Spoiler warning! This book is the third and final in the Dreamer trilogy, which in itself is a follow-up to the four-book Raven Cycle. It very much doesn’t stand on its own and won’t really make sense unless you’ve read the previous books. The place to begin is Call Down the Hawk, or if you want to read all the books about Ronan, Adam, and their friends, The Raven Boys.
I’m going to be honest, while I normally love Stiefvater’s writing and willingly go along with pretty much anything she comes up with, for a lot of this book, I was worried I was going to have to rate it a mere 3 stars, maybe rounded up to 3.5 if I was being generous. There was a lot of stuff in this book that didn’t entirely work for me, and bits that I felt dragged rather a lot. Sadly, it’s pretty much impossible for me to write about these things without spoiling some major plot points, and I don’t want to influence anyone else’s reading of the story – it may work better for them.
Let’s just say that I wasn’t exactly happy with Ronan’s role in things for a lot of the book. I was also actively disappointed by the reveal of the “big bad” and the way the other characters had to rally to defeat said individual. I’m not sure what I expected for the final book in this trilogy, but it certainly wasn’t that. Considering that Stiefvater is so clear about how this trilogy is all about the Lynch brothers, it felt odd that all three felt strangely sidelined for much of the plot in this one. Although, my new beloved Declan got to be pretty awesome, which seems to be about time. With every new detail revealed about the terrible life of poor Declan Lynch has led so far and the sacrifices he’s had to make to keep his unusual brothers safe, the more I’m amazed that he’s able to keep it together as well as he has. He deserved to finally let loose a bit.
Full review here.
