Name: Lu Kluck's review of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Item: The Dream Thieves
Rating: 5
Author: Lu Kluck

Maggie Stiefvater

This is the second book in a brand new series from bestselling author, Maggie Stiefvater. Fans of SHIVER (9781407115009), LINGER (9781407121086) and FOREVER (9781407121116) will love this new quartet!

The Dream Thieves

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater are awake, magic is swirling around Blue and The Raven boys and Ronan Lynch's ability to pull objects from his dreams is almost out of control but worst of all, the mysterious Gray Man is stalking the Lynch family, looking for something called the Greywaren.

The dream thieves

ㅤㅤ

“Brothers,” said the Gray Man. He did not mean Declan or Matthew. At once the power went out of him. “I don’t care for birds.”

Which meant that Kavinsky was dead. But he had been dying since Ronan met him. They both had been. Dying's a boring side effect.

“This was the dream: sitting in the passenger seat of Joseph Kavinsky’s Mitsubishi, the odor of a crash clinging to Ronan’s clothing, the white dash lights carving Kavinsky a gaunt and wild face, foully seductive lyrics spitting from the speakers, the vein-covered peaks of Kavinsky’s knuckles on the gearshift between them.”

“Is it true you tried to kill your father?”

“I never try to do anything, man. I do what I mean to.” 

“Rumor has it that’s why you’re here and not Jersey.”

“He tried to kill me. And he doesn’t always do what he means to. And anyway, I’m harder to kill than that."

Kavinsky’s expression was scorched. “There’s only with me or against me.”

“I will burn you down,” Kavinsky said.

Ronan’s smile was sharp as a knife. He had already been burned to nothing. “You wish.”

Kavinsky made a gun of his thumb and finger and put it to Ronan’s temple.

“Bang,” he said softly, withdrawing the fake gun. “See you on the streets.”

“You’re a player in his life, Lynch.”

The difference between us and Kavinsky, Gansey whispered in Ronan’s head, is we matter. 

“You don’t fucking need him,” Kavinsky said.

Ronan hurtled into the dream. When he landed, elbows scuffing blood on the dirt, Kavinsky was already there, sunk down in the briars, covering his face. The trees Ronan knew so well were attacking him, claws of branches. Something about Kavinsky was the wrong color, or something, in comparison to the woods around him. It was as if the dream painted him a usurper. 

“Guess our secret place is the same,” Kavinsky said. He grinned. His face was striated with fine scratches from the thorns.

After a moment, he heard the hood groan as Kavinsky leaned over him. Then he felt the ridged callus of a finger drag slowly over the skin on his back. A slow arc between his shoulder blades, drawing the pattern of his tattoo. Then sliding down his spine, tensing every muscle it moved over. 

The fuse inside him was burning to nothing, nothing at all.

Ronan didn’t move. If he moved, the touch on his spine would stab him — a wound like this pill. No coming back.

The driver’s side window of the Mitsubishi slid down. Behind it was Kavinsky, his expression impossible to determine behind his white sunglasses. He leaned to get something from beneath his seat, and then he pointed it at the night horror. It took a moment for Ronan to realize what it was. It was a small, imaginary-looking gun, shiny as chrome.

There was a heavy understanding in that statement, amplified by the dream. I know what you are, Kavinsky had said. 

“That’s not enough,” Ronan replied.

“Don’t say Dick Gansey, man. Do not say it. He is never going to be with you. And don’t tell me you don’t swing that way, man. I’m in your head.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Ronan said.

Kavinsky laughed the word. “Reality! Reality’s what other people dream for you.”

“Reality’s where other people are,” Ronan replied. He stretched out his arms. “What’s here, K? Nothing! No one!” 

The window rolled down to reveal Joseph Kavinsky in the driver’s seat, his eyes hidden behind white-rimmed sunglasses that reflected only the sky. The gold links of the chain around his neck glittered a grin. He had a refugee’s face, hollow-eyed and innocent. 

He wore a lazy smile, and he mouthed something to Gansey that ended with “— unt.”

There was nothing about Kavinsky that wasn’t despicable.

It was easier for Gansey to wrap his head around a Ronan who made dreams real than a Ronan who wanted to die.

