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grav_ityTHIS BOOK, YOU GUYS.
I was never really a horse-book kind of girl. And I'm not entirely sure that this was a horse-book, in the truest sense, though at the same time, it was ABSOLUTELY the most horse-book-like horse-book I have ever come across. It was just so...stunning.
I loved Shiver, and enjoyed Linger and Forever, but The Scorpio Races just blew me away. It was beautiful and awful and ancient and everyday and so very Maggie. It was like everything that scared me about "The Isle of Roan Inish" was made more terrifying, more seductive, and more...compelling.
A lot of this is thanks to Maggie's style. In "The Wolves of Mercy Falls", it was stark and cold and desperate and feverish, depending on the circumstances. Here, though, it was relentless. It just kept breaking and breaking, like the sea. I could smell it. I joke a lot that there are certain short stories and fics that I would like to make out with, but I don't know if I've ever said it about an entire novel. I may have to change my mind.
Puck, Kate, was just amazing. I loved that both she and Sean went by their full names more often than not, and I loved how freaking determined about everything she was, particularly when it came to doing things on her own terms. I loved her "real" problems, like Gabe leaving and Finn being Finn and not having any money, and I loved her "book" problems, like getting eaten or dragged into the sea by a horse. She has two scenes, in particular, that were fabulous: the bit in the storm when she and Finn get caught by a capall, and the bit in "The Bread Scene" where she tells Sean she won't be his weakness (um, and his answer). God, I love her.
And Sean! I wasn't sold on him entirely from the start, but he grew on me very quickly in the middle, and by the time he showed up with a loaf of bread, I pretty much adored him beyond reason.
George Holly! I wasn't expecting to like him at all, and he turned out to be freaking amazing. I love that the hope he represents is reasonable and attainable.
I may have snickered rather loudly in the breakroom at work when we met the butcher's family in a scene of blood and their last name was Gratton. :)
I think what's going to stick with me for the longest about this book, this story, was, man-eating horses aside, how real it was. All the best fantasy stories are real, and this one crept into my list. I was prepared to like it, having liked all of Maggie's other books, but I was unprepared for the degree to which I LOVED it.
I am not saying a single word about the ending. But trust me: it's worth going out RIGHT THIS MOMENT and buying it.
10/10 for reasons I cannot adequately explain, because I knew three chapters in that I would never find the words and when I got to the end, I still hadn't.
+++
On a completely shallow note, the book is also physically beautiful: the colour of the binding, the impressed title on the front, the mottled look of the end paper...I may or may not have held it up to my nose in the store and inhaled.
I was never really a horse-book kind of girl. And I'm not entirely sure that this was a horse-book, in the truest sense, though at the same time, it was ABSOLUTELY the most horse-book-like horse-book I have ever come across. It was just so...stunning.
I loved Shiver, and enjoyed Linger and Forever, but The Scorpio Races just blew me away. It was beautiful and awful and ancient and everyday and so very Maggie. It was like everything that scared me about "The Isle of Roan Inish" was made more terrifying, more seductive, and more...compelling.
A lot of this is thanks to Maggie's style. In "The Wolves of Mercy Falls", it was stark and cold and desperate and feverish, depending on the circumstances. Here, though, it was relentless. It just kept breaking and breaking, like the sea. I could smell it. I joke a lot that there are certain short stories and fics that I would like to make out with, but I don't know if I've ever said it about an entire novel. I may have to change my mind.
Puck, Kate, was just amazing. I loved that both she and Sean went by their full names more often than not, and I loved how freaking determined about everything she was, particularly when it came to doing things on her own terms. I loved her "real" problems, like Gabe leaving and Finn being Finn and not having any money, and I loved her "book" problems, like getting eaten or dragged into the sea by a horse. She has two scenes, in particular, that were fabulous: the bit in the storm when she and Finn get caught by a capall, and the bit in "The Bread Scene" where she tells Sean she won't be his weakness (um, and his answer). God, I love her.
And Sean! I wasn't sold on him entirely from the start, but he grew on me very quickly in the middle, and by the time he showed up with a loaf of bread, I pretty much adored him beyond reason.
George Holly! I wasn't expecting to like him at all, and he turned out to be freaking amazing. I love that the hope he represents is reasonable and attainable.
I may have snickered rather loudly in the breakroom at work when we met the butcher's family in a scene of blood and their last name was Gratton. :)
I think what's going to stick with me for the longest about this book, this story, was, man-eating horses aside, how real it was. All the best fantasy stories are real, and this one crept into my list. I was prepared to like it, having liked all of Maggie's other books, but I was unprepared for the degree to which I LOVED it.
I am not saying a single word about the ending. But trust me: it's worth going out RIGHT THIS MOMENT and buying it.
10/10 for reasons I cannot adequately explain, because I knew three chapters in that I would never find the words and when I got to the end, I still hadn't.
+++
On a completely shallow note, the book is also physically beautiful: the colour of the binding, the impressed title on the front, the mottled look of the end paper...I may or may not have held it up to my nose in the store and inhaled.
