Dream Thieves

118. Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater

Confession: at this point, I would probably read just about anything written by Ms. Stiefvater because I love her writing style so much. (Further confession: I bought my son the first book in the Spirit Animals series mostly because I saw that Ms. Stiefvater was writing one of them . . .)

In those terms, this book did not disappoint. The writing is haunting, lyrical, dream-like--and funny. And I love her attention to detail, including the bits of Old English that the Gray Man translates (I took an OE course in graduate school and remember just enough to truly geek-out at stuff like this).

The plot in this particular one was a little more meandering: Gansey is still searching for Glendower (buried Welsh king), but the search has stalled out because Cabeswater is behaving capriciously, disappearing and reappearing at odd intervals. Ronan is even more out-of-control, egged on by newcomer Kavinsky, and his dreams are peopled with nightmares. An oddly unassuming, Anglo-Saxon loving hit man shows up in town, looking for something called the Graywaren. Blue is still trying to avoid her fate of killing her true love if she kisses him, and Adam is trying to figure out what, exactly, he promised to Cabeswater. It's not until the end of the book that all these odd threads come together (and they come together nicely), but unless you're along for the ride of the language and the characters (I was), the plot might be a bit disappointing.

Also, like Blue, I'm kinda in love with Gansey. I don't know what makes him so appealing: his willingness to believe in people and things? His loyalty?