#her relationship with maura has my heart btw

[f4keplastictr33s]

nobody talks about the fact that blue was in fact bullied for being a psychic’s daughter and i think that’s probably why she has this defense mecanism where she appears more tough than she actually is .. ? idk i just love blue sargent so much man and im sick when people dismiss her character or reduce her to the boys bc she’s so much MORE than that

[whoslaurapalmer]

finished rereading the raven cycle and you know how last year i said i could be pickier about the raven king but didn’t want to? this year i did want to! 

-i mean, i love the raven cycle. interesting magic, very comfy, would sell my soul for the gangsey.  -but most of this post is gonna be me complaining about the raven king  -the tl;dr of it all is ‘the pacing of the raven king is too fast and too slow at the same time. it’s not that i think it was terrible, but i don’t think it was written as successfully as the previous books. i think, because the pacing of the book is so uneven, that the balance between events, and perhaps the balance between the magic and the characters own inherent internal coming of age power, is off. oh btw i am considering reading call down the hawk but Have Concerns’ 

-noticed the ‘blue is calling gansey from the phone/sewing/cat room and gansey is calling blue from the bathroom-kitchen-laundry’ parallel which i thought was very, very cute. that has my whole heart  -also noticed a lot more of gansey’s whole person just constantly thinking about (or not-thinking about) his death  -BUT THEN THE PROLOGUE TO THE RAVEN KING SMACKED ME IN THE FACE AGAIN HOW COULD I FORGET THAT GANSEY LIKE. LITERALLY KNOWS HE’S GONNA DIE AND THE RAVEN KING IS HIM TRYING MAKE SURE EVERYONE WILL BE OKAY AFTER HE’S DEAD -I CANNOT HANDLE RICHARD CAMPBELL GANSEY THE THIRD MY GOD THIS BOY 

-canNOT overstate how much i really do love gwenllian.  -i love her so much. i love her so much  -same with malory. still love him. 

-okay i guess i appreciated artemus a little more -i think my thing is like. do i have a problem with blue being part tree? no not necessarily. but the pacing in the raven king is so uneven that i think what i dislike is how the reveal happened  -no i don’t know what i’d do differently!!  -every time i disagree with a writing choice in a book i try and think ‘now lulu, as someone with a Literal Degree In Putting Words Together, what would you do differently?’ which is a REALLY good writing exercise but mostly just ends up with me going ‘uhhhh. idk. probably have to backtrack a couple plot points and restart from there. no i will not elaborate.’

-last time i thought the raven king moved too fast and this time i agree but also thought it moved too slow?? -i devoured the first three books every time and then both times i read the raven king i kept putting it down because i thought the pacing was so off, so i was simultaneously interested and not interested in what was going on -too fast re: there were A LOT of characters going on, laumonier and piper and henry and neeve and plot points were just piling up and more like slamming together than converging (piper being laumonier’s daughter and henry’s mother being seondeok especially feel less like pieces falling into place than, oh look! ~a thing!!~), ALSO GOD NOAH NEEDED TO SHOW UP MORE (just like. a smidge more noah. would’ve put a lot together), and the speed of finding glendower/driving back/gansey dying/the epilogue -too slow re: somehow so many things are happening but nothing is happening in some parts, some parts dragged, people are just moving around with no real direct sense of working towards the end, blue and gansey were at lunch while adam and ronan were in cabeswater that one time?????????????  (-not that they can’t get lunch. but they had time to get lunch???????)  -oh i think the four of them maybe felt the most disjointed as a group in this book, which is again not necessarily terrible, but a thing  -and these things are just so disappointing because i thought the pacing of the first three books was so GOOD!! things take their time to happen but HAPPEN and i love that so much!!!!  -i do feel bad criticizing the raven king bc i know maggiestief was going through health problems at the time and it took longer than she wanted to finish. but i am still criticizing it because it’s still a very unsatisfying ending 

