Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link below)
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Published by Scholastic on September 17th 2013
Also by this author: The Raven Boys, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, The Raven King, Call Down the Hawk
Format: Audio/Physical (439 pages) • Source: Library, Scribd
Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble 
If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take?
Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself.
One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams.
And sometimes he's not the only one who wants those things.
Ronan is one of the raven boys—a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan's secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface—changing everything in its wake.
View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here.
Some spoilers ahead!
In our discussion of THE RAVEN BOYS, I asked which character was your favorite. Has your answer changed now that we’ve gotten to know them a bit more?
Lauren: I agree! I think Gansey might be my favorite for some reason, but I really want to get in his head even more. In this book, there was less time spent with Blue and Gansey and more with Ronan and Adam. I know that this one was mostly about Ronan’s dream stuff, so it makes sense, and I’m glad we spent more time getting to know him. I have weird feelings about Adam. I have a bad feeling about the fact that he likes to go off on his own sometimes. It makes me wonder what he’ll do next…
We also talked about how it was somewhat confusing with the ley lines and supernatural stuff. Did you settle in better to the story, or was it still confusing? (Or maybe more confusing with the introduction of more stuff?)
Lauren: I know what you mean. I found that this one was more confusing than the previous book. It took me a while to figure out how the powers, ley lines, and dreams were all related. I ended up reading the Recaptains during and after reading the book, because it helped clarify things as I went along. I don’t like feeling stupid when I read and that happened a lot. I also think it didn’t helped that I mostly listened to this one as an audiobook. I can zone out while listening sometimes and get confused during any book, so that was not a good thing with this (already confusing) book.
This book focused a lot on Ronan, who we were both curious about after book one. What did you think of his importance in this book and how it ties to the previous book?
Lauren: I think that’s what I’m most curious about with Ronan – his past and his family. There are still so many mysteries about his dad and brothers. I wonder what we’ll find out next. This one covered a lot of ground with the introduction of the dream stuff, so I liked that a lot. I’m curious about Declan, too. They obviously don’t have a good relationship and I wonder what else has happened in their family.
Do you have any theories about anything? How about the Gray Man and his brother? Maura?
Lauren: I am terrible with predictions too haha. I think Maura’s past is still quite a mystery, and I bet that there’s something having to do with Blue’s father coming up. He is brought up frequently enough where I wonder if he has any impact on what’s going on or what’s to come. Maura and the Gray Man have a weird relationship but I kind of ship them! I hope she’s safe and I don’t know what the heck happened to her at the end of this one.
What did you think about the ending and the epilogue? Which book do you feel had more of a cliffhanger?
Lauren: I agree! I’m a huge fan of creepy prologues and epilogues because they make things more mysterious in general. I had to read parts of the epilogue multiple times to try to figure out what’s going on and I NEED to know about Ronan’s “secret” about Adam. The epilogue opened up a lot of things, as usual, so I’m eager to read the next book. Also, the ending of the actual book (before the epilogue) was definitely a cliffhanger. WHERE IS MAURA?!
| Plot & Premise | |
| Characters |  |
| Writing Style |  |
| Pacing & Flow |  |
| Feels or Swoons | |
| Addiction Level | |
| Overall: | 4 |
Ah, this is my favorite book of the series! I just love Ronan SO much and my heart was aching for him!
Love this review style. I hope both of you all enjoy the next book, and then it’s just the wait for Raven King. 😀
Thank you! 😀
GANSEY. I love him. I’m glad you ended up enjoying this book, because I found it to be a hard read to get through despite adoring the first book. It caused me to put off reading BLLB for over a year, but I recently picked it up again (with the help of the recaptains) and it was AMAZING. It really sort of ties the first book (which I feel is more focused on Blue/Gansey) and the second book (which is more Adam/Ronan) together.
Yes it was definitely a little difficult to read, but overall enjoyable!!