The Scorpio Races

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

I was definitely expecting to like this a lot more. The book moved so slowly, I almost gave up on it twice. Most of the book is building up to the race and when it finally got there, it wasn't anything that I expected.

The writing was quite nice and I really liked the relationship between Sean and Corr as well as Sean and Puck. I was going to give this 2 stars but the ending of the book bumped it up to 3 stars. I was just bored throughout the whole book until I got to the ending. I also still don't understand the whole capall uisce concept, I feel like it definitely could have been explained more thoroughly.

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.

Again, I read this several years ago, was going through the fantasy book shelves at local library, spotted this, started reading, because I was waiting for my hubby, put it back in the shelf when he came, and then regretted not borrowing it :-D So I went back and borrowed it :-D
I don't remember much, but I do remember I liked it. It's probably my favorite Maggie.

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

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.

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.

What I love about Scorpio Races is that it was about some magic, fairy horses, but it was not at all a fantasy style book. The book was so much about the characters - about Puck and Sean, but also about Corr and Dove. And you get to know these characters so much, that the horses don't feel mythical, they just feel real.

It was a bit difficult for me to get into for some reason - hence why it took me a year to finally read it. It's a bit slow at the beginning, learning to know and love the island and it's traditions and it's inhabitants.

My only big complaint, I think, is that the characters apart from Puck and Sean and maybe Finn felt so fuzzy and out of focus - when certain other characters died, it was hard for me to feel properly sad because I didn't know them too well. But to be honest, that may have been my fault, reading too quickly or skimming too much. Part of me wishes I had more to read of this island. There's so much of the story that's before the events of the book, and so much after. There's so much of the story that's left to the imagination.

I both love and hate books that end a bit unfinished. I admire it, and in the end, it's the best way to write an ending. When books end by telling every little detail of the after-the-story lives of the characters, it just makes me annoyed. So this is good. But at the same time, I've grown so connected to Puck and Sean and Corr and Dove that I want so badly to know what happens next.