Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

“This thing they were doing. This thing. Gansey’s heart was a gaping chasm of possibilities, fearful and breathless and awed.”

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is probably my second favourite book in TRC series. Bittersweet and magical Blue Lily, Lily Blue is a truly enchanting novel. Like its predecessors, this instalment in TRC series is characterized by Stiefvater’s spellbinding storytelling, her scintillating humor, and enthralling character dynamics.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue picks up from The Dream Thieves with Maura missing (‘underground’), and with tensions in the Gangsey still running high. Blue struggles to adjust to her mother’s disappearance and longs to be reunited with her. Gansey, who’s being visited by Malory, is, as per usual, trying to keep a good front (ie suppressing any anxieties/fears/‘negative’ feelings). Although his raison d’être is very much the same, that is to wake Glendower, his faith in his quest begins to waver, especially when his search proves to be different from the romanticised quest he’d envisioned.
Adam, well, the boy still very much believes he’s unknowable. This idea of himself as being unknowable is both a weakness and a strength. It isolates him from Gansey and the other members of the Gangsey and it also allows him to keep going and to accept himself as the hands and eyes of Cabeswater. Here he spends more time with Ronan who, unlike Gansey, has a rather questionable sense of right and wrong.
There is this paragraph that encapsulates this narrative perfectly:

“[T]hey were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another.”

While there are many storylines and events happening in Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the narrative is very much propelled by the ever-shifting dynamics within the Gangsey group. Stiefvater, unlike many other YA authors, doesn’t favour romantic relationships. They are there but 1) they are deliciously slow-burn 2) they don’t take precedence over platonic relationships (i mean, we have noah/blue, gansey/ronan, gansey/adam, and the iconic blue/ronan).
The intense, often fraught, friendship between the various Gangsey members is what truly makes this series. They misunderstand each other and or fail to express themselves, their fears or desires. Their uneasy bond adds tension to the narrative and makes me feel all the so-called ‘feels’. Surprisingly enough I also love the more secondary dynamics, such as the mentor-mentee bond between Persephone and Adam, or any scene with Mr. Gray and Blue, or even the less-than-friendly relationship between Orla and Blue (their bickering is gold).
Speaking of secondary things, the secondary characters are just as entertaining and vividly rendered as the central cast. I love that Stiefvater gives us chapters from the ‘antagonists’ pov, in this case, Greenmantle + Piper. We see how they very much view themselves as the ‘good’ ones’ or how they excuse or condone their questionable behaviour or how they don’t simply give af. They are also a great source of humor, especially as many of their scenes are set against domestic backdrops.

In terms of the actual plot, tis difficult to summarise. Stiefvater manages to seamlessly tie together various storylines, throwing in there plenty of fantastical elements, myths, historical allusions, and so much secretiveness.
As with the other volumes in the series, TRC also explores class differences and privilege, especially in the Gansey/Adam bond. Belonging too plays a role within this narrative as each character struggles to understand how they fit in with the rest of Gangsey, how they see themselves and how they are seen in turn, as well as questioning the kind of future that awaits them.
Ronan doesn’t get a POV in this one so we are not always privy to what’s going on with him but he nevertheless remains my fave character. Still an asshole a lot of the time but at the same time he’s so much more than that.

Stiefvater’s characters can be chaotic and contradictory and more than capable of behaving or saying things that aren’t great. But, the fact that Stiefvater portrays her teens, and adults even, as not being entirely vanilla or wholly unproblematic made them all the more real to me. If anything, it is because they are flawed that they end up having such complex, believable, and satisfying character arcs (at times they grow or learn from their mistakes…other times they don’t). I like that Stiefvater both allows her characters to have imperfections and that she does call them out (my fave esp.).
When it comes to her prose…what can I saw that I haven’t already said in my other reviews for her works? She’s a true wordsmith, capable of making me laugh out loud and move me. There are so many clever lines, the dialogues are always on point, and her vibrant descriptions (be it about Henrietta or nature or the appearance of a character) add to her story’s already rich atmosphere.
I loved re-reading Blue Lily, Lily Blue. I can appreciate even more just how intricate a puzzle Stiefvater has created and yet I also love that much of what happens, as well as the characters themselves, retain a certain ambiguity (that makes me want to read it over and over again). My gushing is over. If you haven’t read TRC and you happen to be a fan of authors such as Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, and/or Zen Cho, you should probably add this series to your TBR pile.

my rating: ★★★★★

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