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A review by abbyelectric
Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
I'm so conflicted on how I feel about this book because boy did I cry, but also wtf was that ending?? Buckle in because I've got A LOT to say. *spoilers ahead*
Look - I love The Raven Cycle, probably more than anyone else, and Ronan is my favorite character. I re-read TRC literally every year and even I can admit that Maggie Stiefvater cannot write a satisfying ending to her book series. I'm always willing to forgive TRC ending because I'm a character-first, plot-second kind of girl and I'm all about my faves getting a happy ending they deserve. And while Greywaren was wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow, I feel like the entire book series leading up to this big apocalypse only for it to be wrapped up immediately within like a chapter felt like yet another anticlimactic, disappointing cop out ending. The solution felt so simple and obvious it felt like a waste of time for this whole series to lead up to this catastrophic moment, just for it to be wiped clean in one fell swoop.
I would be lying if I said I had been excited about this spin off initially because even if Ronan is my fave, I didn't want to read about a Ronan without Adam or Gansey. However it exceeded my expectations because the series focused on the Lynch brothers as a whole and still mentioned Adam and Gansey here and there. But everyone's main complaint about Greywaren is that Ronan, the central character, is sidelined for about 80% of the book, which is true, and a very valid complaint. But it's time to admit this trilogy wasn't about Ronan Lynch, it was about Declan Lynch. I would argue it's Declan Lynch's growth story more than it is Ronan's and Ronan has to grow to affect Declan's growth. (A fitting parallel to "Declan loved Ronan. So Ronan lived.") As an OG Declan Lynch defender since TRC days, that makes me happy. I knew from day 1 there was so much more to Declan than we were getting. He was the only human in a family full of dreams and dreamers, so of course he felt left out and jaded because of it. To see his growth, how most of his tough, boring, uncaring attitude was just a facade to mask how terrified he was of losing his family, and seeing him fall in love and be vulnerable throughout the series was so beautiful. He's the one who experiences the most growth throughout the series. What I loved most was how we were constantly told in TRC and the Dreamer Trilogy was that Declan was a liar and Ronan "always told the truth" but I found that the real liar was Ronan all along, lying to himself and everything else about what he dreamt and his abilities, whereas Declan only ever told it like it is. Yeah he withheld things, but an omission of truth is not technically lying.
Anyway I really felt like Mister Impossible was a mid-series book because it introduced so many questions but didn't really answer anything and I was hoping Greywaren would answer them but instead we got nothing.
Bryde led to nothing. What did it mean that Ronan dreamt him?
Jordan was so absent throughout this book I was disappointed about that.
Carmen Farooq-Lane's chapters always felt like a chore to get through (throughout the entire series) and I could only just barely start liking her towards the end once she and Declan started seeing similarities in each other, but she as a character wasn't substantial enough for me. I hated Hennessy in the same way Farooq-Lane did, and eventually grew to like her the way Farooq-Lane did too, but I would not have been sad if she died. I was expecting her to do so in the end if we're being honest because she so clearly wanted to for a long time. I thought she would end up sacrificing herself in some way and Jordan would prove definitively that she could live without her dreamer, but whatevs.
I wish there would've been more *why* behind Nathan's actions, his motive still feels unclear to me and we only get him for a couple chapters and it's just him being a stereotypical villain. Maybe it's just my 2 braincells unable to connect the dots but I just didn't get his manifesto and what it meant that he wanted to destroy everything "for the dreamers."
Mostly what bugged me was -
1. WHY did Aurora want Ronan to hide his dream object in Mister Impossible??? What were her thoughts?! I thought we would find out why she told Ronan to hide it in Greywarn but nope. Ronan is gone the whole time and we never got ANY Aurora pov when it came to the dreaming. That scene in Mister Impossible was so important to me (clearly important enough to make it the book title) because it showed the first time ever that she had some sort of AGENCY as a person. She made that decision all on her own to make Ronan hide his ability. She clearly knew about it but why did she make him hide it? How did she feel about being a dream herself? Meant to care for these boys that were never hers? Why did she think Ronan's dreaming was bad?? Was it just that she didn't want him to turn into Niall? Did she know he was a Greywaren? That fact that we'll never know bugs me!!
2. YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT RONAN IS OUT THERE DYING AND GANSEY WOULDN'T COME BACK TO TRY AND SAVE HIM?????? YOU EXPECT ME TO THINK ADAM DIDN'T TEXT GANSEY AND BLUE ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON??? REALLY??
