The Scorpio Races

A friend lent me this book and even if I wasn't under the gun before I had more reading for school I would've stayed up obscenely late to read! So captivating and definitely encouraged me to put her other books on my to-read shelf.

Such a wonderful, magical tale! The magic and world pulled me in! I fell in love with Thisby and its strange and awesome scorpio races!

DNF ~ 20%

I think Maggie Stiefvater is a hit-or-miss author for me. It's upsetting because I absolutely adored the first novel in her Shiver series, so I had been hoping to love this one just as much. I just wasn't drawn to the story with this one; it seemed to be dragging on a lot, to the point where I just didn't want to continue on. Sorry team. I do want to try Maggie's other books, though.

I didn't DNF this due to quality. Listened to it on audiobook for a while, but then my loan expired. I don't think I'm quite cut out for audiobooks, so I'll come back to this in print later!

Ada yang mengikuti lomba untuk menang. Ada yang mengikuti untuk bertahan hidup. Berlangsung setiap awal bulan November : Lomba Scorpio. Para penunggang berusaha untuk mengendalikan kuda air mereka hingga garis finish. Beberapa penunggang hidup, lainnya tewas.
Pada umur sembilan belas, Sean Kendrick adalah juara bertahan. Dia pemuda yang tidak banyak bicara, dan apabila punya hal yang takutkan, dia menyembunyikannya rapat-rapat.
Puck Connolly berbeda, dia tidak pernah dimaksudkan mengikuti Lomba Scorpio. Tapi takdir tidak memberinya banyak pilihan. Jadi dia mengikuti kompetisi, gadis pertama sepanjang sejarah yang melakukannya. Puck tidak tahu apa yang akan dia hadapi.
Lomba Scorpio selama ini hanya diikuti oleh pemuda maupun laki-laki untuk mengendalikan kuda air hingga garis finish untuk mendapatkan hadiah uang. Terdengar mudah, namun kuda air tidak seperti kuda umumnya. Kuda air adalah mahluk berbahaya yang keluar dari laut Scorpio dan selalu menjawab panggilan laut dan menggoda para penunggangnya supaya mereka menyerahkan diri ke laut. Karenanya, banyak penunggang yang menjadi korban tewas. Kuda air sendiri keluar dari laut menjelang bulan November dan bisa ditangkap untuk kemudian dilatih untuk bisa diikutkan di Lomba Scorpio.
Aku sangat menikmati membaca buku ini, ditulis dengan baik dan pemakaian diksi yang tidak hiperbola. Kisah antara Sean & Puck termasuk slow burn dan tidak dipaksakan.
Aku merekomendasikan buku ini untuk yang menginginkan fantasi dengan world building dan magic systen yang tidak rumit. Dan tidak keberatan dengan sedikit romance.

I started this on the audiobook version and soon remember why I don't listen to audiobooks: I can't pay attention/get into them. I ended up checking out a physical copy from my library and it was great :) Stiefvater is definitely one of my favorite authors

December 2022
OH MY GOSH THAT ENDING THO

November 2023
I'm really glad I gave this book a second try! I have now reread it because I love the writing and the atmosphere and the characters!

My full thoughts (and my adventures making November cakes can be found on my youtube channel

Review from January 2017, preserved for comparison purposes:

DNF page 80 ish

I'll admit that I did not give this one much of a chance. But the pace is soooo sloooow, the characters are uninteresting, and nothing at all has happened. I looked at a few reviews to see if it is worth continuing, and decided to ditch it when I read the race is not until the very end and only lasts about 10 pages. Umm, no.

The narrators for the audio book are awesome.

I didn't think I'd end up loving this as much. The beginning was a bit slow and I thought - although I adore Maggie Stiefvater's writing - that this story just wasn't for me. But then I read on and suddenly, I found myself totally taken with the island of Thisby and its inhabitants, both human and equine (and feline... Puffin grew on me).

And that ending was too much for my heart. I want to go back and re-read the book right now, it was so good!

Full review at SFF Book Review.

This was so amazing! I loved Sean and Corr's relationship! The ending was so good.

Oh hey, once upon a time I read books not assigned to me from school! But I am free from the shackles of grad school until I decide to get another master's degree and go further into unending debt so I thought I would start updating this again! And maybe start reading again? Who knows what the future holds??

