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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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
In the conclusion to the Dreamer Trilogy, the unsteady fate of the Lynch brothers is decided.
Very few sequel series are as good as the original, executing on the promises it gave. In the first book, I believed that this series might be the exception. The second two books, however, let me down.
I found it difficult to pay attention to this book. The magic that we all wanted answers to in the first series lost its way. I found it hard to care about the characters I previously cared about. My enjoyment at any stage was found from my enjoyment in past installments of the book. I did like the peeks into the brothers' parents. I loved the art world as always. Some resolutions to the character's lives I liked. I wish we had more interactions between our beloved characters. Much of this will leave my mind soon after reading it. I wish I had something better to say for a continuation of one of my favorite series, but alas.
Overall, this series will be one that I mostly forget, while I remain in love with the first series.
Very few sequel series are as good as the original, executing on the promises it gave. In the first book, I believed that this series might be the exception. The second two books, however, let me down.
I found it difficult to pay attention to this book. The magic that we all wanted answers to in the first series lost its way. I found it hard to care about the characters I previously cared about. My enjoyment at any stage was found from my enjoyment in past installments of the book. I did like the peeks into the brothers' parents. I loved the art world as always. Some resolutions to the character's lives I liked. I wish we had more interactions between our beloved characters. Much of this will leave my mind soon after reading it. I wish I had something better to say for a continuation of one of my favorite series, but alas.
Overall, this series will be one that I mostly forget, while I remain in love with the first series.
3.5 beautiful development of the lynch brother dynamic. Declan has quickly become my favourite characters ever. The only downside to this book was that some parts felt quite boring and uselessly confusing.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
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
The Raven Cycle universe has always meant the world to me. It’s been my rock since I was around twelve years old, so finally arriving at this conclusion feels pretty surreal (if a little bittersweet, too). I’m going to miss these characters so much, though it feels amazing having witnessed their journey come to a close more perfect than I could’ve ever imagined.
It has always been impossible for me to shut up about Ronan. He’s my favourite fictional character ever, and I’ve rambled on about him for a whopping seven reviews now. Why does he mean so much to me? I could hardly tell you. Why does one like their favourite colour, or their favourite song so much? You could list off a few things, but no one else could truly understand the feeling you’ve attached to it.
Ronan has put me through the ringer in this trilogy; he balances the beauty and danger of magic in his hands, harnessing the essence of dreams in sleep, while feeling suffocated by the confines of reality during his every waking moment. More than anything, I hoped this ending would grant Ronan one thing: the desire to live in wakefullness, finding love in the future awaiting him with Adam and his his brothers. My heart aches just thinking about Ronan, but I’m so happy with the way Maggie wrapped up his character-arc. The Adam/Chainsaw scene? The rooftop scene? I may as well have disintegrated into a puddle.
Although Ronan will always be the king of my heart, Greywaren saw Declan Lynch as the new source of all my love, pain and excessive suffering. When I think of him, I think of sorrow. Witnessing a man deprived of his childhood, having no choice but to parent his orphaned brothers, finally tapping into his feelings instead of repressing them? I cried, a lot. It was a welcome surprise to finally gain perspective into Declan’s childhood at the barns, and to follow the revelations of falsehood that coloured his relationship with Niall, Môr, Matthew and Ronan for so many years. From the beginning of The Dreamer Trilogy, it became evident that Declan was growing overwhelmed with keeping the love in him locked away. His constant internal battle between protecting his brothers and allowing himself the freedoms he so badly desired made it all the more rewarding when his facade finally came crashing down, with Maggie crafting the perfect end to his brilliant character. His happiness makes me so happy.
I finished this book weeping, of all things. Although the Lynch brothers—and Adam (chapter 12!!)—had me reduced to tears an embarrassing number of times in this conclusion, the last paragraph of Greywaren really did me in. The final few lines were so softly beautiful, featuring one particular moment I’ve imaged playing out, yet didn’t dare to hope for in canon. Naturally, Maggie deciding to write such a perfect scene meant I read and reread said final passage over and over, my heart threatening to burst each time. I stayed up till’ midmorning to finish this book, but with an end like that, I couldn’t be bothered to regret a thing.
