all hearthfires & holocausts

I've been trying to figure out how to review this book all day, and I'm still kind of stumped. Did I like it? Yes. I think so. Eventually. I think the problem I had, why I can't seem to form a concrete opinion, is that while the story itself was well-written and interesting, I never really connected with either one of the narrators. I liked them, sure, but I didn't become immersed and invested in their stories until about three quarters of the way through the book. It was at 70 pages from the end where their stories really kicked in for me, but otherwise I was just kind of floundering and trying to figure out what amid three hundred pages of setup was going to be important later. Turns out... not much of it was. I think Stiefvater put so much energy into building the island's lore and creating the atmosphere of the story that she neglected character development. I don't know that I ever really felt as though I knew Puck or Sean, and I certainly never got a clear understanding of Puck's brothers.While the ending was good and drew an emotional response that had been lacking for much of the previous four hundred pages, overall I found The Scorpio Races to be a disappointing read.