-reading this time i felt EVEN MORE FIRMLY that gansey should’ve been glendower, and even went so far as to consider, is the text saying he’s glendower, it’s just not explicitly stated?? because of all the parallels??? of gansey being old and young at the same time, gansey + his own magicians, the parallel between glendower shoving that guy in a tree and gansey wanting to do the same to ronan over the pig, the timelessness of the things gansey loves, the Power of command in his voice, a resurrection in the first place  -and i was going to just say, yeah, it’s there, until i got to noah’s chapter again. -i think noah deserved at least one chapter per book (and maybe more during the raven king) and that would’ve made an already tight plot even tighter, especially in the raven king.  (-i was also thinking that if gansey was glendower then something else would’ve happened when they found him, no i still do not know what) 

-big respect though to maggiestief saying glendower had to either be dead or evil and by that page number there wasn’t enough room for him to be evil -and big respect to the fact that, of course it’s not about teens finding a hero, it’s about teens becoming heroes (these thoughts also pulled from her twitter reread), finding glendower (alive) would never have been narratively good or satisfying  (-especially because it makes sense that glendower was dead all along -- if gwenllian was put to sleep wrong, who’s to say that glendower wasn’t, too?) -BUT, IT ALSO MAKES SENSE IF IT’S GANSEY  -but then you have like. the whole time it wasn’t even glendower. it was noah  -which is why i wanted more noah!!! to better lead to that!!!!!!! cause i feel like that kinda comes out of nowhere!!!!!  -the balance of the magical and the real is just off in the reveal i think  -man i don’t know. this is a lot of words. 

-i also appreciated adam’s character arc better this time, which was really nice. -but i still feel no great attachment to ronan and adam’s relationship  

-you know what. i want more mr. gray and maura -idk if i agree with him leaving henrietta. much like the previous paragraphs and my whole gripe with the raven king, it’s not terrible but i don’t think it’s done well, as well as it could’ve been, as well as the previous books  -also! more adam and persephone would’ve been good 

-i was rereading maggiestief’s tweets where she reread the books and i forget which thread this was in but she picked out one of the ‘character x says something that makes character y reevaluate every single interaction previously’ lines and she was like ‘that’s all these books are’ and i was like ‘YEAH MAGGIE. I FEEL LIKE I SEE THIS LINE EVERY SINGLE SECOND.’ and not necessarily in a good way  -sometimes you can reuse a line and it is a parallel or a connection. sometimes you are just reusing a line over and over. 

-she also mentions writing arguments from a point of, both characters are right, or think they’re right, or as right as they can be or something to that effect  -which i really like, and i absolutely 100% see in her writing  -and so i don’t know if this is just a me thing, because i have this obsessive need to backtrack through even the tiniest disagreements after the fact to calmly figure out where i’m coming from and acknowledge where the other person’s coming from, so while i like that every character comes from a place of ‘i’m right’ i feel like it leads to a lot of arguments left unresolved  -but i think that’s just me feeling like everybody should always talk everything out as much as possible so  -and like resolution doesn’t have to be a big dialogue acknowledgement  -but i still didn’t feel like it left a lot of room for these characters to really work towards change -they do change! but i wanted to see it more 

-oh hey so. did gansey successfully sell of monmouth? did ronan get a diploma anyway? 

-me: ‘thing’ is ultimately a vague, unspecific word and should be used sparingly in a narration, much like ‘interesting’  maggiestief: /flinging out ‘thing’ all the time me: you know what, though???? sure, good for her 

-i like henry. but he’s written terribly, the poor guy comes OUT OF NOWHERE too and should’ve shown up earlier more than his two times in blue lily lily blue, and adam and ronan’s super casual racism towards him is like..................................................................mostly unchallenged and really unnecessary  -if a racist comment is going to remain unchecked and unchallenged by the narrative and the characters, what does it accomplish? -especially because it never ever shows up again or showed up before -and gansey just kind of scoffs it aside and blue doesn’t even really truly call it out which is like, the amount of other things gansey will call out???? the amount of stuff blue will call out??????? AND THEY JUST LET THAT GO?????? -so, again! it’s not necessary!! it does nothing!!! it just adds unchallenged racism that has no place!!!!!!!!!!!!

