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![The Scorpio Races by [Maggie Stiefvater]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518FhXK7gpL._SY346_.jpg)
The Scorpio Races Kindle Edition
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- Reading age12 years and up
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level7 - 9
- Lexile measure840L
- PublisherScholastic Inc.
- Publication dateOctober 18, 2011
- ISBN-13978-0545224901
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Editorial Reviews
Review
* “Stiefvater’s novel begins rivetingly and gets better and better…all the way, in fact, to best.” – The Horn Book, starred review
* “A book appealing to lovers of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action-adventure alike, this seems to have a shot at being a YA blockbuster.” – Booklist, starred review
* “An utterly compelling read.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Amazon.com Review
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shiver and Linger comes a brand new, heart-stopping novel.
With her trademark lyricism, Maggie Stiefvater turns to a new world, where a pair are swept up in a daring, dangerous race across a cliff--with more than just their lives at stake should they lose.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
2012 Michael L. Printz Honor BookNew York Times Notable Children's BookPublishers Weekly Best Book of the YearSchool Library Journal Best Books of the YearA Horn Book Fanfare BookA Kirkus Reviews Best Teen BookAn Amazon.com Best Young Adult BookALA Notable Children's Book (Fiction)Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee
"Stiefvater...not only steps out of the young adult fantasy box with The Scorpio Races but crushes it with pounding hooves...If The Scorpio Races seems like nothing you've ever read, that's because it is." -The New York Times Book Review
"Stiefvater has established herself as one of the finest YA novelists writing today." -Entertainment Weekly
"Tense, atmospheric, and utterly original." -People Magazine
*"A study of courage and loyalty tested...utterly compelling." -Publishers Weekly, starred review
*"An intoxicating ride." -Horn Book, starred review
*"Masterful. Like nothing else out there now." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"A book with cross-appeal to lovers of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action adventure, this seems to have a shot at being a YA blockbuster." -Booklist, starred review
*"Marvelous." -School Library Journal, starred review
* “Stiefvater’s novel begins rivetingly and gets better and better…all the way, in fact, to best.” – The Horn Book, starred review
* “A book appealing to lovers of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action-adventure alike, this seems to have a shot at being a YA blockbuster.” – Booklist, starred review
* “An utterly compelling read.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
Praise for The Scorpio Races
2012 Michael L. Printz Honor BookNew York Times Notable Children's BookPublishers Weekly Best Book of the YearSchool Library Journal Best Books of the YearA Horn Book Fanfare BookA Kirkus Reviews Best Teen BookAn Amazon.com Best Young Adult BookALA Notable Children's Book (Fiction)Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee
"Stiefvater...not only steps out of the young adult fantasy box with The Scorpio Races but crushes it with pounding hooves...If The Scorpio Races seems like nothing you've ever read, that's because it is." -The New York Times Book Review
"Stiefvater has established herself as one of the finest YA novelists writing today." -Entertainment Weekly
"Tense, atmospheric, and utterly original." -People Magazine
*"A study of courage and loyalty tested...utterly compelling." -Publishers Weekly, starred review
*"An intoxicating ride." -Horn Book, starred review
*"Masterful. Like nothing else out there now." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"A book with cross-appeal to lovers of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action adventure, this seems to have a shot at being a YA blockbuster." -Booklist, starred review
*"Marvelous." -School Library Journal, starred review
--This text refers to the audioCD edition.About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
SEAN: It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.
Even under the brightest sun, the frigid autumn sea is all the colors of the night: dark blue and black and brown. I watch the ever-changing patterns in the sand, the beach pummeled by countless hooves.
They run the horses on the beach, a pale road between the black ocean and the dark cliffs, because the sand is a better surface for the horses' legs. It is never safe, but it's never so dangerous as today, race day.
This time of year, I live and breathe the beach. My cheeks feel raw with the wind throwing sand against them. My thighs sting from the friction of the saddle. My arms ache from holding up two thousand pounds of horse. I have forgotten what it is like to be warm and what a full night's sleep feels like and what my name sounds like spoken instead of shouted across yards of sand.
I am so, so alive.
Product details
- ASIN : B0051WIX24
- Publisher : Scholastic Inc. (October 18, 2011)
- Publication date : October 18, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 12405 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 426 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #216,325 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.
Maggie Stiefvater plays several musical instruments (most infamously, the bagpipes) and makes art in several media (most generally, colored pencils).
She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, their two children, many dogs, a bunch of fainting goats, and a mating pair of growly tuner cars.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2020
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This contrasts sharply with books such as the Mazerunner trilogy and The Hunger Games in which the majority of the action in each book takes place during the trial after which the book is named. Indeed, the race itself does not happen until about 90% of the way through the book. This is a novel about horses, but one does not have to be a horse-lover to enjoy it- I would not brand myself as such. This is not the book for you if you are looking for make-out scenes and interminable battle scenes. The romance and the action are subtle and are "grown from the rocks and dirt around" Thisby (Quote from Sean's description of Puck).
