Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Scorpio Race Discussion Post - SPOILERS

One of my favorite things about reading a book is being able to discuss it with others. Especially if it is a story that I love. For books that I can't hold myself back from talking about in detail, I'm going to start doing separate Discussion Posts from my reviews.

NOTE: I cannot stress enough that this post will be very VERY SPOILERY. Please do not read below the book cover if you haven't read The Scorpio Races.

Link to my NON-spoiler review of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater 


Question: Do Sean and Puck get what they need?

When Sean is at the Scorpio Festival he has the following conversation with the mare goddess (Found on pgs 180-181):
"Sean Kendrick," she says, and the voice is throaty, barely human. I hear the sea in it. "Did you get your wish?"
I cannot look away. "Yes. Many times over." 
The voice again takes me by surprise. "Has it brought you happiness?"
The question is not one that I would normally consider. I'm not unhappy. Happiness isn't something this island yields easily; the ground is too rocky and the sun too parse for it to flourish. "Well enough." 
Her fingers are tight, tight, tight on my jaw. I smell blood and I see, now, that fresh blood, soaked into the shirt, has dripped onto her hands.
"The ocean knows your name, Sean Kendrick," she says. "Make another wish." 
She reaches up and smears the back of her hand across both my cheekbones.
Then the mare goddess turns away to follow the drummers, jus a woman in a dead horse's head. But there is something hollow inside me, and for the first time, winning doesn't' feel like enough. 
Later on in the book Sean and Puck have a conversation on the rocks after Tommy Falk's funeral (this is one of my FAVORITE scenes in of book). It is there that Sean finally makes his wish. "To get what I need" is what Sean whispers to the sea. 

But do he and Puck get there wishes in the end? 

In many ways the ending of The Scorpio Races leaves a quiet ache inside. It’s bittersweet. Happy but also melancholy, with Sean’s fall, Corr’s injury, Tommy Falk’s death and Gabe’s leaving the island. But Sean wanted to know that Corr loved him all along, and in the last scene of the book when the horse chooses Sean over the sea, I think Sean gets that. Sadly, it took an irreparable injury for it to happen. 

Also, Sean and Puck couldn’t both win the race. If he’d just come in second, Malvern would never have sold Corr. But if he’d left Puck behind to fend for herself, he might have lost her. I don’t think he could have handled that – just as Puck says she could not bear it if Sean died. (And if they'd both made it to the finish line together, I have a feeling that he'd have let her win.)

In the end I think that Sean and Puck do get what they need, and I hope that they’re happy somewhere on that island in the ocean filled with subtle magic and horses from the sea.

Do you agree/disagree with me? How did you feel about the end? 

Less serious questions:

1. Who was the mare goddess? Was it someone we met on the island?

2. What (if anything) was going on between Peg Gratton and Gabe? Maybe I read to much into their interactions but I kept thinking they were having an affair. Anyone else feel that way?


5 comments:

  1. Do they get what they need? Well, even though they didn't exactly get what they wished for in the beginning, I think by story's end they both have gotten so much MORE. And yeah, I also like to think that Sean and Puck are together, in Sean's father's house, with Puck working alongside him, and Corr and Dove are having sweet water horse babies, living happily ever after:)

    I love this book SO much. I love the story and the writing, the romance and the magic. LOVE IT. I couldn't get to your review of the book through the link though. Is it on Goodreads?

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    1. Oh, I just found the review, under your July posts! Never mind!

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  2. Yes. I completely agree. They definitely don't get everything they WANTED. But I think some of what they wished for was impossible (like both winning the race). What they got is BETTER in many ways.

    I have the same vision of them together at Sean's farm. I love Maggie's books, but she sure does like those open endings. I just had a conversation with a friend about Forever regarding that same exact point. Have you read the Shiver series?

    Yeah I LOVE this book too. It's one of my all time favorites for sure.

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  3. I love the Shiver series:) Love Sam and Grace, but really my favorite character is Cole St. Clair! I wish he would get his own series:/

    And I think she likes to leave her stories a little open to each reader's own interpretations. I haven't read her Faery books yet, Lament and Ballad, but plan to. I read The Raven Boys galley in like one day. (It's AWESOME too. Major shocking moments in that one!) That woman can do no wrong in my book:)

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  4. Have you seen Maggie's latest Tumblr entry where she says that in an earlier draft, she made it very clear that Peg and Gabe WERE having an affair? GO LOOK

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