I am so confused as to what this book is. ( )

Wow. I wasn't expecting that..... ( )

The premise for this is awesome: racing killer horses on the beach. I mean, what's not exciting about that? The teaser line was something like, "It is the first of November. So today someone will die." OMG, I was thinking, HUNGER GAMES READ ALIKE. I think I set my sights a little too high, though. Poor Maggie Steifvater could not have lived up to how much I hyped this in my head. It was a pretty good story, but I thought it was a little boring in parts and most of the actual Scorpio Race action was packed into the very end.

If you are a horse lover, you might love this and it might make you sick. All but a few of the horses featured in the story are not your standard real-life kind, but an Irish fantasy water horse species called cappal uisce (or something like that). These horses are freaking scary. First of all, they're insane carnivores. Second of all, they stink and scream like bloody murderers. Kind of cool, but not if you're into like Misty of Chincoteague.

The story is told by both the girl hero, Puck/Kate, and the boy hero, Sean Kendrick. I didn't especially like either one of them, but I was super drawn into the love story and I couldn't wait to get to the actual race at the end.

I think the best thing I can say about this book, and this is high praise, is that it was unpredictable. There were many moments when it could have gone a cliched route, but it really kept me guessing. I enjoyed reading it a lot, but I skimmed a lot of sections, too. If it hadn't been for my complete and utter disbelief of one very important plot point How does Kate's regular horse become as fast as a water horse in the span of a few days of training? I was completely dumbfounded when she won on speed. It made no sense. It was set up very clearly in the beginning that the water horses would have to be out of control for her to win on Dove, right?, I might have given it four stars. ( )

Such a great book! Can't believe I waited this long to read it... Full review to come. ( )

Intelligent. Uncompromising. Resonating. Highly recommend for teens & adults alike. ( )