Beyond my general love of all animals, I was never a Horse Girl™ but had I read this at a more impressionable age, I probably would have been converted. As always, Maggie Stiefvater utilizes her way with evocative language to really draw me into the settings and care for this dangerous-yet-beautiful water horses (and of course, sweet Dove).

First person is hit or miss, especially with alternating POVs, but I thought it was handled fairly well in this book. I definitely liked Puck more than Sean though; angry girls who want to spit at people and are fiercely dedicated to their family are my jam.

I definitely recommend reading this in November/whenever the weather is grey and gloomy and miserable out, to get the full effects of Thisby as a place and as a character. While I didn't get into it as much as my beloved Raven Cycle, it was still an overall well-written book. 3/5 stars

The Scorpio Races does not have the same flow as other Stiefvater books. There is a weight here that holds you in place more than it drives you forward. Which is interesting considering that this is a book about a race. The whole point is moving forward, right? But its central characters are the kind that have deep deep roots, and dig their heels in firm. Puck Connolly wants to keep her home; Sean Kendrick only knows at first that wants to stay with his wicked water horses, until he finally sees that he wants one horse in particular, and one girl - which would be Puck. They want to stay in place, but its the race that coaxes them forward.

Sean Kendrick is the kind of character that you know Maggie Stiefvater loves to write, and is so hard not to love to read. He's one part fiery strength and fortitude, the other part cold discipline. One foot on land, the other foot in the sea. He walks in the room and inanimate objects get out of his way. If this book had been a touch more magical, there probably would have been a revelation that he is in fact part fae. And while Sean is defined by what he is, what he's made himself into, Puck Connolly is defined by what she wants to become. Sean is definitely the more interesting character, and I like the way Maggie differentiates their voices between chapters. Not that I disliked Puck at all, without her the story would have likely been too detached. But her character is less distinct at the start of things, and while her chapters are more frequent, I found myself craving Sean's.

I also love George Holly, whose role is basically to be Sean Kendrick's personal cheerleader, because hell sometimes you need that. When he first showed up, I was pretty convinced that he was flirting with Sean. I realized after a while though that George Holly would probably flirt with a brick wall if he liked it enough. I'm not sure if his sensuality is more tied to his wealth or his American-ness. But his presence is also tied to the fact that I think Stiefvater really likes OT3s, and as much as she enjoys writing romances she also really likes writing friendships between men.

And that brings me to the romance, which is what I imagine a lot of real young romances are like. Sudden, powerful and without much in the way of reason. I think what draws Sean and Puck together is their admiration for each other, or at least that's my best guess, because ultimately this stuff is animal. They want the same things in the same way, and they're good enough people for it to not get in the way of what they want for each other. When they both realize that they both need to win the race in order to have what they want most in the world, but obviously can't both win, it never causes any friction between them. It just is, the same way they both just are.

Which might be why my reading of this was slow, and yet I can't knock this story for being the way it is. I wouldn't want any arbitrary squabbles between Sean and Puck, the danger of the race was enough, and the race completely lives up to the anticipation, it is riveting. Stiefvater's prose is clever and lyrical as ever, and her need for speed gets your heart thumping. I was going to say earlier that Puck does more growing in this story, but Sean has an extraordinary moment as well. I think Puck's growth comes in realizing what she's capable of, and Sean's comes in realizing what others are capable of doing for him. This book is not whimsical, it is so grounded its the earth. Or at the very least, its sand on the beach.

Darker and edgier horse book, for those outgrowing Misty of Chincoteague but not ready to leave horse books behind. Unless carnivorous horses appeal to you, I recommend the Heralds of Valdemar books instead.

The audiobook has different readers for the male and female leads, which works well enough until the two have conversations with one another. The female reader makes everyone sound very young, mid-teens usually. The male reader makes Sean sound 25-30. Someone really dropped the ball on making the audiobook mesh.

Actually three and a half - mostly because of characters (aka Puck) and I just really want about 900 pages focused solely on the water horses. Is there a petition I can sign asking Goodreads to add half stars? Review to come when I've finished emotionally crying over college life.