I could write forever about Matthew, Adam, Jordan, Henessy, Bryde, Farooq and this entire cast for all their incredible complexities. I won’t keep you for too much longer, though. This trilogy—and TRC as a whole—is a masterpiece in my mind, though I’m far past the ‘biased’ threshold. Still, this series is exceptionally written, and I’ll persist that readers who enjoy flowery prose, a touch of magic, and heartwarming found family need to try reading The Raven Boys, and eventually this series. For now, though, it’s goodbye to my favourite fictional universe! I’m sure I’ll be back for reread, after reread, content to know that all will end well for Ronan and his beloveds.
Before reading:
Mister Impossible was a RIDE, and like Ronan, I am not okay.
That being said, manifesting the following:
It has always been impossible for me to shut up about Ronan. He’s my favourite fictional character ever, and I’ve rambled on about him for a whopping seven reviews now. Why does he mean so much to me? I could hardly tell you. Why does one like their favourite colour, or their favourite song so much? You could list off a few things, but no one else could truly understand the feeling you’ve attached to it.
Ronan has put me through the ringer in this trilogy; he balances the beauty and danger of magic in his hands, harnessing the essence of dreams in sleep, while feeling suffocated by the confines of reality during his every waking moment. More than anything, I hoped this ending would grant Ronan one thing: the desire to live in wakefullness, finding love in the future awaiting him with Adam and his his brothers. My heart aches just thinking about Ronan, but I’m so happy with the way Maggie wrapped up his character-arc. The Adam/Chainsaw scene? The rooftop scene? I may as well have disintegrated into a puddle.
Although Ronan will always be the king of my heart, Greywaren saw Declan Lynch as the new source of all my love, pain and excessive suffering. When I think of him, I think of sorrow. Witnessing a man deprived of his childhood, having no choice but to parent his orphaned brothers, finally tapping into his feelings instead of repressing them? I cried, a lot. It was a welcome surprise to finally gain perspective into Declan’s childhood at the barns, and to follow the revelations of falsehood that coloured his relationship with Niall, Môr, Matthew and Ronan for so many years. From the beginning of The Dreamer Trilogy, it became evident that Declan was growing overwhelmed with keeping the love in him locked away. His constant internal battle between protecting his brothers and allowing himself the freedoms he so badly desired made it all the more rewarding when his facade finally came crashing down, with Maggie crafting the perfect end to his brilliant character. His happiness makes me so happy.
I finished this book weeping, of all things. Although the Lynch brothers—and Adam (chapter 12!!)—had me reduced to tears an embarrassing number of times in this conclusion, the last paragraph of Greywaren really did me in. The final few lines were so softly beautiful, featuring one particular moment I’ve imaged playing out, yet didn’t dare to hope for in canon. Naturally, Maggie deciding to write such a perfect scene meant I read and reread said final passage over and over, my heart threatening to burst each time. I stayed up till’ midmorning to finish this book, but with an end like that, I couldn’t be bothered to regret a thing.
I could write forever about Matthew, Adam, Jordan, Henessy, Bryde, Farooq and this entire cast for all their incredible complexities. I won’t keep you for too much longer, though. This trilogy—and TRC as a whole—is a masterpiece in my mind, though I’m far past the ‘biased’ threshold. Still, this series is exceptionally written, and I’ll persist that readers who enjoy flowery prose, a touch of magic, and heartwarming found family need to try reading The Raven Boys, and eventually this series. For now, though, it’s goodbye to my favourite fictional universe! I’m sure I’ll be back for reread, after reread, content to know that all will end well for Ronan and his beloveds.
Before reading:
Mister Impossible was a RIDE, and like Ronan, I am not okay.
That being said, manifesting the following:
I MISS IT SO MUCH STOP RIGHT NOW STOP NONONONO I NEED MORE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
maggie stiefvater pls write a full length book on the epilogue, i miss those characters very much
”Neither Ronan nor Adam had been trained in the difficult, and nuanced art of having a future. They had only ever learned the art of surviving the past.”
”They sighed. The stars moved overhead. The world felt enormous, both past and future, with their slender present hovering in the middle. It was all very good”
”Neither Ronan nor Adam had been trained in the difficult, and nuanced art of having a future. They had only ever learned the art of surviving the past.”
