The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

"It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen."

This book, for me, lived up to the hype I'd heard about it. The pacing was steady--you couldn't really call it fast-moving--but for some reason it was really compelling and hard to put down. It was simultaneously calming/hypnotizing with the scenes and narratives and also incredibly gripping and nerve-wracking with the plot. I don't know how it managed it, but it was. The intensity increased tenfold as it got near the end, and I was basically riveted. One of the wonderful and terrible things about this book, too, is that it's not predictable. I really didn't know what would happen up until the end. So, yeah, it kinda put me through semi-minor emotional trauma. Maggie Stiefvater has no boundaries. But anyway, my highest recommendations. Seriously, go try it out. You won't be disappointed--a little short of breath and shell-shocked by the end, maybe, but not disappointed. Go forth to Kettleson, SHS, or MEHS! Don't make me come over there...