-also reading this time i felt like maggiestief went out of her way to just not say what race blue was  -that shouldn’t be a thing you just repeatedly dance around and never confirm for your main character 

-so my library still does not have the ebook for call down the hawk but i am vaguely considering buying it to read it but also....................i don’t know -i did read the first eight chapters because they were online and i’m like. Intrigued but also?????? Concerned. idk. idk

-looking at it from a distance i have the same concern with it that i do with king of scars.  -do i think dreamer trilogy is necessary in the way that it explores things that are set up in the raven cycle and have big potential consequences? yes. the hunt for the ‘greywaren’, kavinsky proving that there are other dreamers, trying to make sure a dreamed thing can still exist if something happens to the dreamer, the possibilities and limits of dreamers, ronan trying to dream another cabeswater, ronan’s fear about what’s real and what isn’t/what he dreamed and what he didn’t dream, and maggiestief clearly loving writing ronan and wanting to write more of him -do i think those things are executed well in the dreamer trilogy? from what i’ve read about it, maybe not????  -especially re: ronan and adam’s character arcs????? -which i feel like, stupid and bitchy being picky about. -change and recovery do not happen in straight lines. but i think this kind of cycles back to the way she writes arguments with like, is it too unresolved to the point that no change, either positive or negative, is happening?  -ugggg also makes me worry that i just wasn’t Reading it enough or thinking about it enough  -my additional concern is that maggiestief should’ve maybe had firmer rules for what can and can’t be taken out of a dream  (-yes i suppose that limiting the very nature of a dream goes against the power of ‘the dream’ so it makes sense for it to be limitless BUT i feel like especially the dreaming of people is gonna paint you into a corner if you’re not careful)  -but i am also BIG worried re: the character arcs.  -also where ronan’s character arc is after the raven king, do i think he would do the reveal in mr. impossible?? i...........do not know  -well i didn’t think so AND THEN I READ OPAL which i kind of enjoyed, with reservations, which is mostly back to ‘is no change happening’  (-i love that opal is like, ‘ronan’s inner child’ or whatever it was and i liked her more this time around but last year when i read the raven cycle i was like ‘but what’s the point of taking opal out cause they just kind of shuffle her around?’ now, what was the point of taking opal out if they’re gonna put her back??? and actually almost COMPLETELY IGNORE HER in the short story????? there was so much potential there for her and ronan and it didn’t happen...........) -nightwash kinda just happened too, huh.  (-in general ronan bringing his nightmares back with him is like. God Perfect) -but this all really takes me back to maybe there should’ve been limits on dreaming -also after reading the first eight chapters, i’m like -i 100% respect maggiestief for not wanting to rewrite the raven cycle and not wanting to just write about henrietta, i absolutely do -but it feels so strange to read about ronan and adam and not read about gansey and blue as well?  -which isn’t TERRIBLE, but.  -but when i see like, single lines from or little sections i’m like ‘oh that looks like a good time’ because i do like the way maggiestief writes because a great deal of it is so rhythmically poetic and beautiful, but so is a great deal of the raven king while still being disappointing.  -i feel like i’m just gonna feel about it like how i feel about the raven king honestly -and well king of scars.......

-ANYWAY -might read it. might not. still going back and forth on this a lot. i was leaning towards, i’m gonna do it, but now i’m leaning more towards, i don’t want to, i want to keep the image of these characters where i like them, and right now i am aggressively combing through fanfic because i care a great deal about post-raven king trauma discussion and that’s mostly what i want at the current time

[noah-ynrezc]

How Adam’s college friends thought he was weird, but it turns out that he’s pretty “normal” compared to his friends HC

-ronan never really goes up to college with adam, because adam’s the one who escapes back home on his time off

-adam’s college friends all think there’s something off about him, even tough they all also think he’s perfect

-his nickname with the college friends (that they never say directly to his face) is “Perfect Adam” to differentiate between him and another adam.