”They sighed. The stars moved overhead. The world felt enormous, both past and future, with their slender present hovering in the middle. It was all very good”
The conclusion to THE DREAMER TRILOGY, with the ley line turned off, dreams are asleep, Ronan is stuck, and the rest are struggling to find enough sweetmetals or make enough to save their dreamed loved ones. Ronan must choose between dreaming and reality, Declan learns the truth behind his family, and they all must come together to stop the apocalypse.
Here's what's so truly frustrating about this book. There are a lot of scenes and moments that I really like, some whispers of plots that I'm like, why wasn't THIS what this book had been about the entire time?! I even liked the ending, I just cannot wrap my head around how we got here. Every decision made was more frustrating than the next and while I appreciated the insanity of this clusterfuck of a main plot being wrapped up, none of the choices made were foreshadowed at all. And while this somewhat answered a few of my questions, none of it was done particularly well or in a satisfying way. I get her whole thing is being quirky and abstract, but I think she fully missed the mark with this series. A part of me wants to give it lower, but things actually happened int his book, even if they didn't fully make sense, so I didn't fully hate it, I'm just left so baffled. I can't even blame her being poor at endings like with TRC, because I truly think she lost the plot pretty early on in this series and never righted the course. I'm just bummed because I really enjoy these characters, and honestly would still probably read more of them, I just didn't at all get what I wanted from this, it was a huge let down.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
Oof this book was just truly not it. I do not understand how we got here. I guess I'll break it down by character the best I can.
Bryde/Matthew: remember how Bryde was set up to be this super cool, antagonistic, mysterious force? Yeah, he's FULL useless here and does literally nothing. He tries to steal a giant sweetmetal, which a lot of the most powerful ones are famous art pieces for some reason, and gets stopped, but then is just tied up for most of the time. Matthew finds him and there was one point it seemed as if they were blown up and killed, but I knew it wasn't real because it was handled so glibly. Like Matthew is the heart and soul of this family, no fucking chance they'd be like 'huh...' about finding out he's dead. I honestly didn't mind Matthew's plot, just as per usual there wasn't enough motivation behind it. Off page Declan finds him after he passed out, like the rest of the dreams, and was able to procure some low power sweetmetals to keep him alive, but not enough to keep fully going like normal which pisses off Matthew. I understand it's frustrating and he feels like Declan doesn't treat him with respect or ever ask him what he wants, but truly what does he want from Declan? He's doing his very best with this shit situation, I don't understand why everyone keeps railing against him and telling him he's a horrible person, when he's not at all! He's just doing his best! But Matthew runs off to Bryde and then we think he's dead for two seconds, it's just so stupid, but again I knew that wasn't real with the reaction we got. But no one even tries to look further into it, they just accept he's dead. But then off page Bryde becomes a visionary, like Liliana and the due who died from the first book, and dies off page, but encourages Matthew to go back to the Lynch boys so he just does?? And then he's left off seemingly fine, it's truly SO bizarre, I do not understand. Like I'm happy he's happy, I guess, and Bryde is left being the most useless character ever created, but truly the tip of the iceberg of strange choices.
Farooq-Lane/Nathan/Hennessy: So remember how unimportant Farooq-Lane is in the first two books? To the point where I was genuinely questioning the relevancy of her character? Remember her serial killer, dreamer brother? JOKES he survived and now is the ultimate big bad!! I'm sorry...what the fuck???? This man is straight up not a character, he exists to solely give what little characterization and color to Farooq-Lane's character that exists, but now you're telling me he's behind everything? How? Why?! Heh?? Wtf??? And Farooq-Lane is similarly just not enough of a character for me to give a shit about her through all of this. They pair her up with Hennessy which was whatever, but then they make them have a relationship literally out of nowhere?!!? That already happened with her relationship with the visionary Lilliana, who's now stuck old because she'll die if she has a vision again. But now that she's old it's weird for her to continue on her relationship with Farooq-Lane, so then she just gives them her blessing, has one last vision that shows how they defeat Nathan and dies. It's fucking BIZARRE! Hennessy is genuinely useless this entire book other than finally being the one to bring Ronan back from his dream prison. And that could've worked if we saw more of their relationship in book 2 and she wasn't seemingly/maliciously fucking him over by shutting off the ley line to begin with. And she spends the a solid 3/4 of this book being miserable and trying to fuck up everyone's lives and then all 'why does no one like me?' maybe because you're a miserable twat?! Anyone ever told you that?? And yet this bitch gets more page time/more 'romantic' moments then couples I actually cared about, like wtf...it's so dumb, I do not understand.
