Book review: The Dream Thieves

Book review of The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater is the second book in the Raven Cycle, following The Raven Boys. It’s a fantasy series about teenagers, spirit paths, magic and mysteries.

Summary

In this book, we focus more on some of the Aglionby boys. The boys Blue had promised herself she wouldn’t hang out with. One of them have a secret that is both thrilling and dangerous.

“Ronan is the most dangerous of all. He’s the haunted one, the darkest, the most raven. His dreams invade reality and confuse what is true. With magic growing stronger around them, now is a time to be wary. Before everything unravels… Friendships will be tested. Someone will get hurt. And a kiss will be shared.” (Blurp from the back of the book)

Verdict

In The Dream Thieves we get to take a closer look at the boys and their inner lives, which I really enjoyed. This book is centered a lot around Ronan, one of the boys, and an enemy gains an even bigger role in The Dream Thieves too. We learn a lot about Ronans nature and his abilities and I find the idea very fun and refreshing. Even though there are definitely some dark sides to being able to make reality out of dreams.

Family secrets and dynamics are uncovered, danger is all around and the teenagers are starting to bond even more during their time together. The quest of finding the ancient grave of the welsh king seems a bit sidetracked by the groups’ fascination with a very intriguing bit of forest they’ve found.

I found The Dream Thieves to be a bit of a filler book in the series, albeit a good one with interesting subplots that I for one would’ve liked to see more of. I think an exciting spin-off could be about Ronan and his family or about his father and their abilities.

Characters and love stories

A lot of things were weird in this book, and I didn’t always feel that it tied into the main plot. As it’s a series I’m sure it’s all sidetracking and subplots meant to enhance the whole story. I could have wished for some of it to have been presented a bit clearer in The Raven Boys. It feels like a new adventure, with the same characters. The characters are well described and the dialogue is flowing naturally so as a reader, you always know who is talking.

I really enjoy this series so far. It’s not nearly any of the best I’ve ever read, but it’s good and fun. In particular, I liked the idea of the teenagers wanting to find spirit paths and the myth about the ancient welsh king. To be honest, I don’t care for the love story that’s bound to really flourish at some point. But it’s not that big a part of the story yet so I can’t really say if it will be good or not.