-how he disappears on weekends and holidays and doesn’t really tell anyone where he’s going

-how there’s a chest under his bed they’ve never seen him open

-fun fact: it’s Persephone’s tarot cards and he keeps them there for Reasons

-how there’s photos of a small girl in a black beanie on his wall and desk, but all of the photos are just of her face, never below the waste

-how adam has a boyfriend, but whenever they ask about this dude, the story changes for each person (they’ve compared notes and it just confused them more)

-“he’s tattoo’d and street races sometimes”

-“he’s a lonely farmer”

-“yeah he’s got a kid”

-“he’s an asshole I went to high school with”

-“trust fund kid”

-and then

-one day the rest of the gangsey decide to drop in unannounced because Henry, Blue, and Gansey are in town and Ronan’s missing his bf

-Opal is left in the care of 300 Fox Way because you can rip the fact that those women adore my small goat child from my dead, headcannon loving hands

-and they just watch as Adam’s face breaks stoic-Adam-bitch-resting-face as a beat up orange ass car pulls up and a sleek black one behind it

-gansey is the first one out

-that little boy fucking runs into adam’s arms and hugs him for longer than socially acceptable

-“stop stealing my man, Parrish”

-Blue definatly interrupts like this, insults Gansey’s boat shoes for the 28839439th time that day and kisses Adam on the cheek

-henry is a good bean and he just waves and stands next to Blue and Gansey

-and adam’s college friends are like “is that dude that hugged him the bf????”

-and Blue and Gansey are laughing while Adam shakes his head and Henry pulled out his phone to take photos because the other two of his roadtrip buddies are fucking gremlins that never take photos and then are sad that they don’t have photos of the memories

-yeah, Blue, Henry and Gansey are all in a beautiful poly-relationship and Blue and Gansey can now kiss because they DESERVE IT OKAY

-anyways, Ronan is the last one out

-and Adam looks Ronan in the eyes and goes “hey asshole”

-and adam’s college friends are fucking shook

-and ronan’s reply is “fuck off” because it’s ronan

-and adam just turns and goes “this is my ex Blue, and her boyfriends Gansey and Henry. And this is Ronan”

-adam’s poor college friends are so lost and confused and Blue isn’t helping because she KNOWS they are and is attempting to make it worse

-“throw back to when Adam and Gansey were lovers”

-“henry, remember that time you got a boner for perfect Adam?” “blUE-“

-“adam’s my second favorite boyfriend” “i’m your first right?” “Whatever helps you sleep, Boat Shoes” “thanks- wait-“

-(her favorite bf is Noah,,,)

-and they all just continue on with this for a while, everyone walking back to the dorms or something and adam’s college friends are just trailing with confused expressions

-and finally one of them stops adam and is like “are you really dating all of them???” And adam just goes “no???? I’m dating ronan???? I thought you knew????”

-“he’s a farmer?!” “…yeah?” “,,,he’s fucking terrifying” “yeah”

-and the rest are all like, “ronan’s barely said a word or even hugged adam and he’s the supportive and loving bf adam cares for????”

-and then ronan, in his terrifying, shaved head, tattoo’d glory turns to adam and chucks his hand cream at the boy’s head and goes “oh yeah, got you this” “thanks”

-and adam and ronan’s smiles are really soft in that moment and the college friends are like “OH”

-“stop flirting. I want to eat some college dorm room ramen” “Adam, are you living off of ramen?” “Gansey, it’s not that big of a-“ “im buying us dinner now”

-and Blue and Henry are just being weird and making fun of Gansey

-ronan just calls everyone “asshole” or “jerk”

-blue flips him off at least once

-honestly, what a weird constellation these dorks make

-but soon, the trio has to leave because they’ve got to visit Helen and her gf and the elder Ganseys

-and it’s just Adam, Ronan and the college friends left

-and adam starts his homework at his desk while Ronan lounges onto adam’s bed

-“btw, I brought chainsaw” “in the dorm?” “In the dorm”

-and a small chainsaw heads pokes out from Ronan’s hood at the sound of her name

-college friends fucking loose it now and just disperse because they can’t handle anymore of this

-and poor adam’s roomate is left alone with adam and the terrifying creature that is Ronan

-but adam and ronan are being chill, but somehow Roomate can’t concentrate with ronan and chainsaw there