3. At the end Mor and the new Fenian are just hanging out at the Barns and we NEVER get a pov of Ronan finding out Mor is Declan's mother?? A copy of his dad aka the person he loved more than anything in his life is just hanging out forever?? Hello?? And Mor was so clearly afraid of Ronan as the Greywaren. Is she still scared of him???
By biggest fear when initially hearing about the Dreamer Trilogy - little to no Ronan/Adam. What did we get? Little to no Ronan/Adam. Seriously. Even the ending wasn't enough for me to feel satisfied. LIKE GIVE US ONE GOOD HAPPY SCENE PLEASE. All the small happy moments were not nearly enough for the suffering we had to endure. So much time was wasted as Ronan being a non-physical entity we couldn't even get a single kiss. ;_;
Okay, now onto the things I did like and what saved the series for me.
DECLAN DECLAN DECLAN DECLAN. Declan Lynch defender for lifeeeeee. I've been a Declan stan since he was still dating Ashleys sorry not sorry.
I already said he experienced the most growth, how throughout the series we see how all of his scheming and lying and cold demeanor are just an act to save him from breaking and losing his family. But the part that absolutely broke my heart and actually legitimately made me cry was the moment he realized he was his father's favorite all along. NOW HEAR ME OUT!
A lot of people are upset about this because it contradicts everything we knew about Niall and Ronan in TRC. But to me it enhances TRC soooo much more. Every time I re-read TRC I find new things I didn't notice before or understand them in a different light, and now after having read The Dreamer Trilogy, I cannot wait to go back to TRC and see things in a completely different perspective. For example -
The Dream Thieves (prologue):
"And you, Ronan," Niall said. He always said Ronan differently from other words. As if he had meant to say another word entirely—something like knife or poison or revenge—and then swapped it out for Ronan's name at the last moment.
Greywaren (chapter 37):
Ronan.
Ronan.
Ronan.
In the weeks and months after, both Niall and Mór did their best to keep calling the uncanny child by name, because the situation did not seem survivable if they could not begin to think of him as human.
---
The Dream Thieves (prologue):
Declan, the oldest of the Lynch brothers, once asked, "And what happened when I was born?"
Niall Lynch looked at him and said, "I wouldn't know. I wasn't here."
Greywaren (chapter 37):
Niall's first memory in the bag was the day Declan was born, because it had been such a happy time he thought he would die if he had to remember it.
---
The Dream Thieves (chapter 22):
[Matthew] "He was just upset Dad liked you the best. I didn't care. Everybody has favorite things. Mom liked me best anyway."
...
Ronan thought they were probably both considering how this left Declan as no one's favorite.
Greywaren (chapter 38):
His father had loved him, adored him, favored him. Given up everything for him.
"You had to know you were the favorite," the new Fenian said. "Didn't I—he take you everywhere with him that he could?"
"He fussed over Ronan all the time." Ronan was just like him, Niall was always saying, the spitting image.
...
"It was important for Ronan to know he was just as loved as you," the new Fenian said. "The consequences of something like that feeling wronged...It was important he be raised a son, not a monster or a pet."
---
These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head because the Dream Thieves is my fave book in TRC. BUT HOW COOL IS IT THAT IT COMPLETELY CHANGES THE CONTEXT OF TRC?! I just find that soooo neat and makes me love TRC that much more.
Now, like I said, most people are upset that this contradicts TRC showing Ronan to be Niall's favorite. But I think - both things can be true at once! It reminds me of how growing up I thought my youngest brother always got everything he wanted from my mom. But he thought growing up that I, as the oldest, always got everything I ever wanted. But it turns out, my mom was just getting all her kids everything they ever wanted. Both things were true, it was just our own perspectives that prevented us from seeing that. That's how I feel about Ronan/Declan being Niall's favorites. In TRC we get Ronan's perspective and he sees how his father favored him and felt connected to him. In The Dreamer Trilogy we learn why that is from Declan's perspective.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to be including the Dreamer trilogy along with my annual TRC re-reads because unlike TRC I wasn't really interested in the plot of the the dreamer trilogy. Even though I'm a character-first, plot-second girly, I don't love reading every character's pov in the dreamer trilogy (Hennessy, Farooq-Lane, the Moderators, Bryde, bodyless Ronan) the way I do enjoy *every single character* in TRC. I think I'll just re-read my favorite Declan and Declan/Jordan moments and that's it. They were the only saving grace of this series and I'm glad my boy Declan got the justice he deserved.
That reminds me of Matthew who still didn't get the full circle growth he deserved, but he's gonna be a potato farmer out on his own and be a separate entity from his brothers for once and I love that for him. Overall 3.5 I guess?
