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menna_taha's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is my favorite in the series. It’s the culmination of not only this series but also the raven cycle as well. I lived the way it was written, even if the scenes were a but hard to picture at some points. It’s such a beautiful exploration of how complicated love and family and brotherhood can be, and it was an absolute delight to read.
jkneebone's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I should have written this review sooner after I finished the book, because my memory of it isn't as sharp now. On the other hand, if I'd written it right after I finished it, there would have been a lot more ranting about everything I didn't like, so maybe it's a good thing.
Greywaren picks up pretty much right where Mister Impossible ended, with all dream creatures asleep and dreamers unable to dream after Hennessy shut down the ley lines. Jordan, miraculously, is able to stay awake; Declan has procured a sweetmetal for Matthew, but he cannot find one strong enough to wake Ronan, who is also mysteriously asleep. Hennessy is living with Carmen and Liliana, clashing with Carmen as she tries to find a way to procure or make a sweetmetal for Jordan (who she believes to be asleep). Carmen is trying to come to terms with her work with the Moderators, and figure out why their plan began in the first place. There is also a lot of backstory about Niall and Mor when they first moved to the Barns from Ireland, giving more information about Declan and Ronan's childhood. It all devolves pretty quickly from there, so I'll stop to avoid any spoilers.
Look, this book...I don't quite know what to say about it. I found the ending of The Raven Cycle as a series fairly disappointing, so I was hesitant to start The Dreamer Trilogy at all. I really enjoyed Call Down the Hawk, and was cautiously optimistic that the arc of the series would be better, even though most of that book was introducing new characters and worldbuilding. Mister Impossible was a slog, and the only reason I kept going with Greywaren was because I wanted to see how it all ended, if there was any way for Stiefvater to actually wrap up all of the threads she had started in the first two books.
Suffice to say, my expectations there were not exceeded.
I enjoy a plotty fantasy series, but I also enjoy a book that is more about interpersonal relationships and family dynamics. One of my problems with Greywaren, and TDT as a whole, is that it is promising the first one while actually doing the second, and it ends up not really succeeding with both. TDT could have really just been a story about the Lynch brothers, and I would have eaten it up because I loved the character development we got from both Declan and Matthew throughout the story! But if that's the case, then there is a lot of extraneous stuff happening that's not about them that didn't need to be there.
What I did like in Greywaren: Declan, Matthew, and Jordan remain the highlights of this series for me. I'd never have believed that I'd care so much about Declan Lynch of all characters, but I do. I love his relationship with Jordan, and I loved Jordan coming into her own even more than before. I also continued to enjoy Matthew - his teenage existential angst was really fun to read, and I felt for him so much re: the sweetmetal situation (it actually made me annoyed with Declan again lol!). We got to see some prickly Adam, which was nice, and Stiefvater's writing is always beautiful.
Unfortunately, the list of what I didn't like was much longer. Ronan, supposedly our main character, spent most of the book literally asleep, floating through a "sweetmetal sea" and observing his friends and family with no way to contact them.I also was NOT a fan of the "Ronan is a dream creature/forest incarnate" reveal, nor any of the stuff it changed about the dynamics between him, Declan, and Niall; retconning so much of his backstory and character makes no sense! Hennessy, who hypothetically I love, just fell a bit flat in this installment - it almost felt like Stiefvater was just duplicating Ronan's personality, but because we already have Ronan, with Hennessy it felt like something was missing.
The reveal that Nathan Farooq-Lane was working with the Moderators felt out of left field and made what happened in most of the first two books feel incredibly pointless. Was there supposed to be a hint that was coming which I missed?
One thing I enjoyed about The Raven Cycle and about Call Down the Hawk was how localized they were; the setting of Virginia is so important in TRC, and the beginnings of TDT felt like it had shades of that too, but all of that went out the window with the end of Mister Impossible and especially in this book. Bryde, Ronan, and Hennessy were only fixing ley line disruptions in a driveable area in the Northeast US, and that was going to wake up *every* ley line on the *entire* planet? And then shut down every ley line on the planet? It wouldn't have made it less impactful if the stakes were more localized, in my opinion; rather, it being so global was unbelievable.
On a similar note, I really did not like all of additional worldbuilding/retconning that Stiefvater did around dreaming and dreamers, especially in this book. In previous books it was made clear that there are way more dreamt humans and creatures out there than we previously knew about, which felt...weird, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief.In this book we get a) all the Moderators except Carmen are dreams, b) dreams are immortal with a sweetmetal as long as they aren't violently killed, and c) Visionaries are former dreams who choose to take on visions so they can stay awake without their dreamer? Including that Liliana is like, hundreds of years old?? Sorry but none of that makes ANY SENSE and also NONE of it was explained beyond that it is true. If you are going to add so much "backstory" for a magic system in the final book, it needs to be better explained. All of that could have been omitted and it would have made more sense and been less confusing.
