The Scorpio Races (edition 2011)

One instance of syntax so far has dropped my acceptance of the obviously Irish-ish setting into a plummet of disbelief: "Finn made a lovely chain saw to go with." My knowledge isn't universal but that usage screams "U.S. after 1990," not "west coast of Ireland with water horses."

After finishing, I have to say only what Tommy's father said.

Probably would have rated it better if I'd read before some of the other YA books-- just seemed somewhat predictable, didn't really care about the characters ( )

3Q 4P
Every November a fierce and deadly competition is held on the Island of Thisby, the Scorpio Races. Brave riders and their mystical water horses, attempt to make it to the finish line for fame and fortune. The races are even more cataclysmic as this year Puck Connolly becomes the first woman rider in the races and returning champion Sean Kendrick races for everything he has ever wanted.
A atmospheric book that is just as moody and tempestuous as the fictitious Island of Thisby, The Scorpio Races creates a world from a folk tale of water horses and transforms it into an adventurous and enticing YA novel. ( )

4Q, 5P. It's about a horse race with flesh-eating horses. Killer horses that come out of the sea and eat you. It's hard to imagine a book that could appeal to more kids in fewer words. I think if you did a book talk and only brought one copy to lend out, the many gory trampling scenes from the book would be re-enacted right in front of you.
I loved how well the island of Thisby was painted. I don't think the book ever mentions exactly where and when this is, other than sometime in the early 20th century and somewhere off the coast of England, but it was so beautifully described. It made me want to visit the island for myself. Everything about the way the races are described, the salt and blood and seawater and pounding hooves, is all so real and visceral. The conflict seems genuine, not forced, and I was curious until the very end how they were going to resolve it. This book was super awesome and somebody better be making this movie, because come on. ( )

WATCH BOOK TRAILER

The Scorpio Races take place every November on the small island of Thisby. This is no usual race. In the Scorpio Races, the riders are mounted on Capaille Uisce, beautiful, bloodthirsty water horses. Sean Kendrick, the returning champion, is a man of few words but has a unique understanding of these creatures. Puck Connolly is the first girl to enter the competition. She has to win or her family loses everything. This unusual pair forges a unique friendship, but only one can win the race.

VOYA:
My rating: 4Q, 4P

Every November, the isle of Thisby hosts the legendary Scorpio Races. While the men of the island risk their lives to ride in the races, many from the mainland come as spectators to watch the fantastical capaill uisce. These flesh-eating horses emerge from the sea each year to feed and are caught to ride in the races.

This is the story of Kate “Puck” Connelly, a young woman just trying to survive, head-strong and at times annoying to both the audience and her brothers. She never intends to enter the races, but does to try to keep her brother Gabe from leaving the island and eventually to keep her home. Kate clashes with many men on the island as she is the first woman to enter the races.

Our other main character, Sean Kendrick is a quiet stable hand that is the only person to be able to control the deadly capaill uisce on the island. Although he is a four time winner, the races for Sean this November is the most important he has even run for he risks the one thing his heart desires as his own.

Corr, Sean’s capaill, and Dove, Kate’s land horse, become secondary characters in the novel whether or not Stiefvater meant them to be. The wealth of horse detail make this story all the more compelling to read.

Although the story is paced slowly, like the lives of the people on the island, the character development calls for it. The developing relationship between Sean and Puck is another strong element to The Scorpio Races. Their relationship is built on their love for their horses and respect for each other. The romance that Stiefvater crafts for there is definitely suited for their characters.

I read this book as an audiobook and the voices used to narrate the story were excellent. They weren’t overdone and fit the characters well. This book is much stronger in character development and quality than Stiefvater’s wolf series. The final, heartbreaking chapters could stand alone as a short story. ( )

This book was awesome! the seahorses were great, the main characters were wonderful, and I just want more.

This and other reviews can be found on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews.

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up The Scorpio Races, and I was completely blown away by it all! The characters, the vicious cappal uisce and the mystery surrounding both them and the race.

( )

4Q 5P
I read this half in print form and half listened to it as an audiobook, and really enjoyed it. I loved Kate (Puck) Connolly's strong determination and sense of duty to her family and her raw emotions that only the reader could see. Sean Kendrick left me puzzled, as I wasn't sure if his character was just flat or if there was just so much he was forcing himself to subdue; I felt more that Sean's character development was meant to show his progression from a numb, quiet, still boy who kept to the horses into someone starting to feel again. The story moved at a moderate pace and characters would be great for more introverted teens to identify with. ( )

I usually hesitate to give a book 4 stars, but since I really have no complaints about "The Scorpio Races," I'm going to go with 4. Really really lovely story--understated prose style and yet a super thrilling read at the same time. Who knew the subject of mythical, terrifying water horses could be so intriguing and, to my complete and utter surprise, not at all corny.