I remember reading Shiver (by the same author) as a teen and being completely over it– something hard to do when I was in love with vampires and werewolves. Because of this, I have yet to give Maggie Stiefvater a second chance, but with all the hoopla over The Raven Boys, I decided before starting a series I would see how I liked a stand alone book first.
I'm glad I gave it a try.

To start, I think it is important to note that I read this as an audiobook, and I generally have more patience with these books, I do not feel them drag too much (thank you x1.6 speed). Yet, for a book about a race and preparing for the race, I thought it would be a much bigger deal. The race itself was very short! I was expecting a distance or endurance race, not just 2 miles. This was one of those times I would have liked some description.

I did enjoy that people were not always described. And three cheers for Puck not fawning over Sean's good looks (was he good looking?)! This was very refreshing.
Can I also take a moment to mention how awesome Puck is? And during the 1920-30s I believe because a reporter brought up the Women's Sufferage movement – please correct me if I am off. She has to fight against evil mean horses as well as stupid-ass men. Even though she had to be rescued a few times, I thought she handled herself very well.

So, as a journey with Puck and Sean to understand what happiness is, and how we can become our own people, I really enjoyed this book. The race almost seemed like an afterthought (lol). I appreciated the ending as well.

This book has convinced me to try reading The Raven Boys.

I recommend this book to people who like books with animals, books with multiple POV, coming-of-age books, and books that are a little slower in pace. This is definitely not a book for someone who wants epic world-building or everything explained to them.

Let's just say someone was utterly speechless and didn't expect the book to end at all.
I loved this so much , It's going to be my favourite book of the year ( or one of them) because I love it that much.

I was reading as one does when they pick up a book and all of a sudden the book ended , but it ended just how it began , in an entirely beautiful manner altogether.

The world building and the world generally was something that I'd never had the chance to read about before . But : Sea Horses ? Races ? Death + destruction ? tragic characters ? Sean Kendrick ? Count me in.

People/Horses:

PUCK : Her name is in fact not Puck , it is Kate , but people who know her that call her it , so shall I because I have just read her whole story about her racing. She was the first girl to races in the races. Yes no one really likes the female kind on the beach in the middle of November because the Scorpio Races are considered a man's sport , and with all the death and similiar things that occur during it I can totally see why , but this aside , because she needs the money , she races. She raced very well .

DOVE: This happens to be Puck's horse , she's a white island pony that she races and is defnitely in love with Corr which would make sense too.

SEAN : Kendrick , Sean Kendrick. He's won the races 4 times in a row and has a capill usice ( excuse the spelling , but that means water-horse) , is mysterious and loves Corr and the beach and the Sky and racing and of course his blue jacket of his. He is wonderful , although may appear to look intimidating as I've learned from Puck. Nonetheless , he is beautiful.

CORR: My favourite horse of all ( sorry Dove) , and he is most definitely in love with Dove too ( It's very hard for water horses to settle down as it were) and he's red , feisty , but loves Sean with all his heart and never leaves his side. Oh and he made me cry , just as Sean did.

Overall , if you haven't read this :
1) what are you doing ? what are you reading instead of this book?
2) It will make you want to live in Thisby ( Its fictional but still)
3) Sean Kendrick. ( and all the other characters too shh)
4) Please pick it up !!

Its my favourite thing.

Unusual and beautifully unforgettable. Full review to come.

Warning: Bloody, gory death of multiple animals. And humans, though who really cares about that?

Honestly, four times this book made me feel sick. Truly nauseous. If you, like me, are a soft touch when it comes to animal death (including horses, so, no, I do not recommend this for ‘horse lovers') and hate seeing mutilated animals or those in pain, don't read this book!

Now, on to the review.

This book is not at all what I expected it to be. I thought it would be about the Races - kind of like a Hidalgo (movie) that took place over an entire island. A huge, multi-legged race that was half skill, half speed and half endurance.

It isn't. The ‘races' are short, beach races and the longest is two and a quarter miles long. It's kind of a strange ‘survival of the fittest' idea, because endurance plays no part, skill, almost none and speed, very little. And the ‘races' (which we know absolutely NOTHING about the shorter ones) don't start until the book is nearly over.

I thought the ‘water horses' would be actual horses made from water and barely held together by the rider's magic - and if the rider's concentration would slip for just a moment ‘poof' the horse would disintegrate and the race would be over for that rider.

