Review: The Scorpio Races

Not gonna lie, it had been so long since my first read of this book that it was basically like I'd never read it before. Can't say that's a bad feeling to have.

Also, I read five whole books this weekend because of the amount of traveling I did, so it looks like I'm set for reviews for a while. :)

Kate "Puck" Connolly is an orphan on the island of Thisby, along with her brothers Gabe and Finn. They have managed to do alright for themselves after their parents died in an accident a few years back, but now Gabe wants to move to the mainland (leaving Kate and Finn behind) and Benjamin Malvern, the richest man on the island, is about to repossess their house.

Uh oh.

Sean Kendrick is another resident of Thisby and also an orphan. (Who needs parents, man?) He works at Malvern's stables, training horses and competing in the annual Scorpio Race. He's won the past four years, meaning he's got a decent purse of money saved up and Malvern has a lot of bragging rights. The rules are the same as any other horse race: first one to the finish line wins.

What's not so typical?

The horses are bloodthirsty killing machines.

Riders in the Scorpio Races capture capaill uisce - water horses - when they rise from the sea each fall. They use all sorts of charms and tricks to settle the horses (I won't say tame), and they either ride the horses themselves or sell them to people who are willing to ride but couldn't get their own horses. Not every rider makes it out of this race alive, but the prize at the end is a good incentive for participants.

Kate decides she's going to ride in the races this year, in order to keep her brother around longer and also get enough money to keep their house. However, she's going to do it on her own normal horse, Dove, and not a capall uisce, seeing as those horses are what killed her parents. Sean strikes up a deal with Malvern that will let him buy Corr, the capall he's been riding for years, if he wins the race one last time.

Kate and Sean become a somewhat unlikely team as they prep for the races, with Sean sharing what he knows about the races and Kate giving some outsider perspective that affects Sean's decisions. Only one of them can win the race in the end, though, and Kate's already facing a lot of criticism as the first woman to ever enter the races. Whatever happens will likely affect them - and maybe all of Thisby - for good.

I have to say, I'd forgotten how enjoyable I find Stiefvater's writing. Her language is rich and a bit old-fashioned, making this story feel very fairy tale-esque at moments. She also gives a satisfying, complete story without answering every question that comes to mind - we never learn how Kate came to be called "Puck," for instance, yet I never felt irked by that unexplained detail like I probably would have if another author had written this novel. The story captured all it needed to capture without wasting any time on irrelevant side plots.

I also really liked the inclusion of the capaill uisce. (God that's hard to spell.) I'd never heard of them before reading this novel, and it was a nice change from the standard vampire-werewolf-fairy-mermaid mythologies that tend to dominate in YA. I love reading those, too, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to read something entirely fresh for once. Can we start a More Lesser-Known Mythological Creatures in Novels 2014 campaign or something?

Finally, I loved how Kate and Sean's romance was done, too. It was a slow burn, but I never felt impatient with how long it took them to get together, since they spent a lot of their time working out each other's feelings and building a solid foundation. I can easily see them spending their lives together because of how intensely they can relate to each other and how neatly their interests align. They're both willing to make sacrifices for the other, too, but never in an "Okay, now you owe me" way.

Overall, The Scorpio Races is a gripping and emotional novel with equal parts action and romance that never gets sappy or clings too hard to old tropes. It also feels so nicely wrapped up that I can't even demand a sequel. Five stars.