I don’t spoil anything for The Dream Thieves, but there may be spoilers for The Raven Boys, so proceed with caution if you haven’t read it!

Wow. This book pretty much blew my mind. I can honestly say that nothing in this book was anything I could expect, and it was fantastic! I had so much fun reading this, there were so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and I am just in awe of the superb writing. Truly, the writing is stunning.

I absolutely adore Maggie Stiefvater. I fell in love with her Wolves of Mercy Falls series and The Scorpio Races. And I don’t know how she does it, but the way she writes is just… magical and alive. The words and thoughts and phrases flow so well, and the writing in The Dream Thieves is no different. Even in the prologue you can’t help but take notice of the writing. It’s gorgeous, it sticks out to you, it makes you think or remember, and it’s filled with such vivid imagery. LOVED it so much.

The characters are probably my absolute favorite part of this book and series. We have the major characters: Blue, Gansey, Ronan, and Adam. Noah is sadly not as important as he was in The Raven Boys. We are introduced to a new character, the Gray Man, who is a hit man(!!). He’s a fantastic addition to the book, and I was very intrigued by his character. Blue’s family is as crazy as ever, but still helpful in their magic-y ways. Each character is important in their own ways, even Kavinsky, who’s a total scumbag, and I love the fact that Maggie Stiefvater is able to keep me interested in ALL of the characters throughout the entire book. Each character has their own little story that does connect in the end with the story as a whole, but I never got tired of any one person.

Gansey, Adam, Blue, and Ronan are the best. I love them SO much. They’re the type of people I wish were real, so I could be friends with them, hang out with them, find Glendower with.

In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.

Gansey is the natural leader, the charismatic one. Ronan was my favorite in The Raven Boys, but now… Gansey totally stole the spotlight. I found myself eager to read more of him, because he’s just so interesting! I love him and his Camaro. Blue is still the only girl in the group of boys, and she’s still cursed with killing her true love if she kisses him. There’s not much romance in this book, like in The Raven Boys, but things do change for Blue. And I’m pretty happy about it, though I didn’t expect to be. Ronan goes a bit crazy and self-destructive now that he knows he can take things from his dreams into reality. He learns more about himself and his power, and it’s a huge revelation. I’ve never read anything like Ronan and his power, and I was so hooked onto his part of the story. Adam is pretty pitiful, he doesn’t know what he wants in life, but he eventually starts making progress and choosing for himself.

All of the characters show such growth. It may or may not be huge change for them, but their relationships with one another shape them in a way that gives them the support they need. I just can’t imagine their group without Gansey, or Adam, or Blue, or Ronan. Their hearts and souls are all entwined, and if someone was missing, it would be like a vital part of them was missing. And oh gosh, the humor. The characters can be so snarky and witty and sarcastic sometimes. It’s not blatantly in-your-face kind of hilarious, but more of the quiet, subtle kind. The humor creeps up on you and before you know it, you’re smiling and laughing and falling in love with all the characters all over again.

And the ending was edge-of-your-seat incredible. It’s like everything in the book was building up this tension and leading up to the ending, and when you finally get there, everything explodes. It’s huge and it’s crazy and it’s the most amazing thing to read.

I really did love this book. There were times though, where I found myself getting confused and wondering what was going on, especially with Glendower and the ley lines and the dreams. But despite that, I found myself enjoying the book so much, I didn’t even care I was confused at times. I definitely recommend this book, for its writing, its characters, its uniqueness. But I also recommend going into this with a little bit of patience. It took a while for this book to warm up to me, but in the end, I adored it.

Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.

Reading Order: The Raven Cycle series

#1 ~ The Raven Boys: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Dream Thieves: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ Blue Lily, Lily Blue: Ebook • Hardcover • Goodreads (Oct. 28, 2014)