Book Review: The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

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It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Review type: Plot + Character breakdowns + Overall

I’m going to be honest and say that I have considered DNF-ing this book. It started out very slow and the pacing was not up to par with what I had expected from such an epic synopsis. I realized I didn’t want to give up so easily, especially on the first book that I decided to dedicate my time with at the start of the year. So I pushed through by trying different platforms other than reading the book and ebook. It was then that I decided to look for the audio book on Scribd. After listening to the audio book, it gave me new motivation to finish the book.

This story centers around two characters, Sean Kendrick and Kate “Puck” Connolly, who have their own reasons for joining the Scorpio Races. For Sean, it was to, at first, continue the glory of his winning streak of the races and making his late father proud. For Puck, it was to, at first, keep her brother Gabe from leaving the island. But at the end of the book, they found a different purpose in wanting to win the races, and I thought that was such a groundbreaking moment for this book which has given it the awesome rights to a five-star rating from me.

I absolutely adored the characters in this book, down to the side characters that have such well-written stories of their own. Apart from Sean and Puck, I especially loved Finn (Puck’s younger brother), Peg and George Holly. They were some very entertaining characters and were a breath of fresh air whenever I needed a break from Puck and Sean’s thoughts. I also admire the fact that while I normally avoid books that’s in the first POV, I didn’t feel this one to be as overwhelming with Sean and Puck’s first person POV’s here the way I would normally feel on other books. The alternating of multiple POV’s is very easy to get into, which is not an easy feat to do. I applaud Maggie for doing good on this.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book is the visual presentation of the island of Thisby. I kind of imagined it to be a Greek island just based off the name itself since there is a place in Greece called Thisbe. Not to mention the fact that the story involves characters preaching goddesses, which Greece mostly has in certain points of their religions. Apart from that, the way Maggie describes the island makes me want to kind of live there. Set aside the mutinous and sexist citizens and you kind of have a little paradise.

Now onto our two main characters. I want to start with Sean because he had the honor of being the first chapter. This guy has had a hard life, and I’m not even going to mention what happened on the first chapter itself that made my heart ache for Sean. But he’s a character that perseveres, and later on into the story, shows just how much his bravery means more than just joining a race where people can get killed. Thank Merlin he’s not your typical broody YA guy that has to be a mean dude to our main girl to get brownie points. Nah, Sean respects Puck here, and I suppose that’s what I loved about him. In an island full of people that didn’t believe that Puck could ever win the races, he seemed to be one of the very few that thought she was a good bet–and I admire that about him.

I honestly thought Sean was going to die during the race (if you’ve seen my tweets about this book, you’d know!), but I’m glad that he didn’t (here’s a spoiler for you because we all want a happy ending, yeah?). And the ending with Sean and his beloved horse that he raced with, Corr, just has my heart singing because that was such a beautiful ending. There was a line in the book where Sean said that the only things that mattered to him were “The sky and the sand and the sea and Corr.” And it just goes to show just how much Corr is more than just some racing horse that he won with for four straight years. The bond between them is remarkable and I just love that.

Let’s talk about Puck. Puck’s real name is actually Kate, but people call her Puck for whatever reason. If I loved Sean, I definitely loved Puck more. I loved her spunk and ferociousness as a character, and I so admire her courage throughout this entire book. The odds were clearly stacked against her the moment she decided she wanted to enter the races because her mare, Dove, is nothing like the special capall uisce horses bred from the sea. She’s just a regular horse with the biggest heart and the most admirable bravery. But I love that along the way, she didn’t let the naysayers that think a woman shouldn’t enter the races get in the way of her vision in joining the races to, at first, keep her big brother Gabe from leaving the island to go to the mainland where there were better opportunities. I also adore how she’s such a ferocious cinnamon roll at times? I seriously enjoyed reading her POV so much, which made me really stay on to continue reading. I mean, just take a look at this snippet from the book where Kate goes to confession with Father Mooneyham.

 I cast my mind back over the past week. “I considered taking the Lord’s name on Monday. Well, not ‘God.’ I thought about saying ‘Jesus Christ!’ I also ate an entire orange without telling Finn, because I knew he’d be annoyed.” 

Father Mooneyham says, “Go home, Kate.”

I just love Puck so much. She deserves all the best things in the world and more.

Apart from this, I also enjoyed the chemistry between Sean and Puck. I will give you a head’s up that this book is not heavy on the romance, which is honestly a breath of fresh air. The way Sean and Puck came together was simple, yet very beautiful. They’re just the softest ship to ever sail and I just adore how they are the perfect match for each other. It’s also interesting that they realize the underlying reason they want to join the races (and no, it’s not because of each other) by discovering the real reason for their joining the races together. If that isn’t #couplegoals, I don’t know what is. I mean but also just look at this very simple dialogue that’s quite earth shattering for anyone that has already been rooting for them to be together since they first saw each other on the beach.

I say, “I will not be your weakness, Sean Kendrick.” 

Now he looks at me. He says, very softly, “It’s late for that, Puck.” 

I swear to everything, if that isn’t the most fangirlish moment of my life, I don’t know what is! I know Maggie didn’t write like an “Epilogue” after the current ending she wrote, but I hope Maggie decided these two will be married and living at Sean’s family’s old house and have cute little babies of their own running around while they keep a pen of horses to care and love for themselves. That’s the ideal image I have of them, and I will keep imagining that happy ending for them for the rest of my days.

Overall, this was such a brilliant read. I can’t believe I considered not finishing this, but I’m glad I did once the story picked up pretty soon into the book. This is my first book by Maggie Stiefvater and I am quite impressed. I have The Raven Boys on my TBR since forever, so I’m definitely giving that series a shot well into the bookish year.

Five stars all around for such a moving and inspiring book! I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a little something different off the usual YA fantasy.

Did you love The Scorpio Races as much as I did? Who were some of your favorite characters? Would you have ridden Dove or Corr if you had been in the Scorpio Races? Let’s discuss in the comments below!