Look - I love The Raven Cycle, probably more than anyone else, and Ronan is my favorite character. I re-read TRC literally every year and even I can admit that Maggie Stiefvater cannot write a satisfying ending to her book series. I'm always willing to forgive TRC ending because I'm a character-first, plot-second kind of girl and I'm all about my faves getting a happy ending they deserve. And while Greywaren was wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow, I feel like the entire book series leading up to this big apocalypse only for it to be wrapped up immediately within like a chapter felt like yet another anticlimactic, disappointing cop out ending. The solution felt so simple and obvious it felt like a waste of time for this whole series to lead up to this catastrophic moment, just for it to be wiped clean in one fell swoop.
I would be lying if I said I had been excited about this spin off initially because even if Ronan is my fave, I didn't want to read about a Ronan without Adam or Gansey. However it exceeded my expectations because the series focused on the Lynch brothers as a whole and still mentioned Adam and Gansey here and there. But everyone's main complaint about Greywaren is that Ronan, the central character, is sidelined for about 80% of the book, which is true, and a very valid complaint. But it's time to admit this trilogy wasn't about Ronan Lynch, it was about Declan Lynch. I would argue it's Declan Lynch's growth story more than it is Ronan's and Ronan has to grow to affect Declan's growth. (A fitting parallel to "Declan loved Ronan. So Ronan lived.") As an OG Declan Lynch defender since TRC days, that makes me happy. I knew from day 1 there was so much more to Declan than we were getting. He was the only human in a family full of dreams and dreamers, so of course he felt left out and jaded because of it. To see his growth, how most of his tough, boring, uncaring attitude was just a facade to mask how terrified he was of losing his family, and seeing him fall in love and be vulnerable throughout the series was so beautiful. He's the one who experiences the most growth throughout the series. What I loved most was how we were constantly told in TRC and the Dreamer Trilogy was that Declan was a liar and Ronan "always told the truth" but I found that the real liar was Ronan all along, lying to himself and everything else about what he dreamt and his abilities, whereas Declan only ever told it like it is. Yeah he withheld things, but an omission of truth is not technically lying.
Anyway I really felt like Mister Impossible was a mid-series book because it introduced so many questions but didn't really answer anything and I was hoping Greywaren would answer them but instead we got nothing.
Bryde led to nothing. What did it mean that Ronan dreamt him?
Jordan was so absent throughout this book I was disappointed about that.
Carmen Farooq-Lane's chapters always felt like a chore to get through (throughout the entire series) and I could only just barely start liking her towards the end once she and Declan started seeing similarities in each other, but she as a character wasn't substantial enough for me. I hated Hennessy in the same way Farooq-Lane did, and eventually grew to like her the way Farooq-Lane did too, but I would not have been sad if she died. I was expecting her to do so in the end if we're being honest because she so clearly wanted to for a long time. I thought she would end up sacrificing herself in some way and Jordan would prove definitively that she could live without her dreamer, but whatevs.
I wish there would've been more *why* behind Nathan's actions, his motive still feels unclear to me and we only get him for a couple chapters and it's just him being a stereotypical villain. Maybe it's just my 2 braincells unable to connect the dots but I just didn't get his manifesto and what it meant that he wanted to destroy everything "for the dreamers."
Mostly what bugged me was -
1. WHY did Aurora want Ronan to hide his dream object in Mister Impossible??? What were her thoughts?! I thought we would find out why she told Ronan to hide it in Greywarn but nope. Ronan is gone the whole time and we never got ANY Aurora pov when it came to the dreaming. That scene in Mister Impossible was so important to me (clearly important enough to make it the book title) because it showed the first time ever that she had some sort of AGENCY as a person. She made that decision all on her own to make Ronan hide his ability. She clearly knew about it but why did she make him hide it? How did she feel about being a dream herself? Meant to care for these boys that were never hers? Why did she think Ronan's dreaming was bad?? Was it just that she didn't want him to turn into Niall? Did she know he was a Greywaren? That fact that we'll never know bugs me!!
2. YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT RONAN IS OUT THERE DYING AND GANSEY WOULDN'T COME BACK TO TRY AND SAVE HIM?????? YOU EXPECT ME TO THINK ADAM DIDN'T TEXT GANSEY AND BLUE ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON??? REALLY??
