The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Scorpio Races
by Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA magical realism

My Rating: ★★★★★

Description:

It happens every November: the Scorpio Races. It's a wild, dangerous sport, as riders battle to stay on their water horses long enough to cross the finish line.
Some live.
Many die.
For Sean Kendrick, four-time champion of the Races, the danger is nothing new. He knows the risks and accepts them. If he has any fear, he keeps it buried. For him, it's not the thought of winning that drives him, but something deeper, something he keeps to himself, something wild and alive inside.
Puck Connolly never meant to ride in the Races, but fate forced her hand. Now she's entered in the competition -- the first woman ever to do so.
Neither of them are in any way prepared for what will happen.

Overall Thoughts

I have read so many books that have become new favorites this year. The Scorpio Races is one of those books. Honestly, I put off reading this for far too long, and I'm so glad I finally decided to read it!

Writing

I want to talk about the writing style first, because it was so unique and beautiful without bogging down the story. Sometimes authors get caught up in writing beautiful descriptions and lose track of the actual plot (we've all read that one book) but The Scorpio Races balanced lovely writing and description with the plot events excellently. In fact, I feel like the writing style added to the overall atmosphere of the book. In my Best Books for Fall post, I mentioned that the entire story felt like November. And it's true. It's hard to explain, but once you've read it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The Characters

The characters were excellent. Of course we have our main characters, Puck and Sean. Puck is such a great main character. She's really strong, but still feels human, still makes mistakes, and isn't the best at everything she does. But she still tries, and fights, and genuinely cares about both of her brothers. (I guess you guys must have guessed by now how much I love well written sibling relationships in books!) I wish female characters like Puck were more common in YA fiction, because she was incredible. 

Sean was also well developed. I suppose he could have fallen into any number of YA character stereotypes, but he never did. He has a really unique character voice, and his motivations and reasons for riding in the Races were so complex and layered and I really liked that. 

But it wasn't only the main characters who were well developed! Stiefvater did an excellent job in characterizing even her background characters in a couple of sentences. Even the random people populating the island felt like real people, and it really impressed me. Too often in fiction, minor characters are not well-developed and feel like cardboard props to support the main character's stories. The characters in The Scorpio Races all felt like people in their own right, and I appreciated that.

Plot/Pacing

The plot and pacing were nearly perfect. I do have to say that the beginning of the book was a tiny bit slow, but it picked up fast enough that it's barely noticeable. The rest of the book is perfectly paced, and I feel like the plot balanced the two main character's lives with the plot of the Races very well. There's not much I really want to say about the plot, because it's really one of those books that you shouldn't know very much about going in.

Worldbuilding

And the world building! As I mentioned earlier, the writing contributed so much to the atmosphere of the book, and I really loved how real the Thisby felt. It was so vivid and amazing. The water horses felt like a perfectly natural part of the island, and I loved that. It's magical realism at its best. 

I've probably used the words "amazing" and "incredible" far too often in this review, but I don't care. Anyway, this book deserves it. I highly, highly recommend picking it up, even if you aren't a fan of magical realism or YA. This book is just that good.

Content

Recommended for ages 13 and up. 

Some minor swearing, used infrequently. Some sexual innuendo, also infrequent. Kissing. Characters drink alcohol. 

The biggest content warning would have to be the violence. The water horses are vicious. Several on-page deaths, some rather gruesome. Nothing is gorily described, but it could be disturbing for some readers. A character threatens another character at knifepoint. 

Horses are injured. One scene describes the carcass of a dead sheep.