I really liked the characters and the setting and the feeling I got while reading it. Made me want to move to Ireland and ride horses. :) ( )

The premise was good and the characters were well developed, but nothing. ever. happened. When the race that should be the climax of the book only lasts the last 10 pages, something's wrong. ( )

It took me a surprisingly long time to pull this title out of my queue and read it, partially because of the first few bleak chapters. Puck and Sean soon stole my heart, however, and by book's end I wasn't ready to let go. Stiefvater, once again, has proven that her characters are utterly captivating (both human and non). ( )

I haven't finished this book yet, but so far it is pretty interesting.

Oh my goodness... such a compelling and evocative story. The island of Thisby is a hard and lonely place most of the year, but in October, things heat up for the annual Scorpio Races along the dangerous shorelines. More than a horse race, this is the island's celebration of mastering the capaill uisce-- the bloodthirsty water horses that can occasionally be lured from the sea. There is plenty of fight-to-the-death action, as riders and their mounts prepare for the annual November 1 race, but the real story is about so much more: family and love and not backing down from what you believe in. Stiefvater's pacing is impeccable as she draws readers in to Puck's and Sean's developing relationship. Beautifully written: read it, read it, read it. ( )

3.5/5

Un'isola del nord e i capaill uisce, i cavalli d'acqua: giganteschi, letali e protagonisti delle Scorpio Races.
Sean, veterano delle corse e Puck, costretta a parteciparvi, sono i due protagonisti, assime a Dove e Corr, i loro cavalli.
L'ambientazione del romanzo è ricca e sono delineati anche i personaggi minori; il romanzo soffre però di alcuni punti deboli; i punti di vista su cui si snoda il racconto sono due, ma troppo spesso risultano simili, inoltre alcune parti risultano dilungate e poco avvincenti, così come alcuni passaggi risultano poco convincenti (ad esempio il primo motivo per cui Puck gareggia).

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An island in the North and the capaill uisce, the water horses, giants, killer and protagonists of the Scorpio Races.
Sean, race veteran, and Puck, who needs to participate, are the two main characters, with Dove and Corr, their horses.
The setting is rich and the minor characters are outlined; nevertheless the novel suffers some weak points; the POV following the narration are two, but some times very similar, moreover some parts are not engaging while others are not plausible (like Puck's first reason to enter the race). ( )

The writing is really, really good. The story? Not so much for me. It started slow, stayed slow and so much of what one assumes happened, happened internally and one had to make inferences from the external behaviours of the characters.

The world-building was both interesting and incomplete, not unlike the love story. I wanted to like it, I tried to like it, but ultimately I was unhappy with it. I liked the characters well enough, don't get me wrong- though I didn't find the water horses even a little believable. The villains were far too villainous, the brooding love-object just a little too perfect, and overall it failed to work for me, try though I might.

( )

Beautiful, lyrical writing that resonates with sound, smell and Irish magic. Stiefvater pulls from several old myths about water horses and fairies to create something new. Essentially, a story about families and the tensions caused by the pull between traditions (Catholic vs old tales) and a failing economy (tourism vs economic independence). Highly recommended. ( )

And with this book Stiefvater has fully come into her own out of the Stephanie Meyer paranormal romance shadow. With the Shiver trilogy I don't think it was her fault. Just the luck of having your book with similar themes come out against the far popular, more well-known book.
With Scorpio Races I think the setting, the mythology, the characters are singularly unique. There's not a comparison to anything else out in YA right now which is refreshingly wonderful. There's still that immersion quality to her writing that throws you right into the story. It's a primal story and Stiefvater uses her word carefully, sparsely and with impact.
Oh and the narrators were incredible. I want to hunt Steve West down to see if he looks as much like Richard Armitage as he sounds. Hot!

I remember my father's white-knuckled hand holding my arm. Be still.
She stands besides Corr, looking up at him.
I want her to love him. - Sean

I say, "I will not be your weakness, Sean Kendrick."
Now he looks at me. He says, very softly, "It's too late for that, Puck." - Puck

"We're in training." - Puck ( )

Opening. “It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.”

My usual method for writing reviews is to come up with a list of bullet points about the book, which I then build into paragraphs. When I finished writing up my list for The Scorpio Races, I looked at it and went, “Hmm. I use the word love quite a lot.” And that is because I LOVE THIS BOOK.

So, in case you don’t know much about it, here’s a brief explanation. Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick grew up on the island of Thisby, where every November first, the men and boys race the capall uisce–beautiful deadly water horses–to win the Scorpio Race. Sean has won the last four years. Puck, however, decides to ride in the races, on her own pony, to win the money to save her house.

I kind of loathe plot summaries, so I’ll just say that this doesn’t do the book justice at all.

It’s told in alternate narration, which I’ve come to expect from Maggie Stiefvater. I really loved Puck’s voice–she’s both fierce and tender and I found her entirely believable. She’s the kind of person I’d be proud to know. If she existed in real life, that is. Sean is fascinating, partly because his narration is full of words–he’s the one that really captures the boiling excitement of the races for me–while to Puck he’s silent.

