I didn't like this quite as much as the first book in the series, but I don't think it is actually any worse of a book. 

 

The tricky thing with second books is that, even when they step everything up (and this absolutely did, don't get me wrong--it was beautiful, everything that happened here), they aren't the first book. I don't always feel this way, admittedly, but sometimes just being introduced to a series is more important than anything but a (very good) finale--it gives me more intense emotions, and it is easier to hook me. 

 

The Dream Thieves is about Ronan, and it handles his rather startling announcement at the end of book one in full force. In addition, everything else is stepped up to eleven. There's magic and mayhem, the legends and search for a legend and all the curious mythology built up around the town of Henrietta (which is going on my list of favorite fictional towns, let me tell you) is lovely, and the villains--let's just say there are more than one, and the most menacing is probably not the most infuriating. 

 

Exploring the entirety of Ronan's gift, and his father's gift, was fascinating, and there is more Glendower and more weirdness and more exploring of everything that made me love the first. But, again, for some reason I can't explain this didn't touch me quite as deeply. 

 

Some of this might be Ronan, who kind of takes center stage for a large chunk of the book. He is fascinating and dark and complex and well-written, but he's also kind of a dick, and even when you're rooting for him, you're faintly annoyed with him. I'm not really a "bad boys" kind of girl, and Ronan is, for all that he is not stereotypical in almost any way, decidedly of the "bad boy" variety, so I enjoy his snarky commentary and yet am annoyed by his inability to handle things like most people.

 

Blue continues to be a lovely insight into two different groups of very odd individuals: the psychics at 300 Fox Way, her family (for better or worse), and the titular Raven Boys themselves, who have accepted her into their ranks (again for better or worse) and continue to fascinate and frustrate her in equal measure. She's just enough of an outsider from both groups for her to see things a little more clearly, and just enough of an insider to have insights that give depth to the understanding of both groups, so it's fun to be in her head and see what's going on there.

 

She's not the only character who we get free head rides from, though, and that's part of what lends this book the depth it has. I feel like I keep overusing the word "depth" throughout this review, but it's hard to explain it in any other way--the cast and legends and place are remarkably three-dimensional and full of shadowy corners and the kind of layers that come only in real people in places or in excellently-written books. It's hard not to believe in Glendower, in dream thieving, in the corpse road and everything that it foretells.

 

Then there's Gansey. I think I kind of have a crush on Gansey. Gansey is kind of amazing. It's been a bit since I had a character that made me get all fangirl-y and ridiculous, but I kind of am here. I can't describe him even remotely objectively, so I'm just going to state that I think he's clever and brave and reminds me of a knight of old on a quest, this time for knowledge, and that's about all I can manage without sounding insane, I'm afraid. 

 

I am ready for the next in this series and at the same time afraid, because I don't quite want this story to end, I'm not quite ready to let go of these people and this place and the legend of Glendower, and it's hard to admit it has to come to an end eventually. 

 

I'm not quite sure why I am on such a contemporary YA kick lately (except that all of my holds from the library came in simultaneously--that probably explains both my reading choices and my lack of writing, actually), but I enjoyed this.

 

When it finally came in, I couldn't remember a blasted thing about it, so I was charmed by the plot, although not by the characters. Sam is a pain. She does grow throughout the book, but good grief, let's be honest here: she was a high school bully. She learns from the situation she has been put in and by the end I was rooting for her, but this was one of those situations where I was very happy that I read quickly, because having not been a high school bully (are any of us who read to the point that we are on a website like this the types who could look back and go "Yup, I totally bullied people in high school and was not bullied at all"? I'm curious.) and thus not having rose-tinted glasses for the whole experience, chunks of it were rough to read.

 

Several of the other characters do not get the kind of development I would like. Sam eventually realizes she is kind of a bitch, and I understand, given the situation, that the other girls in her little posse probably can't develop into better people, but I would have preferred that we not have Sam sweep the fact that several of them are genuinely horrid people under the rug with "Oh, well, she was upset for this completely ridiculous reason a decade ago at this person, so she is actually a nice person underneath it all although she has had a decade-long grudge of crazy." Because that is not development, that is not what that means, that does not excuse that kind of nonsense. You are welcome, Sam, to like her in spite of her flaws; nobody is perfect and maybe she has been a good friend to you (I don't see it, but okay, sure, your friends are sometimes your friends), but she is not a nice person because she is nice to you. Her behavior to other people still counts, and I hated to see this handwaved when the whole point of this novel is for Sam to have some character development about why her behavior was wrong.

 

Sorry, that was kind of a long and crazy rant. I'm not sure I realized how much it bothered me until I started typing, there.

 

Now that I have whined about the things that were wrong, it seems only fair to talk about the things done right, since in the end, as you will probably note by my score, I liked this book.

 

I enjoyed the ending, which I felt was very appropriate. I liked Sam's character development. I loved the focus on the little moments and small things that you don't always stop to notice or care about enough, and Sam's ability to appreciate them as time went on (or, okay, didn't). I liked the plot, although it has been done before to some extent, and I enjoyed watching it play out as she realized what was going on.

 

And Kent. Kent I loved. Kent was amazing and adorable.

 

All in all, I did like this. I'm happy I read it. It was interesting and intriguing, but I'm probably not going to re-read it and it is not the sort of thing that will stick with me very long.