The prose of this book reminds me of a song: it's beautiful and you can read it over and over again. I almost shudder to call it prose. It leaves you with no doubts about how Thisby looks & feels; how the horses look, feel, smell and sound; how the people look. The words are rhapsodic and lyrical, which is why I have included so many quotes from the book. My description of this writing cannot do it justice.
The story focuses on two characters, Kate `Puck' Connolly and Sean Kendrick, and is told in alternating perspectives from each of their points-of-view in first-person present. The author denotes each chapter or part of a chapter with the character's name to let you know from whose point of view that part is told. Sean has a knack for dealing with the water horses that is portrayed as being innate most of the time, though there is some superstition involved as well. Puck is a middle sister wedged between two brothers in age and the siblings are orphans, their parents killed by the water horses while fishing the year before this story takes place. She decides to compete in the Scorpio Races, at first to try and keep her brother from leaving the island and later she realizes she needs the money from winning even more than she initially thought. The traditional island men continuously try to bar her attempts because she is a girl and she isn't riding a water horse. As the friendship and eventual romance between Sean and Puck builds, so does a unique tension as the circumstances become such that each character must win the Races in order to get what he or she wants- but only one of them can.
The characters are well fleshed out, to include the secondary characters. As a reader you resent Puck's oldest brother though he is almost entirely absent in the book and you see her struggle with what appears to be her younger brother's anxiety- or possibly obsessive/compulsive-disorder, even though it is never given a name. You get detailed glimpses into the lives of Dory Maud and her sisters, who help Puck bring in income; the priest; the butcher and his wife, at intervals supportive and averse to Puck's participation; the rich boss of the horse yard, Mr. Malvern, owner of Sean's stallion and father of Sean's enemy; the insightful American horse lover, customer of Malvern's but advocate of all that is good. In many ways this book is able to present many original characters without falling on many of the traditional archetypes.
The setting is the island of Thisby, a locale invented by the author as a stage on which her story plays out, a setting which is just as integral to the plot and story as the characters themselves. In reading this book it is impossible not to visualize, smell, hear and feel Thisby. "Thisby's tiny: four thousand people on a rocky crag jutting from the sea, hours from the mainland. It's all cliffs and horses and sheep and one-track roads winding past treeless fields to Skarmouth, the largest town on the island" and "is a cunning and secretive thing."
The animals traditionally ridden by men in the Scorpio Races are the capaill uisce, the author's interpretation of the Celtic legend of the water horses. "These are not ordinary horses. Drape them with charms, hide them from the sea, but today, on the beach: Do not turn your back. Some of the horses have lathered. Froth drips down their lips and chests, looking like sea foam, hiding the teeth that will tear into men later." They are horses that live in the sea but as November- the time of the Scorpio Races- approaches the currents and the weather bring the water horses onto the beaches of Thisby, where men risk their lives to capture and attempt to tame these creatures enough for them to race on.
Unlike many Young-adult novels today, I would have no qualms about a teenager reading this book. Though there are mentions of a horse goddess in a parade, the portrayal of the horse goddess is comparable to us having leprechauns in St. Patrick's Day parades. The participants also have to have their finger cut and have a drop of blood dropped on a rock to declare that they will participate. The word `bastard' is used and there is obviously violence when people are killed by horses but I don't think that it is gratuitous.
I read complaints about the theme of the book being that money can solve all of your problems. I disagree. I feel that the theme is that youth can find a way to solve problems. Both of the main characters are orphans and have had to grow up fast and while they do need money to solve their problems, they don't just want it for frivolous reasons or for the sake of being rich. In fact, one character offers Sean the opportunity to go to America and be a partner in his horse yard and Sean doesn't take it and even states that it isn't money he wants- it's the water horse, Corr. Another theme is the importance of family. Puck frequently refers to the losses her family has already suffered and the further loss they will feel when their oldest brother leaves. There are also thematic elements related to gender equality, breaking the mold of doing-things-one-way-because-that's-how-it's-always-been and using your talents to solve problems.
I've never read a book quite like this and I won't be surprised if I never do again. In a market flooded with dystopias and teen-paranormal-romance devoted primarily to vampires and werewolves, this is a paranormal book with teens and romance that is somehow totally unique. It's a sweet surprise, like finding a note from a parent in your lunch box as a kid, and I don't know if I can be surprised like this again.
