Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
Summary: This is the third book of the Raven Cycle series. This review will contain spoilers for the earlier books. Here are my reviews for The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves.
Blue Sargent has gained a new family in her Raven Boys, but now she has lost family as well: her mother, Maura, has disappeared into the caves of Cabeswater as the new school year starts, and Blue doesn't know what to do with herself.
In addition, a new teacher has shown up at Aglionby Academy with a deadly agenda.
Thoughts: I'm finding it harder and harder to write the summaries for these books because they sound so watered-down in comparison to the richness of the actual stories.
At the risk of repeating myself, I love love LOVE how carefully Stiefvater has crafted these characters, and time and time again, I find myself wishing I was "in" with them in real life. It's not just that their quest sounds exciting, but they sound like a slightly effed-up version of the cool group of friends from a movie (but not cliquey and mean. Well, aside from Ronan.)
This book introduces even more new characters, and I don't know how to talk about how awesome they are without being spoilery. One, Jesse Dittley, is a local whom the kids meet on their quest, and HE SOUNDS LIKE HE TALKS IN ALL CAPS, so Stiefvater takes the extra step of making all his dialogue in ALL CAPS. Another is the wife of the new Aglionby teacher, and she overturns just about every wife-of-the-villain stereotype I've ever seen. Another is a complete spoiler, but let me just say, they (singular-they) do not FAIL to entertain.
I went straight to the last book, and I can't wait to finish the series. Also, it looks like the new series Stiefvater is writing is some sort of a Ronan spinoff, so I'm pretty excited!