Woman Reading

Horses, Water Horses, brooding man, romance, Maggie's lyrical writing... loved it.

Despite all the glowing reviews, and my own love of The Raven Cycle series, it took me a really long time to finally read The Scorpio Races. I don’t really have a good reason for it. I really appreciate Ms. Stiefvater’s prose, how romantic it feels, and I have always had an affinity for books about horses. This is even better, because it’s about a Water Horse race! I literally have no excuse for why it too me so long to crack this one open.

When I start to get into the meat of the story, my instinct is to say that there aren’t a lot of characters, outside of Sean and Puck. Then when I start trying to talk about the plot I realize that there was actually a whole town full of characters. The story just melded so seamlessly that you didn’t really notice the amount of people in the story. Puck had two brothers, and a whole community of people who cared about her. Sean was a more solitary character, but everyone knew him and he brought the story all the way around by knowing all the riders. I really thought that Puck and Sean’s friendship, and eventual relationship was unhurried and sweet. I love the way Ms. Stiefvater doesn’t rush through the story just for the romance. I love how the story would still be just as brilliant if the romance wasn’t written, and yet the romance doesn’t ever feel like excess. It’s the perfect medium.

The horses! The author knows horses! It’s obvious she’s spent a lot of time with them, knows how they move, knows mannerisms. The real world horses were perfect, particularly Dove, but the fantasy of the Water Horses was beautiful. I would never want to ride one, but I understood why Sean both loved and distrusted his Water Horse, Corr. They sounded stunning, but exceptionally dangerous.

I don’t have anything negative to say about The Scorpio Races. I know some people felt it was too slow, or two meandering, but that type of writing style is what I loved most about the book. It felt legendary. As though The Scorpio Races are a long lived folktale.

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