The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis

 

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 chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

My thoughts

also the rating is x out of 5 stars

this format is going to change ten times before i’m satisfied, isn’t it?

When I started reading this book, I was in the mood for a story with friends supporting each other. Creating special characters and wonderful interactions between them is something Maggie Stiefvater does incredibly well, almost to perfection. While “The Scorpio Races” didn’t have the same feeling as “The Raven Cycle” in any other way, it did have those people who you can’t help but care for.

It is really a beautiful book, if a bit slow and boring at times. The most wonderful element was the island the whole story were carried out on. What a magical place it is, both in how the nature is described, but also Puck and Sean’s connection to it. Living in a small, countryside place, I really feel the same love they do every time I look around me. But it also gives you a feeling of being one very small person, since the nature isn’t controlled by anyone and never will be. Here’s where the water horses – the capall uisce (yes, I had to look that up) – come into the picture. How do you control something so natural, yet wild and deadly? Short answer: you don’t. Sean Kendrick knows that, which is why I begrudgingly like him and why he’s the best rider on the island.

The book didn’t catch my full attention until the last half. There were a couple of moments I just wanted to put it down and leave it. I’m glad I didn’t, because much later the story still lives with me in some way. “The Scorpio Races” doesn’t contain one of the best plots I’ve read (rather the contrary), but it is different, based on a part of mythology we don’t usually get in young adult. I didn’t really enjoy the ending either. The whole plot was just very predictable, but too well-written to call it “bad”. On the bright side I got a lot done in the two days I procrastinated reading the rest of the book, but as a story, this one still misses something.

I think it will be very person-based whether people like this book or not. I’m still in conflict with myself, because I can’t say I liked it. “The Scorpio Races” is interesting, it is deeper than it first seems, but I’m still not completely sold. It could be that this story is familiar to me, it gives me a sense of having read too much of the genre. On the bright side, it got the relationship with extreme nature right. You can’t stop loving it, because then you may realize it’s holding you hostage and could kill you. At least there’s nice landscape to look at/read about.