-and then ronan just gets up suddenly and walks out and adam doesn’t even flinch when the door slams, just smiles and rolls his eyes and continues with his work because he knows ronan will be sitting on the trunk of his car when he finishes this chapter

-and he meets back outside, but it’s cold now and adam’s an idiot who didn’t think to bring a hoodie so he’s cold in his cocacola shirt that he’ll probably never get rid of

-and ronan’s there, sitting on the trunk, feeding chainsaw out of his hand with feed adam expects is dream-made

-and they just sit there in silence for a bit, watching chainsaw eat

-they’re shoulders are touching and ronan’s slightly leaning into adam, but not overly so and he’s sitting on adam’s good side so that he can hear him

-“squash one, squash two-“

-adam laughs before ronan lapses into humming old songs he learned from his bagpipe training, bless his heart

-and adam just listens, occasionally petting chainsaw as they sit

-and it’s over too soon because Ronan gets a call from Maura’s phone, but it’s Opal asking to talk to Adam and wanting to be picked up soon because “maura’s making tea again” and ronan should leave home before his poor goat daughter is destroyed by shitty tea

-and they don’t kiss or hug, ronana gets into his car and drives off as adam stands on the curb and watches him disappear

-“he left fast” “yeah, he needed to pick up Opal” “his… daughter?” “Yeah”

-and none of the college friends question adam directly, but they all accept that perfect, but weird Adam is definatly the least-weird of his friend group

-(and they attempt to compare notes on what happened that night, but get even more confused because one noticed that Blue wore weird clothes and another was like “but Gansey looks like white priviledge” and “ronan can’t be the gay farmer with a kid”, “adam must have two boyfriends”, “adam said that ronan has a daughter named Opal”, “IS he the gay farmer???? I thought he was the streetracer????”, “was Gansey the trust fund boyfriend????”, “how come his ex is dating his bf????”)

[trb-reacts]

The Raven Boys, Review

So I just finished reading The Raven Boys and oh boy do i have mixed feelings about it, some mixture of keysmashing adoration and some (opinion-based, non-bashing) criticism. I’ll probably give it a 3.5/5, so if that number offends you already, don’t read the rest of this review. 

That being said, if I cited a reason for not liking something (e.g. I thought there was a logic jump or something wasn’t explained but it actually was in the book), and in reality, I just misinterpreted something, you’re welcome to inform me of that. I was in a semi rush to finish it, so I might have missed small details. 

[Also, sorry, but this is literally all straight from memory, including the quotes. I’m too lazy to find the exact place and quotes of what I remembered, so if I used quotes for anything, realize it’s not a direct quote, but rather me paraphrasing what I remembered and quoting it to show something along that line was said in the book.]

Last warning: loooong post ahead!

I think very broadly speaking, I did like the book. The problem for me is that it kinda took so long for it to get going. I did the in-depth scene-by-scene reaction for chapter 1 - 14. You guys know (or you can read) about how excited I was to finally have the boys and Blue meet and for everything to start moving. 

I don’t think it disappointing when they finally met. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that I liked Adam’s shyness and sweetness when he realized that the palm reader’s daughter is Blue, that Maura and Gansey had a stare off (”Tell me straight off if you don’t want to help me, but don’t tell me lies, don’t give me excuses.” “I don’t want to help you.” Iconic!), that Ronan had a moment of ‘Prove it’ and they showed him (”You know who killed your father”, I think. Also, Calla’s power is cool.). It’s just… it took 15 chapters, ~150 pages for them to finally meet, only for them to depart again like nothing’s going to change.

I felt like it could have really been cut down by some, like Ronan’s backstory, which was cool, or tragic, honestly, but it wasn’t necessary to be introduced waay in the beginning of the book. Honestly, I don’t think it was necessary to have his backstory appear in this book at all. I’m sure this mystery of Ronan’s father’s death would come into play later, but like… I feel like it could have been introduced in the beginning of the second book and it would have been just as well. All we really needed to know was Declan and Ronan has a bad relationship, Ronan’s father died and that those facts explains Ronan’s bad attitude and him not caring about school. The murdering part could first make an appearance at Ronan’s ‘Prove it’ moment at Blue’s, which would make the readers aware (without so much telling too) that although we knew he died, we didn’t know he was killed and also Ronan knows something about it. 

