The Scorpio Races

The island if Thisby is home to the capall visce – man-eating horses who come out of the ocean – and a yearly race involving these creatures and the men brave (read: foolish) enough to ride them. The risk is great, but the reward is enough money to make some think it worth it. Sean Kendrick has one more Scorpio races than he’s lost, but this year he has a lot more to lose than just his life, and to complicate matters further, against all tradition, Puck Connolly has decided to race riding her own, very much not supernatural horse, because she too has too much to lose not to try.

A young woman with equal parts stubbornness and competence, a love interest with his own set of impressive talents and a stoicism that he uses to mask his show more vulnerabilities, plus a setting that very nearly steals the show as the best character in its own right. And then add in Stiefvater’s ridiculous writing talent. Yeesh. Her books are so fantastic they make something deep in my chest hurt every time. But, you know, in a good way.

(Side note to Raven Boys fans (and beware a spoiler): I can’t help but measure Stiefvater’s characters on the Ronan Lynch scale and I mulled over Sean Kendrick until I decided he’s more Declan than Ronan, but his Ronanness is in his relationship with his capall visce (instead of loving cars and pulling things out of his dreams he whispers to man-eating horses and that’s totally a parallel, fight me). And then I realized that Sean isn’t really the Ronan in this story at all; Ronan would be, if anything, a man-eating horse.) show less

The Scorpio Races is a creative, emotional, magical tale, and I utterly loved it. Building from a unique premise, Stiefvater crafts a world that is fantastical, yet feels completely real. Her characterization is superb, always showing (not telling) how all of the characters, including the horses, have their own personalities, desires, and motivations. Even the secondary characters like Gabe, Peg, Malvern, and Holly feel like real people, their own internal conflicts revealed through their words and actions or even more subtle clues such as a snippet of a half-overheard conversation. I could write an entire essay analyzing any one of these characters alone, which really speaks to how masterfully Stiefvater wrote them.

If the secondary show more cast is that complex and dynamic, then I can hardly begin to describe how much I loved the two main characters. Puck and Sean are perfect, flawed, compelling, believable, changeable, lovable protagonists. At its heart, The Scorpio Races is a love story (in more ways than one), but romance is not its focus. Instead, it’s a story about two people trying to overcome their own obstacles and find what they each need to be happy, and, in the process, they find each other. Puck and Sean’s relationship feels natural and develops organically throughout the book. Their conversations are fraught with meaning, and their interactions go beyond superficial attraction. Although it’s most definitely a love story, The Scorpio Races is about more than just Puck and Sean; it’s bigger and more meaningful than a simple romance.

Indeed, this book is thought provoking in ways that I didn’t expect. It leads us to question, what is happiness and what do we need in order to be happy? What ties us to a place or makes someplace our home? What is the importance of family and tradition? In thinking about the meaning of the races, so much can be read into it - paganism vs. Christianity, man vs. nature, a discourse on female power, and more. In fact, I’d love to read a literary analysis of this novel! (‘Cause I’m a nerd like that.) There are so many themes and so much symbolism rolled into this story, yet it doesn’t feel burdened, forced, or obvious; instead, it adds layers of meaning that make this book intellectually engaging.

The ending of the novel destroyed me emotionally. It’s one of those books where you’re desperately wishing for all the characters’ hopes and dreams to come true, but you know that it can’t happen that way without betraying the honesty of the story. Still, even though it made me cry, I loved the ending, and I know that this is a story that will stay with me for a long, long time. The Scorpio Races is one of the most beautifully written, haunting, intelligent, and thought provoking young adult novels I’ve ever read. I couldn’t recommend it more highly. show less

This story takes an old myth about killer, meat-eating horse that come from the sea and adds in a race with a pretty high chance of dying. Sean watched his father die in the Scorpio Races when he was nine. Now he is the horse trainer for Benjamin Malvern, the man who owns most of Thisby. He still works with and rides the same horse his father did. He has won the races with Corr four times in the last six years. But he doesn't own the water horse and won't be allowed to buy him unless he wins this year's race.

Puck is also determined to enter the race. She and her two brothers are orphans with parents killed by the water horses. The same man who owns Corr owns her home and is ready to evict Puck and her younger brother Finn. Her older show more brother Gabe has already decided to leave the island for the mainland and isn't taking the younger kids with him. Puck has to win in order to keep her home and her life. She isn't riding a water horse though. She is riding her beloved horse Dove.

Both young people face obstacles. The men who race don't want Puck both because she is a woman and because she isn't riding a water horse. Sean has to deal with Mutt Malvern, his boss's illegitimate son who is a jealous bully.

This is also a love story with all different kinds of love. Sean loves Corr even though he knows he can't trust him. He loves the feeling he gets when he races in the annual Scorpio races. He loves the sea. Puck loves the island and Dove and her brothers. Soon Puck and Sean fall in love with each other too.

I love Stiefvater's writing which is both descriptive and subtly emotional. I thought telling the story with two narrators and giving each one their own chapters was a great way for readers to get to know each character, what they valued, and what motivated them.

