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A review by pastelwriter
Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is the kind of book, and experience, that has me wildly guessing if I want to give it 4🌟 or 5🌟
I just…I feel conflicted. I feel conflicted because I loved this but I also see every way it could have been made better.
Yet simultaneously I can’t deny that I feel dead inside after reading this because I’ve loved Ronan Lynch for 9 years of my life and now have to cope with the fact that there won’t be any new books about him. The main reason it took me months to pick up this book was because I wasn’t ready to deal with the reality that it was all coming to an end. I wanted it to come to an end before Maggie could royally fuck things up…but I also didn’t want to let go. So, you see my conundrum.
Regardless. None of that actually has anything to do with the literal contents of this book.
The literal contents of this book are…strange. Maggie made some odd choices here, yet I can’t fault her for them because for a poetic and flowery bitch like me, I fucked hard with the vibes those choices brought.
For example, Ronan spends most of this book out of commission. He’s not readily available to do much of anything because he’s in a limbo of being forced to contend with the contents of his own mind. He’s being forced to choose what he wants his life (his future) to be, and it’s deeply paralyzing to him.
With Ronan out of commission, it makes this book heavily reliant on Declan Lynch. This decision can be frustrating to many, but not to me. The greatest gift Maggie gave me in this series is the love I have for Declan Lynch. I adore him. He loves as fiercely as Ronan does, but he locks it all up inside. He’s bursting with feeling and trying his hardest not to let it show. He’s tired. Exhausted. But he loves his brothers. He loves them even though he’s convinced he’s inevitably gonna be the last one alive. He’s desperate to keep them all alive.
And more than anything… He was the first person to love Ronan Lynch. Let me say that again. HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO LOVE RONAN LYNCH. And so Ronan lived. It’s as simple and raw and agonizing as that.
The brothers Lynch have me: heart and soul. I want nothing but their happiness. I want them to love. I want them to live. I want them to rest. I want them to be their truest selves.
At the end of the day, I can forgive all the narrative flaws of this book because it’s ultimately a story about brotherly love. And it’s imperfect. And the brothers don’t always get to shine. They don’t always do as much as they should or they do more than they should. And it doesn’t matter because I love them. And they love each other.
And when it comes to Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish… It may be frustrating that we build so much tension between them only for it to be resolved in metaphor and not in dialogue…but the thing about Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish is that they’re shit with words. They’re both too open and guarded in contradicting ways. It made sense they could only really get one another in absolute absence of words. They were never going to let go of one another because ultimately their feelings are too true.
*clears throat*
Anyway. I don’t know how to say goodbye to this series. I don’t know how to talk about other things about this book…
One should mention Farooq-Lane and Jordan and Henessey and Nathan and Niall.
I could talk about Niall. About how much he loves Declan Lynch. About how much he wanted to make sure Ronan grew up loved. About how much he felt.
And I just… I’d never end. I’d write myself into circles. When really all there is to say is that these boys are going to live with me for much much longer. There may never be more books about them, but they’ll live on in my heart. And they’ll be happy.
I just…I feel conflicted. I feel conflicted because I loved this but I also see every way it could have been made better.
Yet simultaneously I can’t deny that I feel dead inside after reading this because I’ve loved Ronan Lynch for 9 years of my life and now have to cope with the fact that there won’t be any new books about him. The main reason it took me months to pick up this book was because I wasn’t ready to deal with the reality that it was all coming to an end. I wanted it to come to an end before Maggie could royally fuck things up…but I also didn’t want to let go. So, you see my conundrum.
Regardless. None of that actually has anything to do with the literal contents of this book.
The literal contents of this book are…strange. Maggie made some odd choices here, yet I can’t fault her for them because for a poetic and flowery bitch like me, I fucked hard with the vibes those choices brought.
For example, Ronan spends most of this book out of commission. He’s not readily available to do much of anything because he’s in a limbo of being forced to contend with the contents of his own mind. He’s being forced to choose what he wants his life (his future) to be, and it’s deeply paralyzing to him.
With Ronan out of commission, it makes this book heavily reliant on Declan Lynch. This decision can be frustrating to many, but not to me. The greatest gift Maggie gave me in this series is the love I have for Declan Lynch. I adore him. He loves as fiercely as Ronan does, but he locks it all up inside. He’s bursting with feeling and trying his hardest not to let it show. He’s tired. Exhausted. But he loves his brothers. He loves them even though he’s convinced he’s inevitably gonna be the last one alive. He’s desperate to keep them all alive.
And more than anything… He was the first person to love Ronan Lynch. Let me say that again. HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO LOVE RONAN LYNCH. And so Ronan lived. It’s as simple and raw and agonizing as that.
The brothers Lynch have me: heart and soul. I want nothing but their happiness. I want them to love. I want them to live. I want them to rest. I want them to be their truest selves.
At the end of the day, I can forgive all the narrative flaws of this book because it’s ultimately a story about brotherly love. And it’s imperfect. And the brothers don’t always get to shine. They don’t always do as much as they should or they do more than they should. And it doesn’t matter because I love them. And they love each other.
And when it comes to Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish… It may be frustrating that we build so much tension between them only for it to be resolved in metaphor and not in dialogue…but the thing about Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish is that they’re shit with words. They’re both too open and guarded in contradicting ways. It made sense they could only really get one another in absolute absence of words. They were never going to let go of one another because ultimately their feelings are too true.
*clears throat*
Anyway. I don’t know how to say goodbye to this series. I don’t know how to talk about other things about this book…
One should mention Farooq-Lane and Jordan and Henessey and Nathan and Niall.
I could talk about Niall. About how much he loves Declan Lynch. About how much he wanted to make sure Ronan grew up loved. About how much he felt.
And I just… I’d never end. I’d write myself into circles. When really all there is to say is that these boys are going to live with me for much much longer. There may never be more books about them, but they’ll live on in my heart. And they’ll be happy.