Just then, in that moment, the thought of Gansey leaving for D.C. without him was unbearable. They had been a two-headed creature for so long, Ronan-and-Gansey. He couldn’t say it, though. There were a thousand reasons why he couldn’t say it. 

“While I’m gone,” Gansey said, pausing, “dream me the world. Something new for every night.”

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....

ang 

High Fidelity

 “We can pretend. Just once. And then we’ll never say anything about it again.”

Ronan rationed the music from their old life, as if he used up a bit of his memories of his father every time he played it. Surely this occasion warranted it, though.

They were now just him and her. Not even that. They were only the time that they held between them. 

Oh, thought Blue. So this is what I can’t have.

“So, do you have a favorite weapon?” 

Without missing a beat, he replied, “Opportunity.”

Eleven minutes. That was how long the entire homicidal portrait lasted: one boy’s life destroyed in less time than it took to cook a hamburger.

In some parallel universe, there was a Gansey who could tell Blue that he found the ten inches of her bare calves far more tantalizing than the thirteen cubic feet of bare skin Orla sported. But in this universe, that was Adam’s job.

Blue and Gansey exchanged a look. Blue’s look said, I’m so, so sorry. Gansey’s said, Am I the pretty one?

She wore a dress Ronan thought looked like a lampshade. Whatever sort of lamp it belonged on, Gansey clearly wished he had one.

Lu Kluck

I didn't think it could get any better. But it did. I love you Maggie Stiefvater. I pledge my allegance to you and your writing. No seriously. Top 5 favourite writers.

Tali ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆

i read this like how i used to eat my sundaes as a child, slowly, savoring every scoop. this is the home i always knew i'd find within these pages but didn't have the courage to enter because i'm too scared of the goodbye, until now.

rain

every day i become more consumed by the raven cycle and the intensity of the fixation grows more powerful. i am less human and more the raven cycle

Now that the ley lines are awake, Ronan Lynch's ability to pull objects from his dreams is out of control but worst of all, the Gray Man is stalking the Lynch family, looking for something called the Greywaren.

RONAN LYNCH'S SECOND SECRET WAS ADAM PARRISH !!!!!!!!!

tink 😵‍💫⭐

i don't know where to start if not saying that this is a full five stars read. i loved it. everything about it is perfect.

i would never understand how maggie stiefvater uses her words so well that i suddenly fell like my body moves from my bed from henrietta, it is just special. i'm there with them.

this book is based mostly on ronan, and damn i LOVE RONAN LYNCH 😭😭 !!!

blue and gansey are being the cutest ever idk man i just love this loser boy and this fantastic strong woman together

i don't know where to start if not saying that this is a full five stars read. i loved it. everything about it is perfect.

i would never understand how maggie stiefvater uses her words so well that i suddenly fell like my body moves from my bed from henrietta, it is just special. i'm there with them.

this book is based mostly on ronan, and damn i LOVE RONAN LYNCH 😭😭 !!!

blue and gansey are being the cutest ever idk man i just love this loser boy and this fantastic strong woman together

The last book was definitely better than this one. I just found myself not caring for the plot at all and just wanted the character interactions. Hopefully the next book will be better as I will be continuing the series.

Louis Norton

Christine

HUH???????????????????????? EXCUSE ME?????????????????????????????????

akynn 

If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take? Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself. One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams. And sometimes he’s not the only one who wants those things. Ronan is one of the raven boys — a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan’s secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface — changing everything in its wake. Of THE RAVEN BOYS, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote, “Maggie Stiefvater’s can’t-put-it-down paranormal adventure will leave you clamoring for book two.” Now the second book is here, with the same wild imagination, dark romance, and heart-stopping twists that only Maggie Stiefvater can conjure. Praise for THE DREAM THIEVES: * "Richly written and filled with figurative language...this story of secrets and dreams, of brothers and of all-too-real magic is an absolute marvel of imagination and an irresistible invitation to wonder." --BOOKLIST, starred review * "Mind-blowingly spectacular... Stiefvater's careful exploration of class and wealth and their limitations and opportunities astounds with its sensitivity and sophistication. The pace is electric, the prose marvelously sure-footed and strong, but it's the complicated characters...that meld magic and reality into an engrossing, believable whole." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review * "A paranormal thriller...this installment [is] more tense and foreboding than its predecessor–and every bit as gripping." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review * "A complex web of magical intrigue and heartstopping action." -- THE BULLETIN, starred review * "Readers who want a moody chill and appreciate an atmospheric turn of phrase will want to spread more time in Henrietta." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, Book 2)