I can hardly wait to share this one with my high school students. Horse lovers and fans of romance with both like it. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater is very different sort of book from her Shiver or Ballad series. It still has the same lovely writing and emotional layers, but the romance is much more like the classical definition of that word and less like the modern understanding. There are several love stories, but they aren’t just the sort where a boy falls in love with a girl (although I did particularly love that sort here). This is a thrilling and heroic adventure, full of brave and daring characters, and soft and bittersweet feelings.

The characters are wildly different, but equally appealing. Puck is quietly strong with a fierce determination and a loyalty that borders on compulsion regarding show more those she loves. She has a quick temper that she’s mostly successful at keeping trapped inside, but I loved her more for the moments when it bubbled up out of her. The consequences of which were often tragic, but so real, so honest that I just became all the more invested in her as a character.

While I was surprised to connect so strongly with Puck, I had no doubt that Maggie Stiefvater would create yet another male protagonist for me to love. She excels at writing the male perspective in a way no other YA writer today does, male or female. I fell in love with Sean’s strength, his honor, his bravery, and his wisdom almost from page one. And I continued to fall further even after I’d finished reading. That’s the mark of a great character.

But I would be remiss if I failed to mention the two other main characters in THE SCORPIO RACES: Dove and Corr. The fact that they are horse takes nothing of away from their depth as characters or their development in the story. That’s due again to Maggie’s writing and also her mythology. Water horses, or cappall usice, as they are called, are truly terrifying, yet majestic in a dangerously alluring way. I both feared and loved them.

I always feel bad for whatever book I end up reading after Maggie Stiefvater because nothing else comes close to replicating her peculiar magic that fully engages not just the senses, but the heart as well. And that is true again with THE SCORPIO RACES, a quiet, almost understated story full of bright bursts of action made all the more poignant for the emotional underpinnings built so lovingly in this book about life and death and love and horses. I drank down every beautiful word.

Sexual Content:
Kissing show less

Description: Some race to win. Others race to survive.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

Some riders live.

Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, show more where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.

Thoughts: I'm so glad that people were talking about this book on here or I would have written it off as something I wasn't interested in since I didn't really like Shiver. I was so wrong.

The setting and the way that Stiefvater sets the stage for what is to take place is wonderful- a bit sparse and mysterious and bleak and yet so compelling. The mythos that she is dealing with is wonderful and engaging and she disected it so well that it manages to be fresh and ancient at the same time.

And I would like to bring special attention to the way she created the love story here. She didn't stoop to false overemotion or require characters that were startilingly good looking. She just pushed them in each other's direction in the exact way life does and let it uncoil from there, so naturally and slowly but with real interest and heat for the lack of physicality.

The only thing I didn't particularly like was the ending because I wanted to know what happened next. It's not that the ending wasn't beautiful or that it failed to wrap up the story, it's just that it left so much tantalizing possibilities. Wish she was writing a sequel but she doesn't plan to.

Rating: 4.17

Liked: 4.5
Plot: 4
Characterization: 4
Writing: 4
Audio: 4

http://www.librarything.com/topic/153717#4085897 show less

I had forgotten that I could enjoy YA before The Scorpio Races. The image of monstrous horses coming out of the ocean, lusting for blood, bears a resemblance to orcas surging out of the water for seal flesh. It is terrible and fascinating at the same time. I applaud Stiefvater for taking the myth of the cappaill uisce and giving it so much life: the setting of Thisby is stark and flattened by the wind, yet lush because of Stiefvater's prose, the majority of the characters are distinct and relatable, and the pacing just right. The romance is inevitable, but I like how the author places the horse-and-rider relationships before that of the heroine and hero.

The notion of a tourism-driven economy could have been explored further, and the show more character of Gabriel could have been more present. Despite the fact that tourism is the driver of the race, we see little of the crowd of foreigners wrecking havoc on the island (except for George Holly and us readers). Gabriel is the reason this story exists, yet the interaction between him and Puck is minimal and most of the time, he's just a dick. The author tells us that Gabe is full of guilt and yearning, and yet I could not sympathize with him, even when his story comes to light.

I still don't know how to end reviews, so I conclude by saying that The Scorpio Races has a 4.5/5. show less

The tiny island of Thisby lives for the Scorpio races that take place each year on November 1. Thisby is home to the mysterious and monstrous capaill uisce, water horses that come out of the sea in search of blood, and these are the horses that ride in the Scorpio races. Sean Kendrick, who works for the local stable owner and knows more about horses than anyone on the island, has won the races for the last four years in a row. Kate “Puck” Connolly, by contrast, is entering the races for the first time and has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. Both Sean and Puck desperately need to win, for different reasons. But as they train together for the Scorpio races, what they learn from each other will change both their lives.

I am show more absolutely stunned by how good this book is. Knowing that Stiefvater had written a Twilight-esque YA werewolf series, I wasn’t expecting much, even though I’d seen some good reviews for this book. But everything about this novel, from writing style to character development to setting, is absolutely perfect. I think my favorite thing about this novel is the setting: Thisby is a dark, beautiful, dangerous place that vividly came to life in my imagination. Although there is a love story in this book, I almost hate to call attention to it, because it develops with such depth and subtlety that I couldn’t possibly describe it as a “YA romance,” even though the book technically falls within that genre. All in all, this novel really reminded me of Robin McKinley at her best, which is the highest compliment I can pay to a YA fantasy author. It will definitely be among my favorites this year, and possibly one of my new all-time favorite books. show less