Same thing with Whelk. We coulda gotten a dark unknown POV from him and have it later revealed that tada, it was Whelk, the Latin teacher that Ronan thought was a bit shifty and Ganey thought was tragic that he couldn’t befriend him like he did with everyone else. But having everything out in the open, the story 1) dragged and 2) lots of this information, that although mentioned, is pushed to the back of the reader’s mind. I already forgot that Whelk existed halfway through the book and whenever he appeared again, I’m like, yeah, that’s right, and there’s this guy, can’t wait to see how he’ll get involved in the story. And that happened again and again and again. 

On the other hand, NOAH!!! I did not see the part with Noah coming, although in retrospect, that makes so much sense. I loved the twist!! I I think I commented somewhere that it seems like people consider the raven boys to be Gansey&Ronan&Adam more than Gansey&Ronan&Adam&Noah and that turned out to be right!! Because they don’t know he exist!! Because he’s a ghost!! Because he’s Czerny!! 

Even when they found his skeleton and the car and his license, I thought Blue and Gansey somehow went forward in time and found Noah later dead because of this treasure hunting they’re doing for this long forgotten magical king, so when the final reveal came out (”Noah, you’ve been dead for 7 years”), I was SHOOK. Legit SHOOK, goosebumps and all, and I love it so much. I didn’t see it coming but the hints were there. Noah not eating. Why Noah has so little screen time. Why he made a ‘dead for 7 years joke’ to Ashley. Why he didn’t throw up but retched when he saw the Mustang. It made so much sense, it was GENIUS and I applaud Maggie Stiefvater for this because I honestly didn’t see it coming and I love this twist. 

But, I also just… don’t understand how Declan knew Noah and how Ashely ended up meeting him. While Gansey was thinking back and figuring out that Noah was a ghost, Gansey said he didn’t remember ever seeing Noah out of their apartment, never seen Noah eat or remember anyone outside of their immediate friends mentioning Noah. But like… Declan introduced Noah to Ashley when they stopped by to the raven boys place. Is there something special about Declan or… is there any other explanation for why Declan knows about Noah and doesn’t seem to forget?

Also, I love the individuality, the different backstory everyone has, and how they interact with each other. Believe me, I do, but… besides the helicopter scene where the raven boys and Blue met up for the first time (which, btw, wtf Blue. These are essentially strangers. Aglionby boys. I know there’s a destiny to be fulfilled and your fates are linked together and all, but going into a helicopter with three boys and a woman you do not know is a BIG no-no. It’s like getting into three strange guys’ car, except worse because you’re in the air, you can’t escape. Why, Blue, why. They call you sensible. Be sensible!). 

Erm, anyway, besides the helicopter scene where the raven boys and Blue met up for the first time, I didn’t really sense, um, them bonding or growing closer? I’ll be honest, I can’t tell you how I would have gone about showing strangers growing closer and becoming friends. Maybe I would have done it the montage way that TRB opted for, with them discovering the mystical raven printed land made of oyster shells and then going, let’s meet up and research together some more! I can imagine them growing closer over those days, but at the same time, i couldn’t really sense it? 

The same way I couldn’t really sense what research they’ve done between their first visit and their second, I couldn’t tell how they grew closer. Noah fluffs Blue’s hair afterwards, but besides that… I don’t really sense a change? I think it might have been better if we were given a little more details on how those researches go, show them bickering, show Blue refusing to let Gansey buy her anything and then the boys relenting to eating lots of convenient store stuff. Show Blue and Adam exchanging exasperated commoner looks at Gansey and Ronan’s reaction to eating cheap low quality food, show Noah watching with a half-hidden smile, show the warmth that grows in Blue and Adam’s heart at the adjustments the rest of the raven boys are willing to do for them. Just… a paragraph summarizing what happened during those times are not enough for me. I can imagine, but don’t let me do all the work here. Give me some details and maybe then I can fill in the rest of the blank. 