RONAN’S SECOND SECRET WAS ADAM PARRISH…….

kiana

britt

this book was fucking crazy. sometimes i didn’t want to read it because i was scared about what was going to happen. i absolutely love ronan and his growth is absolutely amazing.

here are my thoughts:
1. RONANNNN love him so much he’s so cool 
2. i still don’t really trust the gray man 
3. kavinsky is insane and needs to be locked up leave my perfect angel sunshine sweet darling ronan alone you freak (jk nvm typed this before i read that part)
4. adam has been fighting for his life please give him some happiness 
5. persephone and calla are perfect as always
6. love gansey and ronan’s relationship 
7. i hope ronan and blue interact more and we get to see some sort of friendship forming between them because i think they’d have such an interesting dynamic
8. BLUE AND GANSEY..

chloe rae

*4.5
Hell. YES. Everything is really picking up and getting so much more INTENSE and I’m still just so obsessed with all the characters and I don’t know what’s going to happen next and I loooove that! I’m so excited for the next one!

Mel 

I have very incoherent thoughts about this book. 
I LOVE RONAN! I found his story to be both riveting and creepy at the same time. 
GANSEY is still one of my favourites. 
I was not a fan of the gray man storyline. It was a bit slow for me. 
I don’t really like Adam either 
I didn’t like Blue as much as I did in the first book. 
Persephone, Calla and Maura were still incredibly intriguing characters. 
The pieces are starting to fall into place.

catalina

Annika Arguemore

Just as grand as the first. Maybe even better?

Syahla Aurel

Ronan Lynch, keeper of secrets, fighter of men, devil of a boy, had told them all that he could take objects out of his dreams.

It was a lot more fun to read than the first book, Ronan is a very interesting character and I love his growth. Also, I feel like there was so much happening in this book yet I still have no idea abt this Blue and Gansey thing, maybe they deliberately save this plot for the last book? idk

garnet

Ronan baby, please let me give u a hug. Miss Maggie killed it, as always. These characters just give me such nostalgic vibes, even though I don't truly know them (it feels like I do). I want the best for them, and I cant wait to grow more with them in the future.

chloé

reading this feels like a religious experience

Melissa Palmer

Book #33 Read in 2014
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (YA)

This is the second book in a YA paranormal series. Teens are trying to find a ley line. This book focuses more on Ronan and his ability to bring back objects that appear in his dreams. Mr. Gray is a complex villain in this book; a hitman hired to bring back the object that is really a person. Blue is still struggling with her destiny of killing her true love with a kiss and is struggling with her feelings for Gansey and her non-feelings for Adam. Of course the ending is a cliffhanger one; book 3 will be out in October.

The characters in this series are interesting and complex. This book started off slowly for me (I loved the first book, The Raven Boys) but picked up halfway through and then was a totally engaging read. Besides the mystery of finding the ley line, there is also a good action plot with Mr. Gray, as well as humor and romance. All in all, a good read.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.”

4.5 ☆

Elliot

¿he acabado el libro el libro ha acabado conmigo? QUE HA SIDO. ESTO.

As always, the following review and other bookish content can be found in my blog, Luie's Digital Bookshelf and also on my Instagram @luies_digital_bookshelf

••••••••••••••••••••••••📜••••••••••••••••••••••••
𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 5/5⭐
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 - 5/5⭐
𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭 - 4.5/5⭐
𝐄𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - 5/5⭐
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 5/5⭐
𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Abuse (parental, referenced), Attempted Murder, Burglary, Car crashes, Character death, Drugs (some intaken with dubious consent), Fire-related character death (non-graphic), Homophobic language, Kidnapping, Murder, Poverty, Sick parents, Terminal illness.
••••••••••••••••••••••••📜••••••••••••••••••••••••

I want to start this review with a quick PSA: I strongly recommend this book, but if you decide to read it, I suggest you research the racist jokes and toxic behaviors of the author Maggie Stiefvater and possibly look into alternatives to supporting her financially, such as getting it from libraries and buying second-hand editions.