Declan/Jordan: As per the rest of this series, these two are my saving grace. Any time they are given time I'm happy, but imagine my horror when they're basically fully shafted and sidelined for most of this plot!! Don't make Declan the main character of this series, don't make me fall in love with, don't make him the beating heart of their fucked up fam, and then take him out!!! Literally when they straight up tell him 'your part in this story is over' with a solid 50-some pages left I was like, pardon what?! Thank GOD they didn't follow through with killing him off either. Similar to Matthew, I didn't believe for a second that he was dead, but there's always a small part of me that worries and I would've been LIVID if she killed off my boy, I love Declan guys, he's my favorite part of this series and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm so irritated with his treatment this book, but his plot was genuinely interesting. I loved how he came to terms with everyone and recognized where he fell short, though I genuinely think he's being too harsh on himself, he's just doing his best in a situation no one could've prepared him for. But when he feared he lost Matthew and blamed himself for mistreating him and when he told Ronan he was wrong for holding him back and they needed him to be dangerous, truly the only time I felt real emotions, especially when sleeping Ronan cried, ugh. For real, these books should've been about the Lynch boys, that's what is advertised and it failed to meet it and I'll forever be bitter about it. Any moment we're given them, it shines, I love every moment with them interacting, but then I just get mad all over again that it's not the plot we were given. Jordan doesn't get much to do here either, also I don't quite understand how she works and they never explain it. Like she has the ability to create sweetmetals, so as long as she's doing so I guess she's able to stay awake? But then there's a moment by the end when she's trying to get Nathan's hostages to safety and she feels herself falling asleep, so like, which one is it?? I truly don't understand and no one cares in this series to explain it, so fun. BUT I'm SO happy this ended with their wedding. If anyone deserves a happily ever after it's truly these two. While I do think they rushed to this place (it wouldn't have been if they were given equal time to develop them in each book, but oh well), BUT I like them so much and am invested enough in their relationship that I'm very happy they got wedding, its quite sweet.
Mor O Corra/the new Fenian: Remember in book 1 of this series where Ronan sees a man in woman in a car that look identical to his dream momma and him and then Declan drops the bomb that Aurora isn't his real mom, this Mor lady is?? Yep, this is her! Also 'the new Fenian' or dream Niall as I shall refer to him, is literally exactly like Aurora, Mor's dream version of Niall Lynch once the two separated/her current lover. Soooo we finally got answers to this bizarre little family and not gonna lie...I hated most of them. First off Mor, or Marie Lynch as she used to be known, is basically a sociopath and incapable of genuine/real emotion, so that's cool. But her and Niall are both dreamers and spend all their time fucking around and still have Declan, who Niall adores (much to my surprise and retcon of this story, Declan has apparently always been his favorite and only real kid crazy) so she puts up with being a mom for her hubby even though she super sucks at it. Then they decide to both pour their dream abilities into the ultimate being and that's how they created Ronan, so Ronan is a fucking dream this entire time. What the actual FUCK?!?! I HATED that reveal!! First off, the entire point was Ronan was supposed to be the product of a dreamer and a dream, that's what made him so interesting, but no, he's a dream too but like the ultimate dreamer??? I don't fucking no. But basically he scares the shit out of Mor and she's like 'lets murder it now before we get attached' but they put this shit into a BABY so except for sociopath her, of course Niall and Declan are already attached, like wtf?! But then she's so disgusted by him she basically is like, I can't live with it and they create the dream versions of each other and she leaves, it's so epically fucked. And when Declan learns all of this, he's not livid!! He's so lenient and understanding and his biggest takeaway was he's shocked to learn he was the favorite when he always believed it to be Ronan, HEH?!?! Baby boy, how the FUCK is that your takeaway?? This shit was so dumb what the fuck. It just felt like they retconned Niall to make him the fuzzy, loving, well-meaning parent and that was truly never the impression I got. I'm cool with Mor being a bitch and a half and leaving him high and dry and that's why he created a perfect/non-complex version of her to mother his children, but with this I just don't know what to believe. Because if he loved them this much, how did he not teach them? How did he not help them and ready them for this world?? But Declan is all 'I never hated my father, I just missed him' bro no...this is revisionist history, I do not understand!
