She and her two brothers were orphaned when a capall uisce (singular) killed their parents. Puck is a teenage girl who decides to enter the race out of necessity. The tradition and lure of the purse bring new racers each year. But the races continue each year despite the bloodshed. People will die during the training period before the race as they will die during the race. And while the capaill uisce are on special diets of meat, the jockeys look pretty tasty as well. While the ocean calls the capaill uisce home, the jockeys must fight to keep their water horses from killing each other or running into the ocean. The races are held on the beach with the ocean on one side and vertical cliffs on the other. Each year, islanders race their capaill uisce that they have caught and trained from previous years. But if you can catch one of these dangerous beasts, and keep it away from the ocean, they can be tamed.Īlso in November are the Scorpio Races. They are hungry and dangerous and every year people and animals are killed or maimed by the capaill uisce. The capaill uisce (water horses) swim and sing in the ocean by the shores of Thisby and every once in a while, they will climb onto the island looking for food.

On the island of Thisby, each November is marked by the appearance of the water horses. It is a story that is based loosely on the mythological water horses of Scottish lore and combines fantasy, mythology and light horror with unexpected poetic prose. The Scorpio Races is a stand-alone young adult novel that has won a number of awards in recent years.

The scorpio races by maggie stiefvater