#great ya

**** (4/5 Stars)

Maggie Stiefvater has done it again!  Blue Lily, Lily Blue may be the weakest of the Raven Cycle so far, but that is not saying much.  It’s still miles better than anything else I’ve read recently!  

Stiefvater really develops her magic systems in this book.  Previously we’ve heard something about the psychics, we’ve heard quite a bit about the Greywaren, and we know something about Blue’s abilities, but not much.  Blue Lily, Lily Blue focuses more heavily on Adam and his strong but uncertain bond with the ley line, and on Blue as she figures out a bit of how to control her magical battery status.  We also learn a lot more about mirrors.  I’m a big sucker for cool magic systems, so this was totally awesome for me.

We lost a bit of the search for Glendower in The Dream Thieves, but that plot picked up seamlessly and then really careened along.  This was a plot-heavy book that sets up for what promises to be a spectacular finale.   It did suffer somewhat from middle book syndrome - it very obviously cannot stand alone.  The first two are obviously the beginning of a series, but they stay self-contained in a way Blue Lily, Lily Blue does not.  It’s a bridge between books rather than a book in and of itself.  It is wonderful and necessary, but exists mostly to catapult you toward the end with a lot more information than you had before.

My favourite detail: the revelation that Blue and her family has a list of the people who will die in Henrietta in the next year, and the general reaction.  They’re all so low-key macabre that when they get called out it’s really funny.