Adam: My angel is done DIRTY this book and I fucking hated it. When Ronan is literally stuck in dreams, Adam comes by, returns his watch (a gift from Ronan and kept them connected) and is like, love you but I'm out. Pardon me, wtf?! Adam Parrish would NEVER! I honestly feel this way about Adam throughout this entire trilogy, but I was especially livid at his treatment here. And yeah, he jumps into the dreams by scrying to try and find/save him, but then he only ends up stuck and somehow captured by Nathan for reasons?? I just don't understand and we're never really given a cathartic moment of the two or an answer. By the end they're like, yeah he pops around jobs to stay busy and never goes too far from Ronan but it's so weird and both admit to wanting to get married one day, but after the events of this trilogy it left me hollow. Like I said above, I liked the epilogue and am ok with how our characters were left, I was especially happy at the Gansey and psychic cameos (though the lack of the Grey Man sucked, but I guess he killed Niall so I get Declan may not want him at his wedding), but after every piece of bullshit I went through, the ending didn't hit the way I wanted it to because it just felt unearned.
And finally, Ronan: my boy, they've massacred my boy. Truly what the fuck was this? First off, he's stuck in dreams for like, 80% of this book so he cannot grow or interact with anyone other than omnisciently/kind of through the weird dreamscape. And then we get to the end of he has to choose if he wants to be a dream or be real, and he chooses reality, but again felt so fully unearned. I do not understand what the fuck was the point of this series and what we even learned. Ronan felt the most stagnant of all the characters and this is supposed to be his series, like what are we doing??? I don't like the retconning of his origins, I don't like any of the new additions to his character, and.I hate what this series did to Pynch, and then it just kind of ends back where we started, but later?? Truly, what was the point??
I'm just so severely disappointed with this series, it was worse than I expected and I'm just left irritated and underwhelmed. Basically other than Declan, I hated most of what happened in this series and am going to ignore them, these were just fully not it and were. a massive disappointment. I'm just bummed because I still love TRC and it's characters, now including Jordan, and am just so bummed this is what we got as a spinoff series. Do not recommend, such a huge letdown.
Here's what's so truly frustrating about this book. There are a lot of scenes and moments that I really like, some whispers of plots that I'm like, why wasn't THIS what this book had been about the entire time?! I even liked the ending, I just cannot wrap my head around how we got here. Every decision made was more frustrating than the next and while I appreciated the insanity of this clusterfuck of a main plot being wrapped up, none of the choices made were foreshadowed at all. And while this somewhat answered a few of my questions, none of it was done particularly well or in a satisfying way. I get her whole thing is being quirky and abstract, but I think she fully missed the mark with this series. A part of me wants to give it lower, but things actually happened int his book, even if they didn't fully make sense, so I didn't fully hate it, I'm just left so baffled. I can't even blame her being poor at endings like with TRC, because I truly think she lost the plot pretty early on in this series and never righted the course. I'm just bummed because I really enjoy these characters, and honestly would still probably read more of them, I just didn't at all get what I wanted from this, it was a huge let down.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
Oof this book was just truly not it. I do not understand how we got here. I guess I'll break it down by character the best I can.
Bryde/Matthew: remember how Bryde was set up to be this super cool, antagonistic, mysterious force? Yeah, he's FULL useless here and does literally nothing. He tries to steal a giant sweetmetal, which a lot of the most powerful ones are famous art pieces for some reason, and gets stopped, but then is just tied up for most of the time. Matthew finds him and there was one point it seemed as if they were blown up and killed, but I knew it wasn't real because it was handled so glibly. Like Matthew is the heart and soul of this family, no fucking chance they'd be like 'huh...' about finding out he's dead. I honestly didn't mind Matthew's plot, just as per usual there wasn't enough motivation behind it. Off page Declan finds him after he passed out, like the rest of the dreams, and was able to procure some low power sweetmetals to keep him alive, but not enough to keep fully going like normal which pisses off Matthew. I understand it's frustrating and he feels like Declan doesn't treat him with respect or ever ask him what he wants, but truly what does he want from Declan? He's doing his very best with this shit situation, I don't understand why everyone keeps railing against him and telling him he's a horrible person, when he's not at all! He's just doing his best! But Matthew runs off to Bryde and then we think he's dead for two seconds, it's just so stupid, but again I knew that wasn't real with the reaction we got. But no one even tries to look further into it, they just accept he's dead. But then off page Bryde becomes a visionary, like Liliana and the due who died from the first book, and dies off page, but encourages Matthew to go back to the Lynch boys so he just does?? And then he's left off seemingly fine, it's truly SO bizarre, I do not understand. Like I'm happy he's happy, I guess, and Bryde is left being the most useless character ever created, but truly the tip of the iceberg of strange choices.
