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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 5/5
Pages: 335
Started: 1 July 2023
Finished: 3 July 2023
Summary:
The Lynch Brothers, The Orphans Lynch. The progeny of dreamers, one who wanted power and one who wanted love. Declan Lynch, a boy who stayed boring to protect his family and a man who can hear art singing, whether or not it's a sweetmetal capable of keeping his brother awake. Matthew Lynch, a dream unsure of his own reality. Ronan, a dreamer without a ley line, a consciousness drifting in a sea of space and energy and power. A dream, a dreamer, and a man who has a dream for his future. Some say the Lynch brothers have too much power. The Lynch brothers feel helpless.
Farooq-Lane is determined to save the world. The ley line's disappearance has stopped Liliana's visions, sent thousands of previously awake dreams into sleep, disrupted government organizations, and created a cutthroat market for the sweetmetals that can awaken a sleeping dream. And Hennessy, the one responsible for the line's collapse, is a distinctly unhelpful houseguest to boot. But Farooq-Lane is going to get to the bottom of it somehow.
Dreams, dreamers, and history itself must be untangled and forgiven in order to stop the apocalypse and bring order--and magic--back to the world.
Thoughts (So Many Spoilers. Beware!):
OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod. Almost nothing in this book happened as expected, and I'm not mad about it in the slightest. Stiefvater's plot elements and character development are so complex and random-feeling that I'm just going to go, in chronological order, through my reactions to the book.
Declan and Matthew's relationship is really sweet. Declan loves and cares about him so much. He makes coffee every morning because Matthew likes mornings smelling like coffee. He does everything he can to protect the kid and it's really cute.
Farooq-Lane's perfectionism is really enjoyable to read, as is the chaos of her relationships with other people. The serial-killer brother? Parsifal, who plays opera for her from the dead (which is so so sad oh my god)? Hennessy who frustrates her to no end, but also really wants to make out with her? Fascinating.
"You are such an interesting person, Carmen. You try so hard, even if you don't know why you're trying" (85).
"I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Shit. You were, like, the place I stored all the reality in. Then I had to start lying about you, too" (94). Adam about Ronan. Enough said.
Maggie's writing is insane. She evokes such startlingly specific emotions: "It was splendid to have four seasons. The first summer produced many hours of both beaming sun and bellowing rain. It seemed to add up to more than twenty-four in a day. Everything was green as a fairytale. Autumn was sharp and red, the sloping fields half-hidden in the morning white fog. In the evenings, unseen bonfires scented the air as crickets shrilled their goodbyes to the heat. In the winter it snowed with such thorough confidence that it seemed white Christmases must be the norm (they weren't)" (96). I love it. And Maggie also uses the neglected positive (as explained in Frankie Landau-Banks): "He was an unfoolish child" (97).
Declan and Ronan's relationship is also fascinating. Declan thinks Ronan is a follower, but he is really projecting Niall's need for a leader onto his brother, because of his resentment toward Niall for seemingly choosing Ronan despite the fact that Declan was the favorite, Declan was taken to the Fairy Market, Declan was the reason Ronan was allowed to live as a child. I lost it when I read the scene where Declan apologizes to Ronan for being afraid of him, and then tells him to "be dangerous" (174).
I was so taken aback by the fact that Nathan is the catalyst of the apocalypse. I thought he was just character development for Farooq-Lane, not like. The big bad guy of the series. His manifesto is very interesting, especially the scissors symbolism and the use of the double period after sentences--it's a very somber and confident punctuation; the dude did not doubt himself.
The Power Loss Trope and the Power Regaining Trope. When Hennessy and Ronan are thinking about the lack of ley line, Maggie narrates that "Now they were just two ex-dreamers made fearless by life" (295). No!! Loss of power is awful!! And Ronan being a dream? His own dream? The Forest's dream? A consciousness from another plane of existence? Literally insane. Honesty hard to wrap my mind around. Bu then. Ronan has power. Ronan has all the power. The capability to bring back the ley line by itself is insane, but the creation of the fire and the help of the other sentient beings from his other plane made me so excited. The huge spike in power was definitely epitomized by Ronan's sending an object dreamed to simply give the impression power to Boudicca. I love when my babies have power like that.
"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" (314).
The climax of the novel was very exciting. Everything finally made sense, the dreamers had their battle on a really cool backdrop, and everyone had their moment. Excellent action. Ten outta ten.
The final chapter made me sob. The second I saw "Richard Campbell Gansey III" I was crying. He came back! Blue came back! They got sociology degrees, nothing to do with politics! The even very brief summaries of adventures the characters had had over the past four years were so cool seeming and I desperately need another book covering Blue and Gansey and Henry's time abroad. The psychics of 300 Fox Way also had their cameo, which was perfect because I am obsessed with them being know-it-alls, though it does make me wonder if they knew about Ronan all along. I find it hilarious that Gansey literally machinated his friends' marriage, because of course he would.
"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" (335).
It was all very good. I am utterly obsessed with this book and I cannot wait for next summer when I will once again allow myself some sort of Stiefvater reread.