Teen Happenings and Events

Maggie Stiefvater is one of those YA authors that I have been watching for some time with the intention of reading her as soon as she outgrew that icky supernatural romance stuff. So, as soon as she wrote a book about racing flesh eating horses I knew that the time was ripe.

The Scorpio Races is Maggie’s take on the kelpie legend where aquatic horses would lure humans into riding them only to quickly pull them into water and drown them. She takes quite a bit of liberty with the myth and locates her story on a remote island where savage horses roam the beaches during the fall season just waiting for unsuspecting two legged prey. Of course, people wouldn’t be people if they didn’t find some way to commercialize the danger, and so the islanders capitalize on the risk by racing the sea monsters as a sort of tourist attraction. Think Hidalgo but with horses that try to eat people and I think you’ll have it about right.

I know the premise sounds absurd, but Stiefvater has just the right amount of talent to make the story work and that is no small testament to her skill. Her combination of lush prose and evenly paced world building transports readers to the remote island of Thisby to such a degree that you can almost feel the salty wind whipping through your hair. I must admit that I also fell in love with the character Puck who exhibited a sort of clannish loyalty to the Connelly family and the isolated setting in which they live.

I actually agree with another reviewer, however, in that I wished that Puck was a boy. Her instalove romance with the other main character Sean was predictable to the point of being nauseating… and I think that having two male characters vacillate between friendship and rivalry would actually have made for a more compelling (and unique) story. Plus, how much realistic romance could you actually have anyway when the creatures that you are riding would rather much on your tendons for breakfast rather than serve as a trusty mount?

Other reviewers have also complained that the story was slow, but I actually found the steady buildup to be a welcome relief compared to the overwhelming immediacy of most first person Teen Fiction narratives that are written today. The descriptive prose makes for an immersive reading experience that will reward readers with one of the most unique stories that was published for young adults this year. All in all, The Scorpio Races is yet another fabulous example of genre-bending well crafted storytelling that reminded me why I fell in love with Young Adult Fiction in the first place. I highly recommend you check this one out today.