“What do you want, Adam? To feel awake when my eyes are open.”

The two aspects that stood out to me the most while reading this book were the characters (relationship dynamics and character arcs) and the narrative style (discussing Ronan as an unreliable narrator). Starting with the characters, I loved Ronan and Gansey in this book so much. Their characterizations were so beautifully written, organic, and intense. Especially Ronan's, not everyone can write the bad-boy-with-a-soft-heart trope well, but Maggie did it. The "knowledge" of his so-called 'soft heart' came mainly from his perspective rather than the other characters. His character had depth and was truly and genuinely developed. The understanding of Ronan's trauma and struggles also came from his POV, in contrast with the first book, where Gansey was the most reliable source for Ronan's past and his will to "fix" things for his friend clouded his judgment.

“It was a sort of ferocious, quiet beauty, the sort that wouldn't let you admire it. The sort of beauty that always hurt.”

Ronan's character arc was my favorite in this series so far, with bold and intricate plotlines that explored different sides of his character. The connection the author established between secrets and his struggle with depression after his father's death was flawless, conveying both his distaste for lies and his love for his father, and the magical reality he lived in because of his secrets. As I said before, this diverges from the first book, where Gansey's idealized and misguided understanding of Ronan's character (both morally and narratively) reduced his characterization and made him a sarcastic and "misunderstood" personality to everyone around him (including the readers).

In contrast, Gansey's character morphs depending on the perspective of the other characters, in distinction to his own. On multiple occasions, Ronan described a romanticized version of Gansey, where his savior complex translates into an ability to see the potential in ordinary or damaged things. But when it comes to Adam, despite their friendship and the love and appreciation they share, there is a much more resentful tone when describing Gansey and his privilege. Blue's perspective of Gansey is my absolute favorite because it is so different from Adam's resentfulness but miles away from Ronan's romanticism. Blue sees him as this unknowingly rude, curious, and brave boy, far away from the world he was born in but utterly at home in this strange, magical world he fell in.

“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them.
Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.”

I also want to talk about Adam in this book: despite not being my favorite character in The Dream Thieves, I disagree with those who say he was whining or "exceedingly angry" throughout this book, I think they missed the point because while he was angry and lashing out, it was understandable, he was confused and scared, he was dealing with leaving his parents' house and his deal with Cabeswater. And although both aspects deserved more growth, they were essential details of his character development. I want to address Kavinsky's character too (and slight spoiler warning) because he represented the lack of identity in Ronan, the part of him that thought the only difference between them was that Ronan had Gansey. And Kavinsky relied on that, up until the point he realized he'd helped Ronan understand himself more deeply than Gansey's watchful eye ever could.

I see Ronan as an unreliable narrator because of his connection with secrets. His lack of awareness of self leads him into tricking himself, and the reader is made to believe this is not the case by his obvious secretiveness and distaste for lies. But ultimately, it doesn't hold up, namely when his internalized homophobia and knowledge of his own and his father's secret are proven to be only a small part of his character. His unreliableness comes from the secrets he keeps from himself, in the deepest and darkest parts of his mind. Throughout the book, the reader is surprised time after time as Ronan's layers and secrets come apart.

“You really didn't see the sadness or the longing unless you already knew it was there. But that was the trick, wasn't it? Everyone had their disappointment and their baggage; only, some people carried it in their inside pockets and not on their backs.”

All this to say, I loved the subtle but captivating way the character development was introduced into this book. Especially considering the plot was not as present in this second novel, don't get me wrong, I loved the smaller plotlines, and the magic system introduced was breathtaking. But the attention was mainly on the characters. The overarching plot was only slightly advanced, while the more individual plotlines got more deeply explored. It was an unusual and risky narrative choice for a big and complex series such as The Raven Cycle. Much like The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves leaves many aspects of the general plot to the next novel. But while the former only sets the base for character development, world-building, and story, the latter explores the characters and magic system but leaves the plot to the remaining novels, all the while building an atmosphere of mystery and leaving the readers on their toes.

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Recommended for: Paranormal fantasy lovers, fans of detailed character arcs. People who love good prose and breathtaking world-building.

Lu Kluck &
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

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Lu Kluck &The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

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Lu Kluck &
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater