The Scorpio Races

So, as usual, I have been reading plenty of books and blogging about zero of them, mostly because I’ve become obsessed with getting my own book published.  It is a slow, soul-sucking process which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one.  Happily, I’m not particularly sensitive, and press on in spite of all the rejection.

Anyway, in the past three weeks I’ve finished three books and thought I should blog about at least one of them.  All three, Legend by Marie Lu, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, and The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, were quite good in their own way, and I would recommend them all.

In all fairness, though, I should start with The Scorpio Races because Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver was the first YA book I’d ever read (having been born in the olden days, I only had children’s books or adult books available to me) and started me on a seemingly never-ending binge of YA reading.  It is her work, in fact, that inspired me to even think of writing my own book.

The Scorpio Races is set on what appears to be a British/Irish sort of island in an indeterminate time period that seems to be the past – but if you’ve ever been on a British/Irish sort of island, you will realize that this is often the case.  Much like Shiver, the story is told from alternating points-of-view.  Puck (Kate) is the heroine of the story.  She’s a little grumbly and a lot brave, motivated to take on the terrifying challenge of racing her gentle horse against men riding killer water horses because she believes it may prolong her eldest brother’s leaving the family home.  Oh yeah, also because her parents are dead, her young brother is just a tad off, and they risk getting kicked out of the only home they’ve every known. In light of all that, prize money seems pretty tempting.

Sean Kendrick serves as the other narrator.  All angles and silence, Sean loves the island, but he loves the horses even more, particularly his water horse, Corr.  Like Puck, Sean is also motivated to win the Scorpio Races in order to sort out his own variety of issues; that is, until Puck comes along putting a new spin on both winning and on being alone.

As usual, I found the characters extremely well-written, original, and multi-dimensional.  The story, which revolves around the Celtic myth of the Capaill Uisce, water horses who rise from the ocean only to get extraordinarily cranky with anyone who tries to stop them from going back, was also quite original.  The setting, which is complex and multilayered, is generally one of my favorites anyway (i.e., anything Celtic and rainy) so I was pretty predisposed to enjoying that aspect of the story.

All in all, The Scorpio Races definitely doesn’t disappoint in any way and, as with all Maggie Stiefvater’s works, I highly recommend it.

LAME FACTOR:  Maggie Stiefvater doesn’t have a lame bone in her body.  0 of 5.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR:  I can’t think of any reasons why they would.

BRAIN POWER:  I’m clearly prejudiced, but this is a great author who uses real words, beautiful sentence structure, and metaphors the rest of us couldn’t even begin to imagine.  Your brain might actually grow.