Book Review: The Scorpio Races

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      As a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater, author of The Wolves of    Mercy Falls trilogy. I decided to give The Scorpio Races a try. And OMG! Stiefvater just continues to occlude me. It is a stand alone novel that revolves around a mythology of sea horses. Written from the point of views of the two main characters Sean Kendrick and Kate ( Puck ) Connolly. 


     So, the story takes place in the Thisby Island in Ireland. A remote, fictional place where some flesh eating sea horses called the Cappaill Uisce (plural/ pronounced Copoll-Ooshka) and Capall Uisce (singular/ pronounced Capell-Ishka) appears. And every November an annual race is being held between those Cappaill Uisce and their riders and rewarded with an irresistible amount of money when winning, making it possible for people to risk their lives for it. But those sea horses are nothing like normal ones obviously, and so the islanders are all at risk and many deaths occurs every day.

   Sean Kendrick is an expert when it comes to those sea horses. He is the one who everyone turns to when a disaster happens because of the sea horses and believe me much happens. Nineteen years old lonely boy and a four-time winner of the races but this race may seem more of importance. With winning this specific one, he gets his dream, freedom. But then you could easily observe the true bond between him and his horse, Corr, the fastest and most valuable sea horse of all. On the other hand, Puck seems to be obligated to join the race. She needs the money. Her parents were killed by those horses leaving her with her two brothers. Now, not only will she be the first woman to race but also on her own horse, not a sea horse.

     I love how Sean and Puck slowly develop a sweet relationship step by step. And Stiefvater has this style of writing that never falls in enchanting me, she has this way with words that can deliver the scene as desired. The characters are easy to visualize and genuine. Puck was so easy to go with. And when reading it from the two different point of views, it is really shown how Maggie completely transforms and she was able to wear the two characters pretty well. But to be honest, at the very beginning it might not be the most captivating but then once in, there is no way out, ( I mean, I finished this book two days :o ) you can easily get sucked in.   

    My only complaint was that there wasn't much about the race itself. The whole book revolves around the races but then by the end it wasn't sufficient. I couldn't even imagine the race quite well and also the part after when the race ended. What I feel is that Maggie Stiefvater was in a bit of a hurry while writing this book ;)

   Overall, a tremendous, refreshing read with an interesting mythology and an enjoyable storyline. Magically written as always when it comes to Stiefvater. This book made it's way to my favourites shelf and I absolutely recommend it. I personally LOVE horses by the way, so anything that includes horses is fun for me. But even if horses isn't something of your interest, I don't think that it has much of an impact.

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Pages: 409
Grade Rating:  

Happy Reading Everyone!
xoxo, Mariam