Speaking of things that were started and never finished or explained - we never find out what the deal is with Boudicca! We don't know why Mor started working for them, or what they even do. The entire Boudicca plot, which has been building since book 1 of the trilogy, basically amounts to nothing.And at the end they barely even have to do anything to get Boudicca to leave them alone!
I think my biggest frustration with this series, which was also my frustration with TRC - although in TDT it felt much more glaring - is that the conflict, and the threats, feel fake. It feels like most, if not all, of the problems the characters face are things they are somehow responsible for. It's not like they are fighting against an outside threat which forces them to act; instead it feels like if they had just done nothing, than there wouldn't have been a threat. That shouldn't feel true, because the Moderators should have been that outside force, but that's how I feel after reading it, which makes it a deeply unsatisfying reading experience.
I feel bad that this has been such a negative review, but I was so confused by this book. TRC was not my favorite series because I found the ending weak, but the writing and the characters made up for that, for me. I have reread it and recommended it to friends even despite the ending, because the character dynamics made it worth reading. TDT lacks the same depth and consistency of characterization and relationships, and also has a less cognizant plot. Like, TRC's plot ended poorly, but at least it was pretty consistent throughout the series! I feel like TDT would have benefited from a LOT of editing. Clearly Stiefvater had a lot of ideas about the world of dreamers, but not all of them needed to be included, or even made sense. The story would have been stronger overall if we'd gotten less extraneous details, and more focused plot. Or if we'd gotten less focus on dreaming, and more time and thought put into a few characters - my vote would have been for the Lynch brothers and Jordan Hennessy! - instead of such a mish-mash.
Finally, I listened to the audiobook, and while the narrator did a fabulous job (he always does, and was honestly part of why I even decided to read the series), I wish that Stiefvater or someone on the editing team had stopped at some point to think about how this would read as an audiobook. Having an entire chapter of the same sentence repeated over and over wouldn't have bothered me if I was sight-reading, because I would have skimmed over it pretty quickly. Having an entire chapter of the same sentence repeated over and over in an audiobook was TORTURE. If I hadn't already committed to powering through this series, I would have DNF'ed right then and there. It made me dread the Ronan chapters.
Clearly I'm in the minority, because plenty of people loved this series and this book, but my take on it is - read The Raven Cycle, skip The Dreamer Trilogy.
Greywaren picks up pretty much right where Mister Impossible ended, with all dream creatures asleep and dreamers unable to dream after Hennessy shut down the ley lines. Jordan, miraculously, is able to stay awake; Declan has procured a sweetmetal for Matthew, but he cannot find one strong enough to wake Ronan, who is also mysteriously asleep. Hennessy is living with Carmen and Liliana, clashing with Carmen as she tries to find a way to procure or make a sweetmetal for Jordan (who she believes to be asleep). Carmen is trying to come to terms with her work with the Moderators, and figure out why their plan began in the first place. There is also a lot of backstory about Niall and Mor when they first moved to the Barns from Ireland, giving more information about Declan and Ronan's childhood. It all devolves pretty quickly from there, so I'll stop to avoid any spoilers.
Look, this book...I don't quite know what to say about it. I found the ending of The Raven Cycle as a series fairly disappointing, so I was hesitant to start The Dreamer Trilogy at all. I really enjoyed Call Down the Hawk, and was cautiously optimistic that the arc of the series would be better, even though most of that book was introducing new characters and worldbuilding. Mister Impossible was a slog, and the only reason I kept going with Greywaren was because I wanted to see how it all ended, if there was any way for Stiefvater to actually wrap up all of the threads she had started in the first two books.
Suffice to say, my expectations there were not exceeded.
I enjoy a plotty fantasy series, but I also enjoy a book that is more about interpersonal relationships and family dynamics. One of my problems with Greywaren, and TDT as a whole, is that it is promising the first one while actually doing the second, and it ends up not really succeeding with both. TDT could have really just been a story about the Lynch brothers, and I would have eaten it up because I loved the character development we got from both Declan and Matthew throughout the story! But if that's the case, then there is a lot of extraneous stuff happening that's not about them that didn't need to be there.
What I did like in Greywaren: Declan, Matthew, and Jordan remain the highlights of this series for me. I'd never have believed that I'd care so much about Declan Lynch of all characters, but I do. I love his relationship with Jordan, and I loved Jordan coming into her own even more than before. I also continued to enjoy Matthew - his teenage existential angst was really fun to read, and I felt for him so much re: the sweetmetal situation (it actually made me annoyed with Declan again lol!). We got to see some prickly Adam, which was nice, and Stiefvater's writing is always beautiful.
Unfortunately, the list of what I didn't like was much longer. Ronan, supposedly our main character, spent most of the book literally asleep, floating through a "sweetmetal sea" and observing his friends and family with no way to contact them.