In my opinion, some of the best books make you feel like you can do things you can’t. When I read The Blue Sword, for instance, I think I could ride in a laprun trial. (HAH!) In this case, the race was so real to me, and the capall uisce, that I felt not only that I was riding with Puck and Sean, but that I could ride in it myself. Since I’ve been on a horse about twice in my whole life, this is obviously not true, but for the space of those pages, I could.

One of my very favorite things about this book is the way the relationship between Sean and Puck unfolds. The sort of culmination of it, in my opinion, is Puck’s exchange with Benjamin Malvern at the end of the book. It made me laugh, but it was also exactly the right note to hit. I love the slow blossoming romances much more than the Insta-attraction (just add water!) ones that seem to be the norm at the moment. I trust that Sean and Puck will last, because they know each other. And besides, they make me feel all gooey.

Another thing that I really appreciated was the way the conflict was set up and resolved. I’m not talking about Mutt Malvern here, but rather that central question that haunts the race scene. Both Sean and Puck have to win this race, while at the same time, they want the other to win. I trusted the way this problem was solved.

Of course, this is also a book about family, and what you do when your family leaves, or when they betray you. I like it when YA deals with that, helpfully messing up that convenient mg/YA marker of family vs. romance. Besides, families are something we live with our whole life, and pretending otherwise is silly.

I’m not sure I’ve given a good sense of just how much I enjoyed this book–the story, the characters, the writing. But I will certainly agree with Maggie Stiefvater herself. This is her best book yet. It’s beautiful, and you should definitely read it.

Book source: public library (but going on my wishlist)
Book information: Scholastic, 2011; YA (though I think upper mg would like it too) ( )

If the book club I belong to hadn't chosen this book as their next book, I wouldn't have read it, but I'm so very glad they did.

I would never have picked it up otherwise, and to be honest for the first few chapters I was wondering how I would make myself finish it. But I kept reading and somewhere along the way I realized that I loved it. I was completely entranced in the world of Thisby and the quiet power of the water horses and the quiet power of Kate 'Puck' Connely and Sean Kendrick and I liked them so much that I kept changing my mind about which one was my favorite every other chapter.

This book was so well written, but I can't really descibe how the atmosphere and the prose worked so perfectly together. The feeling of the place and the people of Thisby were in every word of odd descriptions and folk sayings, in the strange rightness and deeper meaning of the slight quaintness to the dialogue and the characters thoughts. Everything happened for a reason and everything had that quiet, deep resonance of a timeless myth or an old folk story.

Suffice to say that I started the book unsure if I would be able to get through it, and I ended up finishing it that evening. ( )

If the book club I belong to hadn't chosen this book as their next book, I wouldn't have read it, but I'm so very glad they did.

I would never have picked it up otherwise, and to be honest for the first few chapters I was wondering how I would make myself finish it. But I kept reading and somewhere along the way I realized that I loved it. I was completely entranced in the world of Thisby and the quiet power of the water horses and the quiet power of Kate 'Puck' Connely and Sean Kendrick and I liked them so much that I kept changing my mind about which one was my favorite every other chapter.

This book was so well written, but I can't really descibe how the atmosphere and the prose worked so perfectly together. The feeling of the place and the people of Thisby were in every word of odd descriptions and folk sayings, in the strange rightness and deeper meaning of the slight quaintness to the dialogue and the characters thoughts. Everything happened for a reason and everything had that quiet, deep resonance of a timeless myth or an old folk story.

Suffice to say that I started the book unsure if I would be able to get through it, and I ended up finishing it that evening. ( )

Took the audio to really get this to work. More soon! ( )

This is not the type of story I typically read but I am impressed with the compelling mythology, the interesting characters, and the vivid sense of place. ( )

A wonderfully written novel! Full of suspense, romance, atmosphere, horses, etc. What more could you want?! ( )

Maggie Stiefvater takes the myth of the water horses and makes it her own; she is a master at showing, not telling, letting the reader adjust to the world she creates on the island of Thisby, with all its customs and traditions and idiosyncrasies, without explaining overmuch. More wonderful than the water horses (violent and carnivorous, unlike land horses) are her characters Sean Kendrick and Kate "Puck" Connolly. Both orphans, both racing for different but deeply personal, important reasons, they form an alliance - but only one can win.

Someone shouts "Hey!" but nothing else, moved by the need to speak but having nothing else to say. (102)

Everything the races feel on the inside is bleeding up through the seams in the street tonight. (178)

It feels like he's confessed that he's dying of a disease I've never heard of, with symptoms I can't see. (244)

Corr can hold a thousand things in his heart and reveal only one of them on his face....He is so very like me. (277)

...and so my stomach does a neat little trick that feels either like hunger or escaping. (334)

( )

From the start I really enjoyed this story. It wasn't as much about the races or horses as I thought it would be which was a very pleasant surprise. I felt it was more about the relationships - between people, between horses, between the horses & people, and between the island itself and all those who inhabit it. I love the way she described things (events, thoughts, scenery). The romance between the characters built in such a way that was plausible and believable which is very commendable these days. I am looking forward to reading more by her! ( )