Instead, the ‘water horses' are some wild, carnivorous beasts that come up out of the sea every October - that, until I heard someone else compare them to a kelpie, I had no clue what they were even trying to be.

I'm a bit ashamed at how much the idea that I might be mistaken for a boy distresses me.

This really kicks me, because the first several times I heard about the book - and even after I bought it - I thought this girl disguised herself as a boy to race. Instead, we have Puck - real name, Kate - who is abrasive and hypocritical and always angry about something and pretty much everything I dislike in main characters. Sean is...a quieter, more stuck-up version of her. Honestly, I didn't like either of them and thought that their ‘voices' sounded exactly alike. (More on that later.) And the ‘romance'? Laughable.

There were two people in the whole book I liked: Finn (Puck's little brother) and George Holly (a horse buyer from America). That's it. The rest of the people were either unpleasant or nothingness to me.

I've told you most of what I had problems with - now I'll tell you why.

The writing.

This story is told in first person rotating with present tense. I don't like first person. Seldom can I get fully immersed in a first person POV book. (It has happened, but it's hard.) And I hate present tense with a fiery passion. I NEVER get fully immersed in a book that's told in present tense - and I'm pretty sure the only time I truly enjoyed a book in this tense was when it was an audio book.

I'm constantly getting pulled out of the story because I find present tense so incredibly jarring and I have this overwhelming urge to pull out an ink pin and ‘correct' the tense usage.

And then there's my problem with first person perspective. It's troublesome enough for me when it doesn't rotate between two or more characters. But if it does rotate, the author had batter make certain that the characters have distinct, unique voices. Honestly, I have to say thank goodness for short chapters, because otherwise I might have never known who was narrating in this book because they sound EXACTLY alike.

This is my own personal preference, but when I can't get immersed in the story, I'm much more likely to find fault. (And, honestly, I know everyone loves Stiefvater's writing, but I find it too flowery for me. I prefer something much more straight forward.)

Early one, there were several things that didn't make sense to me. Like Puck's reasoning/decision to race. It came off abrupt and would have worked much better in my opinion if the second reason for her doing this had become the first.

Also, I want to know why the horses come out of the water in October - and how, if they are WATER HORSES, they can stay alive without living in the water for years. Are they amphibians?

“I want to go home,” Daly tells me, voice miserable. “No game is worth this.”

And, most importantly, who in the world saw these wild, carnivorous horses coming up out of the ocean one day and thought ‘I'm going to ride it - better yet, let's start a race with them when they're at their most wild and hungry'? Whoever came up with that idea needs their head examined. I think the island is full of suicidal people. Besides, who puts up the money for the winners? It sure doesn't seem to be coming from anyone on the island because - except one person - most of them don't seem to be wealthy and a four time winner - who only gets 1/8 of the winners purse - could buy ten thoroughbred horses. So that's not chump change.

I know all this will sound like I hated the book. I didn't. (Except when they were mutilating another animal.) I just have no feelings for it other than ‘well, I could have been reading something better.' I feel that very little changed from the start of the book and that it was just a waste - both of my time and a story idea that I could have liked.

(Originally posted on my blog: pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com)

Once upon a time, I fell in love with Maggie Stiefvater and her writing. I was given a copy of Shiver when I first started blogging, and completely fell in love with it. Then, for some reason, I never picked up another of her books. Time went by, books came and went, until finally Audible said “You might like The Scorpio Races!” and I obliged. Thank goodness I did. This story is absolutely gorgeous. It not only reminded me of why I missed Steifvater's writing, but also made me fall in love with it all over again.

The isle of Thisby is a curious place. One where the sea runs through the blood of its inhabitants, and the terrible beauty that is the capaill uisce makes that same blood race through their veins. I instantly fell in love with Sean Kendrick and Kate Connolly, our two main characters. Their fire, their loyalty, the simple fact that they weren't afraid to face their fears head on, all added up to characters that I had a fierce love for. I didn't even mind that there was a romance brewing. These two were perfect for one another, and I was all for it.

Now, if the setting and the characters weren't perfect enough, it was truly the writing that brought this story to life. Each page swirled with emotion and atmosphere. I felt myself pulled into Thisby, and straight into the scorpio races. I smelled the brine of the sea, mixed with blood spilled on the sand. I felt the enchantment of Thisby, and the sway that held Sean and Kate. This whole story wrapped me up in its pages, and I didn't want it to end. I listened to this on audio, which I highly recommend! It's the perfect way to experience this.

