Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Teen/YA Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue


My 20-year old son and I are totally hooked on Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series, and I finally found time to read her latest addition, book 3, Blue Lily, Lily Blue. I loved it just as much as the first two books, with its endearing characters and compelling plot.

Since I don’t ever include spoilers in my reviews, and this is book 3 in a series, it will be a short review! If you haven’t read any of the series yet, check out my reviews of The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves and then get started on this wonderful series. What are you waiting for?

In this third book, Blue Sargent is back, along with her first friends ever, The Raven Boys, who’ve fully welcomed her into their group. Although they are still focused on their quest to find Glendower, the mysterious Welsh king who was supposedly buried somewhere in the hills near their Virginia town, more important matters are competing for their attention. Blue’s beloved and kind mother is missing, and the boys want to help Blue find her, though none of them know where to start. Not even the houseful of psychic women in Blue’s home know how to find Maura.

The Raven Boys are each struggling with their own challenges but are still a close group of friends: angry Ronan (who is better understood with each book), poor but proud Adam, quiet Noah, and the handsome Gansey, leader of the group and all-around perfect boy. The strange but endearing women in Blue’s house are back, and the Gray Man is still around. In this novel, Gansey’s friend Malory is also a part of the story, visiting from England and just as obsessed with Glendower as Gansey is. The Gray Man’s boss and his wife provide an even more menacing enemy in this novel.

The suspense continues at a fast pace, as the teens continue to look for Glendower and search for clues to Blue’s mother’s whereabouts. Each of them has a different idea of how to use the wish that finding Glendower would bring them, and they all have their own private concerns. Blue is falling more in love with Gansey but is still terrified of her lifelong curse, that her kiss will kill her true love, and her horrible secret, that Gansey will die in the next year.

This series – and this particular book – has a captivating combination of elements:  mystery, suspense, magic, adventure, and romance. It is all held together by magnetic characters that you come to care about and a well-told story by a talented writer. I’ll pass this one on to my son next, and I can’t wait for the fourth and final book!

391 pages, Scholastic

       

2 comments:

  1. I think I avoided writing a review for this book because it felt so "middle". What could I say about a book that was so clearly in the middle of the series. I am a huge fan of this author and this series, but I keep forgetting all the plot lines and characters in between times. I wish all the books in the series were here now!

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    1. I struggled with that, too, Anne! I pulled out book 2 and flipped through it a bit to remind myself of what had happened and also found that the more I read, the more I remembered...but definitely too much time between books for such a complicated plot!

      Sue

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