Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Upon completion of Maggie Stiefvater’s Blue Lily, Lily Blue, I am 3/4 of the way done with [audiobook] marathoning my way through The Raven Cycle. Wheee!

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.
Friends can betray. Mothers can disappear. Visions can mislead. Certainties can unravel.

There’s not a lot one can say in a review of a sequel without giving away loads from the precursors, so while I will do my best not to spoil things, I’d recommend not reading this if you’re interested in staying 100% spoiler free.

1) caves, 2) sleepers, and 3) friendship

What I liked:
1) Characters: Stiefvater is excellent at characters, and she has some really wonderful characters in this book. Never before have I loved villains as much as I love hers (Colin and Piper!). Also, Jesse Ditley is perfect.

2) Friendship: Man, oh man, the friendship that is between these Raven Boys and Blue is fantastic and real. The arguments, the sentimental moments (OMG: Adam’s court hearing? I smiled so hard.), the just-being-normal-teenagers things, and the tragedies. And then there’s the relationship between the boys and Blue’s family. SO WONDERFUL. I just want to eat it all up.

3) Mystery: I love a book that gives you a lot of opportunity to formulate your own theories about what’s going on. Now that this is the third book in the series, my little brain cogs are doing a lot of turning. There’s all this talk of waking sleepers and making sure you wake the right one, and we’re leaning a lot more about the Welsh King they’re trying to find, and then there’s a crazy cave lady, and animated animal bones in a cave, and oh, Blue might be more than an amplifier of pyschic ability?!? There’s just so many strange happenings! It’s all so much fun!

4) The sadness: There definitely are some sad things that occur in this book, and it makes the me feel like there’s more at stake. I always like a little nail-biting and edge of seat-ness when reading, and based on how this book went, I think The Raven King (the finale of the series) isn’t going to disappoint!

What I didn’t like:
1) Pacing: Why, oh, why do I get through these books so slowly? I mentioned this in the review of the previous book in the series, The Dream Thieves, and I still am confused as to why these books just don’t grab me when I love almost everything about them. Maybe it’s just the audiobook factor? Who knows.

If you’ve read this series: Stiefvater is the master of characters, am I right?! Who were some of your favorite characters from the series so far (no spoilers for The Raven King, please!)? 

A.S. Thornton

A. S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger (at “the bandar blog”) to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available now wherever books are sold.