Tuesday 21 June 2016

Review on The Dream Thieves



Ronan Lynch has three secrets. One of these secrets is that he can take things out of his dreams and place them in the real world. However, with the ley line newly awakened, there have been energy surges in the town, followed by the line weakening. Ronan soon finds out that stealing things out of dreams and the weakening of the line might be connected. With the raven boys coming ever closer in their search for the missing Welsh king Glyndwr, Ronan must try to take control of his dreams. However, Ronan's secret might not be a secret after all. A man known only as The Gray Man is looking for him, and Ronan's life may be in danger.


After reading The Raven Boys I was extremely excited to get hold of the sequel! The book starts a little while after where The Raven Boys finished off, and the boys are very much still in pursuit of Glyndwr. However, Ronan has revealed one of his secrets to his friends, which is that he took his pet raven out of his dreams, and that he is able to do the same with other things. As Ronan was my favourite character in the first book, I was happy that The Dream Thieves focused on him more. I loved learning more about Ronan Lynch, especially his past and the fact that his ability had been passed down to him by his father. Ronan is a very interesting character, and although he is the typical bad boy who is constantly swearing, drinking and street racing, he definitely stole my heart even more in this book. I loved seeing a different side to him, and I found the way he acted towards animals to be extremely sweet. Basically Ronan Lynch is my son and I love him very much.

I loved the idea of being able to take things out of dreams. It was interesting to see the variation of what could be taken out, from living things, physical objects and mythical creatures. I loved that it was shown that the ability could be used for both good and evil, and that bad things could happen if the power was abused. Although the search for Glyndwr plot line took somewhat of a back seat in this story, I adored this new storyline, and how it all still connected back to Glyndwr and the power of the ley line.

I loved that there was little hints that Adam was changing due to sacrificing himself to Cabeswater in the previous book. Adam now has a strong connection to Cabeswater, which due to the weakening of the ley line has seemingly disappeared from existence. Adam gets frightening visions of ghosts who are trying to communicate with him, and he soon finds out it is up to him to restore the ley line and help Ronan. I adored finding out more about Adam's first interactions with Gansey and Ronan when he had first started going to Aglionby, and although he was problematic towards Gansey and Blue on a few occasions, I still love Adam just as much as I did in the first book.

I also have to talk about Noah, which is something I didn't do in my review of The Raven Boys. Although he isn't a main character, I really love Noah and find him completely adorable. I love how he gets excited over simple things such as snow globes, and I particularly loved his friendship with Ronan in this book, as they both have a very silly sense of humour and get on with each other well. I also found myself shipping Noah and Blue which is not something I thought I would ever do! I found the kiss between them both very funny and very sweet, and although I do love the relationship between Blue and Gansey, I was honestly wishing that Blue and Noah could be together.

Although Gansey was shown to be one of the most important characters in The Raven Boys, I felt as if he took more of a back seat role in this book, and gave Ronan his time to shine. Although Gansey was still very much a part of this book, I felt that I didn't learn many new things about him, and that Ronan and Adam were changing a lot more than Gansey was. I did however love the progression of Gansey and Blue's relationship. Usually romance is a plot point that puts me off a book, but I love that the romance in this book is extremely subtle, and surprisingly I'm actually enjoying the romantic relationships forming between the characters.

I loved the introduction of The Gray Man, as he was extremely mysterious, and although he initially seemed like he was going to be the new villain, his character took a surprising turn. I loved learning a little more about him and the reasons why he was trying to run away from his past. Although at first he seemed a little inhuman, it slowly became evident that he disliked his job and just wanted to have a normal life.

I have to mention how much I hated Kavinsky! Joseph Kavinsky, a fellow Aglionby student seems to take a liking to Ronan. However, although he is constantly giving him presents and racing with him, he does it in the worst way possible. I hated that he was homophobic towards Ronan, and was constantly accusing him of being in love with Gansey. I felt as if Kavinsky was jealous that Ronan didn't seem to care about people knowing he was gay, and I loved that when Kavinsky asked him about it directly he didn't feel the need to deny it. I feel as if openly gay and confident characters like Ronan are extremely important in YA, and although Ronan is problematic, he is also extremely likeable.

I loved that the ending of this book brought Cabeswater and Glyndwr back to the forefront, which sets up Blue Lily, Lily Blue to get back on track with Gansey's search. I have extremely high expectations for this series now, and am excited to find out what happens next. I adore all of these characters and can't wait to find out what happens to them!










 

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