3. At the end Mor and the new Fenian are just hanging out at the Barns and we NEVER get a pov of Ronan finding out Mor is Declan's mother?? A copy of his dad aka the person he loved more than anything in his life is just hanging out forever?? Hello?? And Mor was so clearly afraid of Ronan as the Greywaren. Is she still scared of him???
By biggest fear when initially hearing about the Dreamer Trilogy - little to no Ronan/Adam. What did we get? Little to no Ronan/Adam. Seriously. Even the ending wasn't enough for me to feel satisfied. LIKE GIVE US ONE GOOD HAPPY SCENE PLEASE. All the small happy moments were not nearly enough for the suffering we had to endure. So much time was wasted as Ronan being a non-physical entity we couldn't even get a single kiss. ;_;
Okay, now onto the things I did like and what saved the series for me.
DECLAN DECLAN DECLAN DECLAN. Declan Lynch defender for lifeeeeee. I've been a Declan stan since he was still dating Ashleys sorry not sorry.
I already said he experienced the most growth, how throughout the series we see how all of his scheming and lying and cold demeanor are just an act to save him from breaking and losing his family. But the part that absolutely broke my heart and actually legitimately made me cry was the moment he realized he was his father's favorite all along. NOW HEAR ME OUT!
A lot of people are upset about this because it contradicts everything we knew about Niall and Ronan in TRC. But to me it enhances TRC soooo much more. Every time I re-read TRC I find new things I didn't notice before or understand them in a different light, and now after having read The Dreamer Trilogy, I cannot wait to go back to TRC and see things in a completely different perspective. For example -
The Dream Thieves (prologue):
"And you, Ronan," Niall said. He always said Ronan differently from other words. As if he had meant to say another word entirely—something like knife or poison or revenge—and then swapped it out for Ronan's name at the last moment.
Greywaren (chapter 37):
Ronan.
Ronan.
Ronan.
In the weeks and months after, both Niall and Mór did their best to keep calling the uncanny child by name, because the situation did not seem survivable if they could not begin to think of him as human.
---
The Dream Thieves (prologue):
Declan, the oldest of the Lynch brothers, once asked, "And what happened when I was born?"
Niall Lynch looked at him and said, "I wouldn't know. I wasn't here."
Greywaren (chapter 37):
Niall's first memory in the bag was the day Declan was born, because it had been such a happy time he thought he would die if he had to remember it.
---
The Dream Thieves (chapter 22):
[Matthew] "He was just upset Dad liked you the best. I didn't care. Everybody has favorite things. Mom liked me best anyway."
...
Ronan thought they were probably both considering how this left Declan as no one's favorite.
Greywaren (chapter 38):
His father had loved him, adored him, favored him. Given up everything for him.
"You had to know you were the favorite," the new Fenian said. "Didn't I—he take you everywhere with him that he could?"
"He fussed over Ronan all the time." Ronan was just like him, Niall was always saying, the spitting image.
...
"It was important for Ronan to know he was just as loved as you," the new Fenian said. "The consequences of something like that feeling wronged...It was important he be raised a son, not a monster or a pet."
---
These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head because the Dream Thieves is my fave book in TRC. BUT HOW COOL IS IT THAT IT COMPLETELY CHANGES THE CONTEXT OF TRC?! I just find that soooo neat and makes me love TRC that much more.
Now, like I said, most people are upset that this contradicts TRC showing Ronan to be Niall's favorite. But I think - both things can be true at once! It reminds me of how growing up I thought my youngest brother always got everything he wanted from my mom. But he thought growing up that I, as the oldest, always got everything I ever wanted. But it turns out, my mom was just getting all her kids everything they ever wanted. Both things were true, it was just our own perspectives that prevented us from seeing that. That's how I feel about Ronan/Declan being Niall's favorites. In TRC we get Ronan's perspective and he sees how his father favored him and felt connected to him. In The Dreamer Trilogy we learn why that is from Declan's perspective.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to be including the Dreamer trilogy along with my annual TRC re-reads because unlike TRC I wasn't really interested in the plot of the the dreamer trilogy. Even though I'm a character-first, plot-second girly, I don't love reading every character's pov in the dreamer trilogy (Hennessy, Farooq-Lane, the Moderators, Bryde, bodyless Ronan) the way I do enjoy *every single character* in TRC. I think I'll just re-read my favorite Declan and Declan/Jordan moments and that's it. They were the only saving grace of this series and I'm glad my boy Declan got the justice he deserved.
That reminds me of Matthew who still didn't get the full circle growth he deserved, but he's gonna be a potato farmer out on his own and be a separate entity from his brothers for once and I love that for him. Overall 3.5 I guess?