Farooq-Lane/Nathan/Hennessy: So remember how unimportant Farooq-Lane is in the first two books? To the point where I was genuinely questioning the relevancy of her character? Remember her serial killer, dreamer brother? JOKES he survived and now is the ultimate big bad!! I'm sorry...what the fuck???? This man is straight up not a character, he exists to solely give what little characterization and color to Farooq-Lane's character that exists, but now you're telling me he's behind everything? How? Why?! Heh?? Wtf??? And Farooq-Lane is similarly just not enough of a character for me to give a shit about her through all of this. They pair her up with Hennessy which was whatever, but then they make them have a relationship literally out of nowhere?!!? That already happened with her relationship with the visionary Lilliana, who's now stuck old because she'll die if she has a vision again. But now that she's old it's weird for her to continue on her relationship with Farooq-Lane, so then she just gives them her blessing, has one last vision that shows how they defeat Nathan and dies. It's fucking BIZARRE! Hennessy is genuinely useless this entire book other than finally being the one to bring Ronan back from his dream prison. And that could've worked if we saw more of their relationship in book 2 and she wasn't seemingly/maliciously fucking him over by shutting off the ley line to begin with. And she spends the a solid 3/4 of this book being miserable and trying to fuck up everyone's lives and then all 'why does no one like me?' maybe because you're a miserable twat?! Anyone ever told you that?? And yet this bitch gets more page time/more 'romantic' moments then couples I actually cared about, like wtf...it's so dumb, I do not understand.
Declan/Jordan: As per the rest of this series, these two are my saving grace. Any time they are given time I'm happy, but imagine my horror when they're basically fully shafted and sidelined for most of this plot!! Don't make Declan the main character of this series, don't make me fall in love with, don't make him the beating heart of their fucked up fam, and then take him out!!! Literally when they straight up tell him 'your part in this story is over' with a solid 50-some pages left I was like, pardon what?! Thank GOD they didn't follow through with killing him off either. Similar to Matthew, I didn't believe for a second that he was dead, but there's always a small part of me that worries and I would've been LIVID if she killed off my boy, I love Declan guys, he's my favorite part of this series and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm so irritated with his treatment this book, but his plot was genuinely interesting. I loved how he came to terms with everyone and recognized where he fell short, though I genuinely think he's being too harsh on himself, he's just doing his best in a situation no one could've prepared him for. But when he feared he lost Matthew and blamed himself for mistreating him and when he told Ronan he was wrong for holding him back and they needed him to be dangerous, truly the only time I felt real emotions, especially when sleeping Ronan cried, ugh. For real, these books should've been about the Lynch boys, that's what is advertised and it failed to meet it and I'll forever be bitter about it. Any moment we're given them, it shines, I love every moment with them interacting, but then I just get mad all over again that it's not the plot we were given. Jordan doesn't get much to do here either, also I don't quite understand how she works and they never explain it. Like she has the ability to create sweetmetals, so as long as she's doing so I guess she's able to stay awake? But then there's a moment by the end when she's trying to get Nathan's hostages to safety and she feels herself falling asleep, so like, which one is it?? I truly don't understand and no one cares in this series to explain it, so fun. BUT I'm SO happy this ended with their wedding. If anyone deserves a happily ever after it's truly these two. While I do think they rushed to this place (it wouldn't have been if they were given equal time to develop them in each book, but oh well), BUT I like them so much and am invested enough in their relationship that I'm very happy they got wedding, its quite sweet.