This book all the sudden means so much to me. (*hugs book to chest while sobbing*) I don't know how to cope. So many different emotions rippled through my chest. So many characters that captured my heart. But mostly Maggie Stiefvater released the essence of a heart's freedom within these pages. She told a story my heart recognized, one I identified with, and one I will cherish forever.
This book opened my eyes again. It reminded me why I love my world--the country. It reminded me why I admire horses, and what freedom feels like. I have promised myself to never forget what my world means to me. The Scorpio Races has revived my spirit and I cannot thank Maggie Stiefvater enough. This book is gold.
There were a bunch of conversations that really cheered my spirit--mainly because it's so unique--one of them being the statement Peg made to Puck about racing. About motive. About proving that she can do the things that the men can. About becoming a man in the men's eyes. Peg was warning her that such a choice was dangerous...and wrong. Puck knew that wasn't what she wanted, she just need to show the men that such a thing was possible (also, personal reasons). But that statement really got me thinking...about feminists. That's what they're doing. Trying to prove that they can do the things men can, better then men can themselves. It may not be their initial intention, but that's what's happening...and just as Peg was implying such a movement can have dire consequences for everyone. Anyways ... I really appreciate that view.
Description ~ I cherished every moment of it. The way she helped me picture things weren't so much in words, but in visions. The images she designed carried more emotion than her stating the emotion. It was gorgeous and my heart soared. I've never read details painted in such a fashion.
Plot ~ I LOVED THE PACING. IT WAS AMAZING. Just enough action to keep me excited, but not so much that it created anxiety. I really appreciated that....most of the time--in order for the reader to stay invested--the action has to be so deep the readers can't enjoy the book without being thrown from page to page. That's why I love this pacing. There's not enough of this pacing.
Romance ~ Top notch. Some of the best I've ever read. I hate how all the "horse/country" storylines have to always be cliche. The MC is a hot girl who is new to the country and loves horses or learns to ride horses. Then she and "the hot ranch hand" start having chemistry. Turns out a bully girl who is the best horse woman in the town likes this guy too. The MC and the bully girl have some sort of competition and the bully girl looses. Then our MC gets everything she wants....the guy, the horse, and friends. I HATE THIS. This romance was nothing at all like the normal "country girl" style. AND I LOVE THAT. The two MC's are some of the most interesting characters I've ever met. I love how their relationship develops slowly, but completely. It's so beautiful and unique.
Content ~ It's a rather violent book. Honestly the water horses are bloody creatures. The Scorpio Race is a violent thing. It literally says "Today is November first, and so today someone will die." On the first page. :P There's also some language....and religion. Some crude comments and one kiss. Overall it's clean....for YA. 😏
Characters ~ They were all very realistic and true to their personality. I adored how just a few words could carry so much meaning...or how one look implied so much emotion. 💕 The dialogue was EPIC.
Sean ~ The prequel allowed me to connect with him so much more. I have this strange feeling that if the prequel weren't there I wouldn't understand him very well. He just isn't a very emotion person--most men aren't--so it matched his quiet ways. His ability with the water horses made my heart warm. There's just something about his personality that makes him endearing.
Puck/Kate ~ Finally!!! FINALLY!!! We have a non stereotypical country girl. I have been wanting this MY WHOLE LIFE. She loves horses, but she cares for her family, and underneath that hard shell she is compassionate. I loved how she appeared calm under pressure and how could be strong the way a woman is suppose to be strong (not the way a man is supposed to be strong).
Overall ~ This book has revived my spirit. I didn't realize how much I missed by not reading it for so long. BUMP THIS BOOK UP YOUR TBR. NOW.
Top reviews from other countries

Told in alternating first-person chapters from Puck and Sean's perspective, we get a true insight into what drives them. The character building is superb and I loved Puck, who was often very witty in a dry way. There are also insights that are wonderful and profound. Like Puck's observation that 'there are moments that you'll remember for the rest of your life and there are moments that you think you'll remember for the rest of your life, and it's not often they turn out to be the same moments'. For me, as a reader, those 'ohhhh' moments, when you're gifted something truly beautiful and relatable to mull over are wonderful. And then there are Puck's amusing observations - for example, her description of two sisters: 'Annie looks dreamy, but she always does because she can't see further than a metre away. Elizabeth looks vaguely angry, but she always does because she can see further than a metre away.'
These musings by Puck bring her to life in an amazing way. By contrast, Sean, is quiet and self-contained but no less developed as a character for being such.
