Blue Lily, Lily Blue ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Scholastic Press,
ISBN: 9780545424974
400 pages
Source: Barnes and Noble

I have avoided finishing this series for years. I started with the first book, years ago, and stopped because, at the time, I was so unable to part with Maggie and she was not potting them out quickly enough for my taste (read: I am an impatient brat). As a result, I slowed down and eventually just dropped The Raven Boys and Blue and Company altogether.

And, I mean, I’m kind of glad I did wait until they were all out and done because reading them in sequence has been fantastic. Though they’re fairly short books (300-40 pages, roughly), Maggie manages to draw up this world inside tiny, rural Henrietta that encompasses an entire universe in dreams and wishes and secrets.

If you haven’t gotten this far, turn away, now, and go read the first two books.

You’ve been warned.

I said, Good Day, sir!

Ok, so hopefully the remaining folks are all up to speed on at least the first two books but I’ll try not to rip through spoilers as much as I can.

For starters, I love Ronan a lot more after the end of Dream Thieves but I was still glad to get a little break from his obsessive inner turmoil. That said, I was pleased to see that his edges were starting to wear down, especially in terms of sexual orientation because, honestly, the closeted thing was probably a huge part of Ronan’s grumpiness.

And, I should probably make note of the fact that just because we left Ronan’s inner angst, we are not absolved from angst altogether. The book took the typical trip through the minds of our young people, rotating as always. But for me, the dips into the psyches of the adults proved to be the connective piece for this portion of the story.

One drawback to this book, for me, was a rather intense scene between Adam and his dad (that wasn’t the drawback) but more so the follow-up court case that seemed to be slightly glossed over in light of everything else the family had been dragged through. That is to say, I was really interested in seeing that aspect of the story fleshed out and it sort of fell by the way side.

Other than that minor quibble, though, the third book was certainly my favorite, so far. So much exploring of interpersonal dynamics within the group which delighted my social worker heart, of course.

I guess that’s it without laying out the entire mystery of the book (which is glorious, by the way).