Archives: 'The Dream Thieves'

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Date: August 11, 2014

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Headline

The Dream Thieves

Maggie Stiefvater

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. 

Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. 

Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

City Calendar:

This is what happened during the week.

The plot has more magical elements. Noah. Ronan’s gift. Adam’s gift. (Which isn’t unveiled into that last hundred pages or so.) This book has more action than the first. The Gray Man is introduced. He’s this…’bad guy’ hit man. He has a purpose in Henrietta. And he will see it through.

The multiple plot lines are, still, annoying. I do love how it seems to always work. You are on the edge of your seat wondering what happens to Blue while you read about, perhaps, Gansey. There is much more revealed in this book, but there are still secrets. Where is the Greywaren power from? Will they find the king? What is happening with Blue and Gansey? How did that form? Where is Blue’s mother? What happened with the Gray Man and Blue’s mother? What will happen next? I feel like Maggie Stiefvater is amazing at the ‘what will happen next’ books. I won’t say that’s a bad thing. It isn’t.

What I love about this plot is that it’s paced so well. You get just enough of one character before jumping to another.

And that's what happened this week.

Personal Ads:

Blue. Blue is, yet again, annoying. She seems to be one of the worst characters in this series! She has limited powers. I feel like she is deadweight at times. She is only there for laughs and romantic moments. She is…the glue in a way. The spark to the fire. I don’t think she has much purpose. And, to me, she has almost no change. Sure, she gained friends. Sure, she met people. She’s expanding her social life, but that isn’t affecting her much. The affecting parts are from her romance. Which is lacking…

Gansey. Gansey is, yet again, an amazing character. You see more sides to him. You see the person at his home. You see the person with Blue. You see him like he’s a prism with too many sides to count. I don’t want to know how many sides. But. In this book, he takes shotgun as a character. He isn’t the main main character. That would be Adam. Or Ronan. It really feels like Ronan takes the spotlight in this book.

Adam. In this book, Adam grows. As a character. He is originally pretty pathetic. Not in a bad way. It’s in the way you want to cuddle and hold him close and kiss him and love him. He seems like the perfect best friend. He’s there for you. He helps. He’s defiant at times and grows more powerful. Though, I feel something between Persephone and him. Is that weird? Probably… Heh heh. Adam grows from someone weak and confused to someone powerful and…purposeful. He feels like he has no reason to go on, but he ends up with many reasons. Blue rejects him, but that’s fine. I didn’t like that couple anyways! Adam. I wanted more of him, and I got what I wanted. Thank you, Maggie Stiefvater.

Ronan. The main narrator. This book is Ronan’s book. It’s about him. His power. His story. The mysteries seem to revolve around Ronan. He is the main player. And I don’t mind. He’s that punk guy who want to talk to. He’s the guy with tattoos who is intimidating. But. He has his soft side. He has his sweet side. And that’s something you feel lucky to see if you see it. Ronan is confused. He doesn’t know how to control his powers. He gains control. He gains the responsibility of it. He learns. Ronan is pretty smart even though Adam is portrayed as the ‘smart one’. Ronan is powerful. Extremely so. He just mixed in with the bad crowd. A lot. And…he’s spared. He gains that. Which is quite amazing.

The Gray Man. He’s not a main character. He IS one of the narrators, and he has such an amazing change. I had to add him in! He begins as this cold-hearted guy. You begin to hate him. You hate that he is a hit man. You hate that he does this…so emotionlessly. But. As he meets Maura and hash his life-changing insta-love, you begin to develop an attachment. You don’t want him to go. You don’t want him to hurt. You want to see Dean Allen. You want to see who he is. This is a classic: bad guy turned good. But…the Gray Man/Dean Allen is one character I want to see gains powers. That would be just awesome. Like…an assassin with the power to predict the best plan of escape. That would be amazing.

Opinions:

The good points. Well…the plot is nice. I like it. There is a lot of action. I feel satisfied. There are questions, and the cliffhanger makes me want to yank out my hair, but I feel as if Maggie Stiefvater created an amazing book. The premise is interesting. You are drawn in the powers and  the secrets. There are unanswered mysteries you want to know about.

And I love that Adam and Ronan play a bigger part in this book. They are important characters. They seem to have a purpose. Almost everyone does. Everyone has their own part to play. Gansey is the leader. Adam is the magician. Ronan is the dream thief, the Greywaren. And Blue is there for moral support! And Noah is just adorable. A ghost? I mean…I’m paranoid and all, but Noah is just one of those people you want as your best friend. He did such an adorable scene with Blue when they tried to kiss.

There are only a few problems I can think of. This is one of those books I rushed through. My memory is spitting out almost nothing at me right now. But. I do have some complaints.

The insta-love between Maura and the Gray Man was adorable, but it was too rushed. What connection was there? How was he drawn to her? What did she do?

Another problem? The lack of romance between Gansey and Blue. The first book kept drilling the prophecy of Blue’s true love’s kiss into your head, but that doesn’t happen in this book. Why? Do we have to wait for a book on Gansey? It seems like the first was Blue’s, and the second was Ronan’s. Who is the central character in book three? From the Goodreads description, it looks like Miss. Annoying takes center stage. Gah.

Blue is just a problem by herself. To me, she is just one of those characters you hate. She is annoying and bratty at times. Her backstory isn’t that interesting. She has limited powers. She isn’t very good at the romance that has been repeated over and over. Why is she really there? Why not a more interesting character? Maura is more interesting than her!

Another problem is the multiple narrators. It’s interesting, but it is hard to keep track of sometimes. It feels like it’s non-linear at times, and I just simply lose myself. I love this book, but it just doesn’t help when you skip from Adam to Ronan to Gansey.

Weather:

Sunny with a chance of 20% rain

4/5