Review: Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (Spoiler-Free)

I haven't read a book in a day in quite some time, but wow, there was no other way to properly read this one. I'm so grateful for the snow day that gave me the opportunity to completely devour this book <3. I find that it is hardest to write reviews for the books I love most, and that is definitely a problem I'm having with this one. The feelings that this story invoked in me remind me a lot of the ones I was put through in Christina Lauren's Autoboyography. By that, I mean it was full of happiness, heartbreak, angst, utter sadness, and just a sense that I could not stop reading because I was just in the midst of so much emotional trauma. I was so enthralled by this story and it's really hard to properly explain why. Perhaps it's because I care so much about Cole and Isabel, and the fact that I was already in love with their characters from the previous books made me even more connected to them. This is almost the perfect formula for a book: a romantic spin-off between two characters that you already love and ship. I think that this is one of my favorite types of books, and one that I feel like doesn't exist often enough. Both this, and Laini Taylor's Night of Cake & Puppets fit this model and were both honestly my favorite books out of either series. I related to both Isabel and Cole in more ways than I could possibly mention. Cole constantly feels alone, even in a crowd, and has trouble finding purpose in his life without other people. He constantly feels restless, unless he's actively experiencing. Isabel, on the other hand, struggles with disconnecting from the world. She needs to feel anchored to it and fears not being in control. She can't simply escape by not thinking about her problems like Cole, because she is plagued by logic, in a sense, and I can really relate to that too. This book reminds me why I love reading so much: I love to see myself in characters, feel emotions through fiction, and to have new ideas and thoughts sparked within me that I've never even considered before. Maggie Stiefvater has a true gift for portraying emotion through imagery and the experiences of each character. Every scene provided a specific emotion or idea to me that I don't always get from other books. Overall, I'm blown away by this book, and I cannot wait to continue reading more from Maggie Stiefvater.

Song I was reminded of while reading: Dying in LA