Mor O Corra/the new Fenian: Remember in book 1 of this series where Ronan sees a man in woman in a car that look identical to his dream momma and him and then Declan drops the bomb that Aurora isn't his real mom, this Mor lady is?? Yep, this is her! Also 'the new Fenian' or dream Niall as I shall refer to him, is literally exactly like Aurora, Mor's dream version of Niall Lynch once the two separated/her current lover. Soooo we finally got answers to this bizarre little family and not gonna lie...I hated most of them. First off Mor, or Marie Lynch as she used to be known, is basically a sociopath and incapable of genuine/real emotion, so that's cool. But her and Niall are both dreamers and spend all their time fucking around and still have Declan, who Niall adores (much to my surprise and retcon of this story, Declan has apparently always been his favorite and only real kid crazy) so she puts up with being a mom for her hubby even though she super sucks at it. Then they decide to both pour their dream abilities into the ultimate being and that's how they created Ronan, so Ronan is a fucking dream this entire time. What the actual FUCK?!?! I HATED that reveal!! First off, the entire point was Ronan was supposed to be the product of a dreamer and a dream, that's what made him so interesting, but no, he's a dream too but like the ultimate dreamer??? I don't fucking no. But basically he scares the shit out of Mor and she's like 'lets murder it now before we get attached' but they put this shit into a BABY so except for sociopath her, of course Niall and Declan are already attached, like wtf?! But then she's so disgusted by him she basically is like, I can't live with it and they create the dream versions of each other and she leaves, it's so epically fucked. And when Declan learns all of this, he's not livid!! He's so lenient and understanding and his biggest takeaway was he's shocked to learn he was the favorite when he always believed it to be Ronan, HEH?!?! Baby boy, how the FUCK is that your takeaway?? This shit was so dumb what the fuck. It just felt like they retconned Niall to make him the fuzzy, loving, well-meaning parent and that was truly never the impression I got. I'm cool with Mor being a bitch and a half and leaving him high and dry and that's why he created a perfect/non-complex version of her to mother his children, but with this I just don't know what to believe. Because if he loved them this much, how did he not teach them? How did he not help them and ready them for this world?? But Declan is all 'I never hated my father, I just missed him' bro no...this is revisionist history, I do not understand!
Adam: My angel is done DIRTY this book and I fucking hated it. When Ronan is literally stuck in dreams, Adam comes by, returns his watch (a gift from Ronan and kept them connected) and is like, love you but I'm out. Pardon me, wtf?! Adam Parrish would NEVER! I honestly feel this way about Adam throughout this entire trilogy, but I was especially livid at his treatment here. And yeah, he jumps into the dreams by scrying to try and find/save him, but then he only ends up stuck and somehow captured by Nathan for reasons?? I just don't understand and we're never really given a cathartic moment of the two or an answer. By the end they're like, yeah he pops around jobs to stay busy and never goes too far from Ronan but it's so weird and both admit to wanting to get married one day, but after the events of this trilogy it left me hollow. Like I said above, I liked the epilogue and am ok with how our characters were left, I was especially happy at the Gansey and psychic cameos (though the lack of the Grey Man sucked, but I guess he killed Niall so I get Declan may not want him at his wedding), but after every piece of bullshit I went through, the ending didn't hit the way I wanted it to because it just felt unearned.
And finally, Ronan: my boy, they've massacred my boy. Truly what the fuck was this? First off, he's stuck in dreams for like, 80% of this book so he cannot grow or interact with anyone other than omnisciently/kind of through the weird dreamscape. And then we get to the end of he has to choose if he wants to be a dream or be real, and he chooses reality, but again felt so fully unearned. I do not understand what the fuck was the point of this series and what we even learned. Ronan felt the most stagnant of all the characters and this is supposed to be his series, like what are we doing??? I don't like the retconning of his origins, I don't like any of the new additions to his character, and.I hate what this series did to Pynch, and then it just kind of ends back where we started, but later?? Truly, what was the point??
I'm just so severely disappointed with this series, it was worse than I expected and I'm just left irritated and underwhelmed. Basically other than Declan, I hated most of what happened in this series and am going to ignore them, these were just fully not it and were. a massive disappointment. I'm just bummed because I still love TRC and it's characters, now including Jordan, and am just so bummed this is what we got as a spinoff series. Do not recommend, such a huge letdown.