Ratings130
Average rating3.5
I do not understand the Twilight comparisons. I just don't see that they have anything beyond the incredibly superficial in common. This is slow, tense, smart, measured, lush... and it's not instalove: they've been falling in love for years through their psychic connection.
What I found most intriguing was the tension between the intimate and the societal, even familial. Their relationship has a sweet innocence to it that balances the intensity and depth. Their shared dedication to each other, and to a thoughtful morality, together with their consciousness is such a contrast with the violence, neglect and anger of the world that surrounds them. This tension is mirrored in the continual reminders of the tenuousness of Sam's humanity in the temperature readings in each section heading.
There was much to love here. I adore Stiefvater's lyrical prose.
I just was not pulled into the story in the way I wanted to be - I think I'm just not in the right headspace for YA romance. I've already started the next book, though.
I smiled at the stacks, inhaling again. Hundreds of thousands of pages that had never been turned, waiting for me.
Behind the counter, I slouched on my stool in the sun and sucked in the summer as if I could hold every drop of it inside of me. As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.