One thing I enjoyed about The Raven Cycle and about Call Down the Hawk was how localized they were; the setting of Virginia is so important in TRC, and the beginnings of TDT felt like it had shades of that too, but all of that went out the window with the end of Mister Impossible and especially in this book. Bryde, Ronan, and Hennessy were only fixing ley line disruptions in a driveable area in the Northeast US, and that was going to wake up *every* ley line on the *entire* planet? And then shut down every ley line on the planet? It wouldn't have made it less impactful if the stakes were more localized, in my opinion; rather, it being so global was unbelievable.
On a similar note, I really did not like all of additional worldbuilding/retconning that Stiefvater did around dreaming and dreamers, especially in this book. In previous books it was made clear that there are way more dreamt humans and creatures out there than we previously knew about, which felt...weird, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief.
Speaking of things that were started and never finished or explained - we never find out what the deal is with Boudicca! We don't know why Mor started working for them, or what they even do. The entire Boudicca plot, which has been building since book 1 of the trilogy, basically amounts to nothing.
I think my biggest frustration with this series, which was also my frustration with TRC - although in TDT it felt much more glaring - is that the conflict, and the threats, feel fake. It feels like most, if not all, of the problems the characters face are things they are somehow responsible for. It's not like they are fighting against an outside threat which forces them to act; instead it feels like if they had just done nothing, than there wouldn't have been a threat. That shouldn't feel true, because the Moderators should have been that outside force, but that's how I feel after reading it, which makes it a deeply unsatisfying reading experience.
I feel bad that this has been such a negative review, but I was so confused by this book. TRC was not my favorite series because I found the ending weak, but the writing and the characters made up for that, for me. I have reread it and recommended it to friends even despite the ending, because the character dynamics made it worth reading. TDT lacks the same depth and consistency of characterization and relationships, and also has a less cognizant plot. Like, TRC's plot ended poorly, but at least it was pretty consistent throughout the series! I feel like TDT would have benefited from a LOT of editing. Clearly Stiefvater had a lot of ideas about the world of dreamers, but not all of them needed to be included, or even made sense. The story would have been stronger overall if we'd gotten less extraneous details, and more focused plot. Or if we'd gotten less focus on dreaming, and more time and thought put into a few characters - my vote would have been for the Lynch brothers and Jordan Hennessy! - instead of such a mish-mash.
Finally, I listened to the audiobook, and while the narrator did a fabulous job (he always does, and was honestly part of why I even decided to read the series), I wish that Stiefvater or someone on the editing team had stopped at some point to think about how this would read as an audiobook. Having an entire chapter of the same sentence repeated over and over wouldn't have bothered me if I was sight-reading, because I would have skimmed over it pretty quickly. Having an entire chapter of the same sentence repeated over and over in an audiobook was TORTURE. If I hadn't already committed to powering through this series, I would have DNF'ed right then and there. It made me dread the Ronan chapters.
Clearly I'm in the minority, because plenty of people loved this series and this book, but my take on it is - read The Raven Cycle, skip The Dreamer Trilogy.
theforestgypsy's review against another edition
5.0
before reading:
i can't wait until october when maggie will proceed to rip my heart out probably
after reading:
yeah, i'm emotionally exhausted
i can't wait until october when maggie will proceed to rip my heart out probably
after reading:
yeah, i'm emotionally exhausted
crimeofpoisson's review against another edition
4.0
I didn’t love the dreamers trilogy the way I love The Raven Cycle. It filled me with a different sort of less solvable tension. It all worked out much better than it seemed it would. I liked fewer characters. I felt devastated constantly. The proposal was the most perfect true to character part. I still don’t really care for Carmen or Liliana. Love the development of the brothers characters. Especially Declan. I am so happy he got some truth and relief from all his misery. I see how Ronan’s origins worked in this story and how it saved things at the end. I don’t like that he wasn’t just a human with special talents. But I like how he chose his path. That seems big. Maybe the series was designed that way but the whole trilogy seemed too big for even suspension of disbelief. I half expected and three quarters hoped it would end as all having been a dream. It was messy. Stressful. TRC was stressful because I cared so much about everyone. TDT was just stressful.
jennybugg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
nadijya's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
okto's review against another edition
3.75
This was good but endings are hard. The ending felt so fast and a little deus ex machina. I enjoyed seeing the relationship between the brothers evolve during the series. Some stuff like Matthews ending should have had more explanation.
bookishnads's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, where to begin. This book really just changed it for me. While reading the first two books of the trilogy I couldn't help but be disappointed because I found it lacking the magic of the prequels. I wanted Blue and her Raven Boys, I wanted more of The Raven Cycle, unfair perhaps, but true nonetheless. This book reminded me of the magic that is Stiefvater and left me in awe. What a pleasure it's been to really know the Lynch brothers. It's been a dream (pun intended), and I highly recommend you read it. Read all of it, The Raven Cycle and The Dreamers Trilogy. As I will, again and again.
marzi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0