Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

I finished this book right before I went on a week-long vacation, and one of the things I gave myself a vacation from was writing reviews. Now I'm back, eager to get back on the horse, and it's been more than a week since I finished this. Poor Maggie Stiefvater. This is the second book by her I've read when an unintended absence has interceded between me finishing and being able to write. The first book just never got written about. I feel like I remember enough to still write this one, but it's hard when there are more reviews than time.

We're now three books into the Raven Cycle, with one more to go. The search for Owen Glendower heats up in this book, and we can feel like we're getting closer. Yet again, like with the first book, there are certainly times when the pacing feels off. It sometimes takes a long time to get very far, and the telegraphing of where we are in the story is spotty. Maybe that makes it feel more realistic, but it also occasionally makes the books feel like they're dragging, or, to be more precise, like the payoff isn't enough at the end for the journey we've just taken to get there.

That's a quibble. But in all, I have enjoyed this series, and I'm looking forward to finishing it. I haven't loved it quite enough to add Maggie Stiefvater to my favourite authors list, and put her permanently on my reading radar, but for young adult novels with a distinctively mythological cast, I'm glad I've read them.

The reason is primarily the characters - if I occasionally have trouble with the pacing, the world and the characters who inhabit it are vivid and interesting. And big things do happen in this book, although at least one of the bad guys ends up being willing to back off with less fuss than I was imagining, even with the story reasons provided. Another villain with a weaker motive steps in, and I'm not sure that's entirely satisfying.

This is all making it sound like I didn't like this book. I did, I really did. Blue and the women who surround her are the heart of this book, and the Aglionby boys have grown on me. It still seems like the main one has not had time in his life to do all the things he's supposed to have done on the timeline he's supposed to have done them. I'm sure it's all plotted out somewhere, but it still seems unlikely. That's something I can overlook, though.

In this book, the search for Glendower continues. Blue's mother is still missing, and that hangs over much of the book. By the title, this one is supposed to be Blue's book, but she doesn't get as much to do in this book as Ronan did in his. There is much worry about her mother, but there isn't much of a "her own adventure" feel to this one, little about her discovering more about herself. She gets a name for what she can do, but mostly the adventures remain group adventures.

The group delves underground and wakes a sleeper, with two left to go (one of whom they're told they should not wake). This causes complications, as does the arrival of the Grey Man's erstwhile boss in town, after the Greywaren. (If none of this makes sense, the previous books would make it clear.)

We're several books in, the mythology, personal and writ large, is starting to accumulate, and while I do wish Blue had more of her own plot in this, I'm enjoying the group plot, the women of her household, and I'll be interested to read the last book when it arrives.