“Maybe it was good that the world forgot every lesson, every good and bad memory, every triumph and failure, all of it dying with each generation. Perhaps this cultural amnesia spared them all. Perhaps if they remembered everything, hope would die instead.”- Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater.
This is the third book in the series The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater published by Scholastic Press in 2014. It’s a Paranormal Young Adult and is a direct sequel of the first two books.
The plot follows where the second one left off with Blue’s mother Maura gone missing in search of Blue’s father. It doesn’t take them long to find the place where she has vanished into but they are distracted by Colin Greenmantle, along with his wife, coming to town for revenge.
Blue is finally getting a sensible plotline other than being a weird tagalong and is now searching for her mother, while worrying about not being able to afford college and kissing Gansey. The latter two things are really not that interesting but aren’t really a big thing as the author has given her a larger task. We also get some insight in her powers. Finally… In book three.
Though I still don’t get the explanation. She is a mirror. What? What does that mean? Maybe because the explanation came from a madwoman but still, am I supposed to understand what that mean? I hope a better one comes in the next book, but I take it.
The other’s have some storylines but they aren’t as large, which is how the story is suppose to be. The main character get most of the plotlines, they are supposed to lead the way. The side characters should not rule the story. This book was more focused than the second book and follows the first one with emotional and eerie atmosphere with a hint of mystery.
I liked this book far better than the second one but one of the biggest problems is the main antagonist, Greenmantle. He felt unnecessary. The main conflict was to find Maura and the dangers created by ancient magic that stands in their way but Greenmantle is presented in a weird way in the background as the “main antagonist” not really doing much other than threaten them and fail miserably.
I guess Greenmantle and his wife can have a part in the fourth book, but I cannot see it. So, I can only assume they were there to make the end more exciting and/or for the ending rather than for a large reason. Though I felt that they weren’t really needed but I can just have missed it for this book has a philosophical magic system, often akin to dreams and illusions. Which means that it isn’t straightforward and people can most likely get different answers when they try to understand it.
That said, I liked Gray Man’s budding father relationship with Blue and wished that they had far more scenes as now they only had around two scenes. Both touching but far too few to fully develop Gray Man’s role in the book.
The relationship between the characters such as Ronan and Adam are finally developing though I do find it interesting that Adam seemed to like the idea of Ronan liking him but has shown no indication before that he was interested in guys. I liked that there was no, wait do I like guys? and just fell into that he already knew it, and it wasn’t just mentioned. That might be because that is the most common way in books to reveal that a side character is bisexual and homosexual. Their storyline become less of a romance and more of a coming out story.
So, all in all. I liked this one. More structured, still a nice style of writing though as I mentioned in the previous ones, it can be confusing sometimes. I liked that this book is practically the first one where Blue actually got a plotline other than being a side character in a story she is named the main in. The antagonist is still a bit lackluster but that seem to be very common in YA books. The antagonist just never gets much of a motivation or much of a threat level. They are just there to create conflict.
I would rate it the same as the first one, a 9 out of 10. It had more emotional weight and not as chaotic plotline as the second book with all its different plotlines and perspectives. It follows the structure of the first one a lot closer with a large weight put on atmosphere instead of drug induced madness as in the second book. It is a good follow up, and gives me hope for the fourth one.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
Read with Senefer 