; instead, it
tends toward the tense, moody and brooding. That isn’t to say there aren’t
light moments – there are – and there’s sarcasm. In more than one instance that
sarcasm is based on dirty connotations, and there is some strong language (for
those concerned). Through all of this, Stiefvater somehow melds completely
different worlds with ease: old money with no money, the magical and the
non-magical, the sensitive and the aggressive, the thoughtful and the reactive,
and Ronan. Even with all the perspectives, this book is really Ronan’s story,
and whether he likes it or not, he’s a young adult of opposites. Highly
recommend!
Interesting. Glendower was the name of a Welsh Warrior in Shakespeare's Henry IV...
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