“They were all in love with one another.” // Review of Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater.

Title: Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Date Read: 20/04/2016 – 22/04/2016
Rating: ★★★

Review:

It may be because I rushed into this book very quickly after reading the second one, but unlike with the last installment of The Raven Cycle, I found this one dragging on a bit, in spite of the introduction of new characters and further exploration of the setting.

In Blue Lily, Lily Blue, our characters are further exploring the ley line, and a potential second one that lies perpendicular to it. Greenmantle,  the Grey Man’s employer from the previous book, and his wife have arrived in town to continue their own search for the Greywaren. Adam’s day in court with his father is approaching, Blue’s mother is still missing, and Blue and Gansey are still pretending that they might be able to fall in love one day without any obstacles.

While the mythology of the series is explored further, and the characters make exciting discoveries regarding this, as with book one, I felt that the stakes were never especially high. Things seemed to get fixed quite easily, and I felt like I was sometimes brought into the start of an important scene, only for the author to decide the conclusion of that scene wasn’t really worth including. Adam’s day in court was the stand-out for this issue, though it happened more than once; while I can see why it was necessary to include the entire court scene when the important character-related stuff was at the start, I felt like there could have been another way to have Adam come to the same realisations, without me turning the page and feeling like I had missed a chapter.

I have hopes that the fourth book in the series will not have these same issues. The climax that the series has been building towards will be reached, and hopefully we’ll get a decent fall-out from that. All remains to be seen.

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