**Warning: Spoilers May Abound**
Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #3)There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.
The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.
Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.(source:goodreads)
Narrative-Not for the first time, Stiefvater managed to pull together a narrative that switched between multiple POVs (third person), made sense, and kept the same level of sass and sarcasm throughout the novel. In just the right places, the language s poetic, funny, or terrifying. The voice of her characters comes out in each established perspective, a different one for each chapter, and not a moment went by when I didn't doubt how easy it was to get lost in the story, purely through how simply and energetic her writing is.
Once, I stopped in the middle of a sentence and said (out-loud, to my empty apartment): "This writing is fucking beautiful."
Sorry for the cursing, but it's true.
★★★★★
Plot-Oh goodness. Can I just give all the awards to Stiefvater? The plot thickens in the quest for Glendower; there's caves, and a haunting, and Blue's mother is missing, and there's a guy who shows up who wants to get revenge on Mr. Gray, and Adam's still trying to come to grips with being Cabeswater's eyes and ears, and Ronan's still dealing with the consequences of dreaming up real things, and Noah occasionally gets possessed, and Gansey's old friend (literally: he's old) comes into town, and they all find a woman who's been "sleeping" (but not really) for centuries underground in a fake crypt, and, lastly, there's a third sleeper underground that they cannot wake under any circumstances who may or may not be woken up in the end.
Because, really, what's a good book if some of the world-rules aren't broken now and again?
This is simply a beautiful book. I find it incredibly amazing the number of minor arcs that get twisted into the major arc, and they all interweave so nicely that if you take one away, the whole story could be in danger of falling apart.
And the mythology? So much of it. And it just works so well.
Once again, I am in awe.
★★★★★
Characters-Since I've gone over how much I love each individual character in previous reviews (see my reviews for THE RAVEN BOYS and THE DREAM THIEVES), I think instead it's worth mentioning the fact that there's careful attention placed on the relationship between characters. Most specifically, it's the relationship between Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah: Blue and the Raven Boys.
There's a lot of shifting dynamics: at the end of the school year, for instance, everybody will be off to college (well, Ronan maybe, maybe not). Blue wants to leave Henrietta, but the cost of any college far away is out of her means.
Gansey and Blue have a growing attraction to each other, but they both know that publicly favoring one person in the group above the others would be possibly catastrophic for their friendships.
Adam's trying to be his own man, and to avoid Gansey's "charity," but his constant anger is a challenge, so he spends the whole book repeating to himself that he doesn't want to get into a fight.
Those are just a few of the ways in which the characters are shown to be growing. As they get further in their quest to find Glendower (and further into trouble), their worldviews are shifting. They start to know exactly what they want, and they're worried about the consequences. It's fantastic.
★★★★☆
Final Answer: 4.67 / 5
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A fantastic addition to a fantastic series. Read what @Rae_Slater has to say of BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE @mstiefvater (Click to Tweet)
"It's simply a beautiful book." BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE @mstiefvater earns 4.67 stars via @Rae_Slater. Read the review (Click to Tweet)
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