Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Mister Impossible

It is always said that second books, especially in trilogies, are supposed to be the weakest links. Why then do I always end up loving the seconds in series more than anything else. What a fantastic read to start off the new year.

Addressing the elephant in the room first. That title was the reason I didn't really want to read this series immediately after reading The Raven King, and it doesn't make it any better after finishing and loving this book. Maggie whyyyyy ಥʖ̯ಥ

Ahem, now, where do I start. This book feels so much more... cohesive? than the first one. Like the characters blend in with each other so well, in a good way. Where Call Down the Hawk was more plot-focused with splatter of good characters, this one was beautiful characters with a plot where you don't fully understand but vibe with. Sort of like a call back to TRC. Where Carmen and Parsifal didn't vibe in the first one, her and Lilliana were an outstanding duo here. Where Ronan was either on a solo mission or with his brothers in the first one, he's with Bryde and Hennessy here, and what a fantastic trio they made! I love their chemistry so much.

The highlight of this book, and the entire trilogy for me, has been Declan. What a pleasant surprise from the Declan we saw in TRC. It feels so nice to see the character you kept rooting for actually turns out to be a decent person.

I respect and love him for every decision he made here, and I hope it only gets better for him from here on. All he needs to do is have a real, grown-up conversation with Matthew and marry Jordan to reach perfection.

He deserves a tight hug and some warm hot chocolate.

JORDAN MY GIRLLLLL

I'm so, so, so proud of her. Creating a sweetmetal all on her own? Having a heart-to-heart with Matthew and making him feel better? Knowing exactly why Declan is doing what he is doing? Girlboss behaviour, marry me please. Or marry Declan, please. That's fine too.

I felt very lukewarm about Farooq-Lane in the first one, because I loved her character, but also needed some development from her to fully adore here. And we got just that in this one.

Absolutely in love with her bagging Lilliana AND dumping the Moderators in one smooth move. GO CARMEN

Matthew, what an absolute sweetheart. His POVs always ended up breaking me.

I really enjoyed all of his little identity crises moments. Him talking to Jordan definitely seems to be helping, I hope he can find a way to accept his conditions. All he needs to do is have a chat with Ronan now.

HENNESSY, I cannot put into words how much I love Hennessy. She felt very different for the first half of this book. More talkative — was she always talkative? — less self-destructive misery.

But then she had to go into her twisted backstory and good lord. I feel so bad for thinking miserable-Hennessy back into existence. That was actually Messed Up™ . I hope my girl gets a good, happy ending. I feel like she's going to be killed off, now that Jordan can live on her own and doesn't have to rely on her dreamer, and evil authors seems to love killing off twins, and also because Hennessy doesn't seem to have a romantic pair yet, and god it's so easy to kill her off and blame it on her non-existent raison d'être or the Lace or any of her past trauma. But I'm hoping against hope she pulls through and gets the happiness she deserves.

It is an absolute CRIME Adam Parrish is not in this book as much as I want him to be.

Really got my hopes up seeing the plot venture into the very familiar ley line territory thinking our ley line expert is going to play a bigger role. Guess not. But I adored the few scenes where he did show up. Smelling out Bryde's fishiness, getting Declan to act on it, not being mad at Ronan for whatever he's doing, attempting to repeatedly scry into his dreamscape even after that disastrous phone call. Speaking of that, why does every book have to end with a cliff-hanger of Adam ༼;´༎ຶ - ༎ຶ༽ wdym he's letting his mind wander farther from his body while the ley line cut out. Adam please be okayyy. Not sure what's going on with his duckling friends but we need him to be okay to find out

Getting to the biggest part of the book, THE PLOT TWISTS. Because WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCKITY FUCK?

No, in hindsight, I should've seen it coming. What are the answers to some of the major plot twists in TRC? "Ronan dreamt into being." Chainsaw? Ronan dreamt into being. Matthew? Ronan dreamt into being. Cabeswater? Ronan dreamt into being. It was so obvious, the way Bryde communicates through trees out of anything. It screams Ronan. The way he was so harsh on Ronan, but not that useful to solve Hennessy's problems, the way he was described in the same way as one of Ronan's dreamt up mindfuckery would be described. GOD the evidence was right there. Bryde, oh, Bryde. Knew he was fishy. Couldn't help liking him. Fell into the exact same trap as Ronan did. Man, I feel so sick. All Ronan wanted was just a teacher! Someone to guide him, someone who knew better than him. Fuck Niall Lynch, seriously. This is all his fault. What an asshole

Ronan, please let's just go back to being a gay catholic street-racing farmer, shall we?

Content Warnings

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

scrubsandbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

Okay, very rarely does the second book get better than the first. Or maybe I've read too many series with Second Book Syndrome, I wasn't expecting this to be anything but a filler book between the beginning and the conclusion and hooo boy was I wrong. So much happens, I can't begin to point out exactly what without spoiling it but it definitely added far more context and helped answer some questions I had while presenting even more. The ending though was a complete surprise and I threw myself right into the next book as soon as possible.

Content Warnings

sunsorbit's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious 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

Content Warnings

imds's review

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

theespressoedition's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I first started reading Mister Impossible, I thought it was going to let me down. It had a bit of a slower start to it than Call Down the Hawk and I wasn't sure if it was going to pick up and keep my interest or if it was going to take a slower and more confusing route. However, I wound up being pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed it.

This story picks up almost immediately where Call Down the Hawk left off, which I loved. There was very little time-lapse, which allowed me to connect with it instantly. I didn't find myself trying to recall what had previously occurred in order to make sense of the themes and actions.

Just like the first book, this one continued to foster my love for Jordan Hennessy. Her character blows me away. She's so interesting to me and I still can't even put my finger on why - aside from the fact that she's so desperate to disconnect from Hennessy, despite caring for her so intensely as "her maker."

The dreamer aspect in this one seemed to be much more toned-down. It was there, of course, but the focus was more on what was transpiring outside of the dreams and how everyone is connected to one another.

Matthew's storyline made me tear up a little bit, I just gotta be real. But his connection with Jordan was so sweet and then that made me tear up even more.

The last few chapters had me gasping! I definitely didn't see certain things coming and was pleasantly surprised by... well, the surprise. It was nice to know that I hadn't predicted everything. But then, I don't know if I'd ever be able to truly predict anything in a book by Maggie Stiefvater. Because for all you know, it could all be a dream....

Content Warnings

msradiosilence's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

Tldr; Ronan’s self-destructiveness goes on tour, Carmen and Liliana have ideas, and Jordan and Declan look at art.

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/mister-impossible.

Content Warnings

limiwh's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.25

Content Warnings

More...