For me, this book wasn't really about magic (although there are allusions to it - bells and circles in the sand, iron, spit - things designed to 'tame' the mythical and deadly water horses that emerge each November and are rounded up for the Scorpio Races). Rather, the novel is about overcoming adversity, being true to oneself, loyalty, tenacity and finding meaning in the here and now. Not looking for something more or 'other' but being present in the moment, and being happy with that and with your place in the world. I don't want to say much about the plot - this isn't plot-driven in a 'and here's the next twist' way type of a novel. What drives this novel is the development of Puck and Sean as individuals and, then, as two people who begin to care for more than just their own situation. The relationship between Sean and Corr (his water horse) was also beautiful and intriguing - and contrasted wonderfully with Puck's more conventional (but no less committed or affectionate) relationship with her horse, Dove.
I think this novel will definitely appeal to horse lovers - but also readers who enjoy being transported to different places. There are some shocking scenes in the book (the water horse are deadly after all and enjoy taking bites out of people and other horses!) but there are truly beautiful scenes too. There aren't many books where I'll go back and re-read the ending - but I have with this one a few times. And although I finished the novel a couple of days ago, the characters and place are still with me. I feel that I'd love to visit there. I only hope that, one day, there might be a follow up to this novel.

I enjoyed getting to know the main characters, Puck and Sean, who were well developed, as were the supporting cast. Mutt and his father were excellent bad guys, Dory and her sisters entertaining, and Puck's brothers well drawn.
The island was a character too - wild and pagan with the tourists uneasy visitors from a more secure world. Then there were the capaill uisce, who should dispel any fantasies of faeries as twinkly little charmers. Sean's relationship with Corr, his water horse, was poignant and led to one of the most moving endings I've ever read in a novel. It was perfect.
The race was a wild ride indeed. I had no clue who would win or if the racers would survive... I tore through the story at that point I can tell you!
Some have said this book was too slow for them. I think the slow start suits the season when the book is set, a strange and dangerous autumn when death is only too close for the islanders of Thisby.
Full marks to Maggie again! I am so happy to have found this writer :-)

On the whole, I enjoyed this - the well-drawn characters, the island, the horses. However, it was very slow, which sometimes built up atmosphere, sometimes made it drag. And while it was nice not to have an "insta-love" plot, the romance took a seriously long time to get going, and didn't have as much spark as I'd have liked. I suspect that to fully appreciate this book, you need to really, really like horses, as they are so integral to the plot and the mood.
Worth a read as something a little different, particularly if you like the author's other books, but didn't quite hit the mark for me.

The novel does a really good job of balancing the supernatural and mundane aspects of the story in a way that allows the story to feel believable. Although the capaill uisce are magical creatures, they don't feel tacked on and are a completely believable part of the world. The vicious and unpredictable nature of the horses help add a level of tension to the story, which in turn made it impossible for me to guess how the novel would end. In the final act of the novel, I just devoured the story. I had no idea who would win (or even survive) the race and therefore I just couldn't put the book down.
Yet it's the characters that really make the story for me. Both Puck and Sean feel like real characters, flawed but ultimately very likable. They could act selfishly (Puck) or insensitively (Sean). Yet they still had noble thoughts at heart. Sean sought his freedom – the chance to live the life of his choice with the capaill uisce that he loves. Puck’s issues are more grounded in the physical, a strong desire to hold her family together and remain on the island that she calls home. Both of the characters are very strong and capable, able to hold their own against people who wish them ill and not afraid to speak their mind. Because of this, I found it difficult to choose who I wanted to win the race and for me, this made the story more effective. While I would be glad for either one to be the victor, it also meant that one of them would have to sacrifice their dreams.
All in all, it's just a stunning novel - even better than Shiver. I can't wait to read more from this author.

Her only hope is Sean Kendrick, a boy not much older than her who’s won the Scorpio Races numerous times and works as a horse and capall trainer for the crafty Benjamin Malvern. But Sean has his own reasons for wanting to win the Scorpio Races and although Puck finds herself drawn to him, there’s no way that each can get what they want … is there?
Maggie Stiefvater’s critically acclaimed standalone YA fantasy is a well-crafted, exciting read that really conveys the magic of horses (both real and fantastical) while also establishing a credible romance between the two main characters. The story is a little predictable and I found Skarmouth veered at times towards being distinctly Oirish in flavour while Kendrick’s main antagonist Mutt (the cruel and vicious son of Benjamin Malvern) is two dimensional, but Stiefvater’s skill as a writer means there are still some surprises in the plot together with some beautifully observed and touching scenes. What really sets this book apart though is the fact that the romance is so well written – you see Puck and Sean grow towards each other and the love they share for horses. In lesser hands this could be clichéd but Stiefvater gives it life and a sweet intensity (and I say that as someone who doesn’t like a lot of romance). Also good is the relationship Puck has with her brothers, especially the sweet and fearful Finn who isn’t quite able to deal with the real world. Ultimately this was an interesting and entertaining read and I really look forward to seeing what Stiefvater does next.