The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, Book 2)

By: Maggie Stiefvater

Narrated by: Will Patton

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....

©2013 Maggie Stiefvater (P)2013 Scholastic Inc.

More.

More please.

great book. Looking forward to more.

Magically enthralling!

Did not want to stop listening in. Brilliant performance and story kept me enthralled!
The Raven Boys is fast becoming a favorite series.

Great

Amazing audiobook and the narrator was amazing brought the book to life. This is a fantastic series both in book and audio form.

love love love

Probably my favorite of the 3 out in thus series ... probably because I adore Ronin

Totally absorbing--and then it unravels

To repeat myself: Another great example of a wrist-gnawing narration suddenly made pretty durned good sped up. In other words, I'd completely agree with the reviewer who pans Will Patton as being a bad fit for this book--if I'd listened to this at normal speed. However, at a truly listenable speed (yep, he needs 1.5x--1.0x is *that* bad), I'd say the opposite. 1.5x Will Patton keeps these books from being pigeonholed as YA paranormal romance--and they really are not, in spite of this author having written books of that flavor in the past. His narration fits the mostly-male cast of protagonists, and is even better than the first as he better gets the characters--and his delivery (on 1.5!) is really enjoyable. Despite other listener complaints of him being a bad fit, I can't imagine a female reader convincingly voicing Ronan, who takes the lead a lot more in The Dream Thieves than The Raven Boys.

As for the story, it gets richer and the characters more compelling. While the first book certainly had more of a YA flavor, this one felt broader and almost completely outside the genre. Sure, the protagonists are teenagers, but for the greater part of the book, they're handled with a depth that simply makes them human. Definitely wittier and more eloquent than is realistic, but all the more enjoyable. The ideas are fresh, and the writing is of far higher quality than the YA novels that get churned out left and right. The author does well to not just make this story so much of an Act 2 (as is typical) but rather, focuses on a fresh plot and brings a new antagonist. In other words, there's a real story arc.

However, I was pretty disappointed when the final section of the book started to unravel and push me out of it. I felt that The Raven Boys also started to fray in the last couple chapters, but this one started coming apart far earlier...it felt 10x more jarring and disjointed and rushed. There are WAY too many wth?! moments/scenes, beginning with an absolutely unconvincing and seemingly arbitrary scene when all the characters decide to go over and chat with said antagonist. Pretty much everything from that point devolves. It felt (and disappointingly so, considering how carefully written the rest of it felt) like a book deadline rapidly approaching...and the effect was such that I went from being utterly absorbed in the story and totally caring about these characters...to not being sure I cared that much and feeling mighty dubious about a fictional novel I was just listening to. In other words, the people in a believable world suddenly became contrived characters in a book, and I was just sitting there observing an author make up stuff about them. Big, sad difference. Not sure how that's supposed to compel me to wait for another year until the next book comes out to find out if I still care enough.