Suffice it to say, this book gets a solid 5 stars from me. I'm hooked, and I'm not the least bit upset about it.

it took me a long time to get into this book, because I was like, “I don't care about these murder-horses.” But then: I did care about the murder-horses???

This seems like a complicated book to sell. It's a lot more brutal than I associate with most “horse books” but it's not myth-heavy enough to be a good Percy Jackson-readalike. I dunno. Kinda Holly Black-y, maybe? Maybe, like me, other people people will back-read her catalog after reading the Raven Cycle?

also, IMPORTANT SPOILER: it seems like a cat gets eaten by a murder-horse but THE CAT IS OKAY

One of my favourite Maggie Stiefvater books. I absolutely loved it.

I'll be honest, the start of this book worried me. Stiefvater's Raven Boys series was horrible, but I pushed on since the Mercy Wolves Trilogy holds a special place in my heart as does Sinner. The prologue was confusing, dropping you into a brand new world and naming the horses from the sea without explaining what they were. I was left wondering why they were killing people and what their importance was; if Stiefvater omitted the prologue it would have been better. But now onto the rest of the novel. I was caught by the characters and their desperate struggles. Seeing the world through Puck and Sean's eyes was a great balance and the energy between the two of them was just the right amount. Stiefvater never lost sight of the overall importance of the horses and the race to build up character relationships. She also piled on the tension, forcing me to continue reading. Its been a while since I couldn't put a book down! When I reached the end of this novel I was surprised, left wanting more of a conclusion. Not to say that she doesn't wrap things up, but I would have preferred to know the final fates of our characters and what their new goals on life were going to be. All in all this was a great read and makes me less wary to try Stiefvater's future writing.

I had high hopes for this one. Hope that maybe the prose would be less purple this time (there were still lots of pretty words, but less than in Shiver). Hope that the plot wouldn't descend into some contrived, maudlin, typical YA romance (typical maybe, maudlin no). Hope that there'd be plenty of action and thrills - this book features mythical, blood thirsty Capaill Uisce and a race involving them after all (kind of, but only momentarily). Those hopes were mostly met. The YA “romance” wasn't all swoon-y. The race at the end was fast paced, without a lot of extra wordiness. The problem - it took way too long to get there. 350+ pages of set up to get there. I thought we were never going to get through the last 2 days before the race. When we did finally get there, everything got wrapped up in 30 pages or so. Just a few sentences in the over all big picture. Those 30 or so pages were effective (the final scene with Sean and Corr was nicely done) but I wanted more. Or at least I wanted all of that emotion to start sooner.

3.75

Overall I liked it, yet I can't totally appreciate Stiefvater's writing.

Decent comment to come.

Scorpio Races will always be something I will look back at and remember fondly of the horses, the characters, and the ocean depicted in the book. You have these magnificent, yet horrifying creatures that people ride on for fame and money. However, you also have this conflict over whether this home you have known your whole life is better than somewhere else you KNOW is better. This theme comes up with Gabriel and with Corr. It's funny how the horses seem almost human; yet, better? Worse? Who can really know. This book was amazing.

Demorei muito para ler esse livro!
Mas depois de muito pesar.. percebi que tive a mesma reação de Cidade dos ossos como resposta ao ler esse livro. Nos últimos capítulos comecei a tomar gosto pela história.
Assumo sim que tenho uma mente muito romântica então.. começamos a ter um maior entrosamento ente Puck e Sean e a magica começa! O desenvolvimento da história passa a ser mais rápido e mais envolvente, como se a tensão da proximidade da corrida realmente acontecesse.
Holly é melhor delineado nesse final de livro como realmente apenas um homem rico, que gosta de esquisitices, mas que sabe o que faz e tem um bom coração.
Senti horrores por Corr no pós corrida e estranhamente por Tommy Falk e Edana também, por mais secundária que fossem suas participações em tudo.

É inegável que o final do livro é de arrancar suspiros para o mundo!!!!! - aaah surtei muito... \>v
muitos vivas para o final de a Corrida de Escorpião!!