Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater is not one of the author’s best books as normally she has better books such as the Scorpio races which is a must read. I think the most famous of her books is the Shiver Trilogy
This is the first one in the series, and the second one is called Ballad, but is from a different person’s viewpoint.
16 year old Dee can see Faeries and is what they call a Clover hand. But she doesn’t always have the best of luck; living with a crazy horrible aunt and an over protective mother is only just the beginning. As she finds that her boy friend who she absolutely loves is a faerie assassin that has been sent to kill her.
Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception
by Maggie Stiefvater
The book’s blurb isn’t that great on the book., just to warn you. The only reason I picked it up was because I really liked a book by her and thought that she was a good author, but I made the mistake to think that all her books were good. Some are, but not all of them are.
The storyline I have read over a million times! I already half knew the out come but I liked the twist that they did right at the very end which I didn’t see coming and that was something new. The chemistry between her and her boyfriend Luke is what I call “mushy mushy” at some points, but in a sweet and cute kind of way, and I found the name Luke amiable.
The development of the character James (Dee’s best friend) was really in depth and I felt that I grew to like the character and understand him even more then the main character which was a bit of a shame as that ruined the book for me.
What I didn’t enjoy about the book was the way that Dee seemed so unsurprised the whole way through the book about seeing all these weird things and learning about them all. For that, it kind of made the book have a monotone most of the way through.
There was also the big build up to the grand finale when she was suppose to defeat the evil person, that kind of thing, and it fell really flat as I was expecting something far huger to happen.
I would recommend this book to people over the age of 10 up till 14 as that is when the book starts to get a bit boring. People who like romance, fantasy and adventure would find this book to their taste.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
(you don’t really have to guess do you!)
IF YOU LOVE HORSES THEN YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO READ THE REST OF THIS REVIEW!!
GET THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!!!!
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is also my new favourite book ever in the whole wide world!!!:) My friend got it for me for my birthday and now I think that she wishes she hasn’t as I have not stopped talking about this book for one minute of the day and probably never will stop.
Every year, they hold the Scorpio races. A race that uses no ordinary horses but the savage water horses and that can mean death. Most years, the sea is turned red by the blood spill.
Puck enters the race to save her family and the house. She finds herself drawn to Sean Kendernick. The only person on the whole island who can tame these beasts.
When I was reading this book, it sucked me in so well that I could actually hear the pounding hoofs and men shouting, that I could taste the salt that came from the sea and see the horses as if they stood before me themselves. I love the images that she captured in her writing!
LOVE The Scorpio Races
The whole way through this book my heart was racing, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next and I was literally glued to the book the whole day! The way that she wrote made the horses seem so mythical and ethereal, and she made those creatures her own sort of animal.
Also she didn’t try piling on facts about the water horses (they are not actually called that in the book, but I will never be able to spell it so I just put them as water horses) the whole time and making them sound a really complex creature when they actually not which a lot of people tend to do. Seriously, if you are a horse lover, you have to read it as the description about them and the way that they act and move is just amazing!!
The storyline is also still very fresh and original with no influences from other people’s writing. The vocab was just hard enough for you to pick up one or two good words, but not so hard that you had to camp out next to a dictionary the whole time.
I like the way she has written the book dividing it up into view points from two characters. You could see things through other people’s eyes and it added an extra element in the book. I loved some of the names used as I think that they were very inventive, especially the horse’s names.
By the way, reading the prologue is necessary and a must. There are no two ways about it. That prologue got me hooked the first second.
However, the ending is sooooooooo sad!!! I cried buckets and rivers!!! In a way I understand why she made the ending that way so that it isn’t another one of those books where everything ends happily, but I just wish that what happens at the end happens to someone else and I think that it is so unfair to that character!!
That person has already gone through so much! But I liked the race, just before the sad bit!! That was the best thing in any book that I have ever read.
There is also one more little problem that I found and this might just be for me though. I find that when the author swaps the narrating from one character to another, I prefer Sean’s story to Puck’s. When it’s his turn, I really get into the book more and feel more connected with him somehow and he seemed to be doing way more interesting things than Puck. Some of Puck’s descriptions does get a little bit long especially if you really want to know what happens next and I think that the way Sean reacts with his horse is much more emotional then Puck’s way as well.
I hope that she doesn’t write a second book though as I think that one is enough and two will pull out the story too much and end up ruining the whole thing.
I think that this would make an excellent class book as there is so much to talk about. The images and descriptions are just dripping with a rich flavour and begging to be delved into! I would recommend this book to people over the age of 10 and all the way to one hundred. There is no age limit to this book at all. People who like:
Action
Adventure
Fantasy
Romance
need to get this book right now!
But then again, I think that everyone should read this book!