The boys’ reaction to the revelation that it was Blue’s voice on the recorder honestly feels a little underwhelming. I was expecting a little more grilling, but then they were just like, okay, moving on, her voice on the recorder along with Gansey’s, despite she weren’t anywhere near Gansey or the recorder, despite the fact that Gansey never said anything. Blue is the daughter of a psychic, who seems like a real deal. Don’t consider asking Blue why that happened or what that meant, and definitely don’t even ask Blue to inquire Maura about it. Also, Ronan pushed, but it didn’t feel enough and also it didn’t feel like he was pushing about the things that any other person would have pushed the answers for. I do realize that Adam told Ronan to stop, but I feel equally certain that if Ronan really wanted to push, he would have gone behind their backs to find out. 

I loved that hallucination-inducing tree. It’s super duper cool, not to mention it showed all of them these visions that I’m deathly curious about how they’re going to end up playing out and of course, their aftermaths. 

Adam’s had me most curious, because it speaks of themes like deaths and betrayal. The raven boys are so close and so lovely together that I couldn’t ever imagine it happening, especially the way that Adam saw it in the dream, Gansey on the floor dead or dying, Adam standing above him as his slayer or at least the direct cause of Gansey’s harm, Ronan’s “Are you happy now, Parish, are you satisfied? Is this enough. Is this really what you wanted?” Just… tragedy is the heartbreak that awaits them, and that’s not even counting Ganesy’s death that is foreseen by his spirit being on the corpse road. 

I couldn’t imagine Adam like that in the future, couldn’t imagine what would drive him to that point, but I think we caught a glimpse of that future Adam towards the end when he tried to awake the ley line, despite Gansey’s disagreement. That… on one hand, I can see what drove him to that point, the despair, the desperation, when everything that makes you you is crush so ruthlessly beneath someone else’s feet (Adam’s pride, his individuality, and with it, his freedom within this world that constricts him because this world speaks not in humanity or kindness, which Adam has in dozens, but in power and money, which Adam don’t) that not even dust of left of it  

On the other hand, I just really didn’t want things to turn out the way they were foreseen to. I sincerely got chills when Adam left to wake the ley line, the moment when it hit Gansey where Adam had gone, and I could literally feel Gansey’s pain when he realized that Adam not only betrayed him so explicitly (”It’s not worth waking Glendower in exchange for someone else’s life”, Gansey said. “We’ll find another way.”), but spat in his face in one last ‘fuck you’ by taking Gansey’s car when Adam could have so easily hotwired Ronan’s instead. There’s so much more I can say about Gansey and Adam’s relationship, but I won’t, not here, since this is honestly supposed to be more of a review and less of an analysis, so check out this separate analysis of Adam leaving his home after reporting the abuse and the dynamic between Adam-Ronan and Adam-Gansey if you’re really interested in how I saw their relationship. 

What else? Oh, the Latin speaking trees are cool. The trees are more cultured than me. Also, I really liked Cabeswater and its ‘I will change to whatever the people in it wants.’ One, I love the specificity, Gansey discovering this trait because of the fishes and their not-red belly turned red. Second, the description for when Adam went to wake the ley line and then he was a little spooked by the darkness so he wished there was more light and Cabeswater just responded by drowning the entire forest in light, awash it with pretty fairy golden dust. I love that image so much and Adam’s evident awe. 

Aaand now we’re almost there to talk about the end, but before that, I can’t believe I forgot. Gansey’s brush with death!! Via Whelk!! Via his car breaking down!! Via reverse ex-machina. 

Like, don’t get me wrong, I was seriously tense when Gansey ended up being at gunpoint by Whelk. That was intense and I was so proud of Gansey boy when he remembered what Ronan taught him and then proceeded to toward all of them out of the proverbial window save the most important, life-saving advice of aiming. And aim Gansey did and that’s how he ended up alive here for me to talk about (tho I can’t speak too soon, let’s be honest. He is still destined to die, was still seen on the corpse road). And then following that, I love the moment when Ronan and Adam contemplated the what-if Gansey wasn’t so lucky and he died. I can really feel that they care in that scene, that both of them would be sincerely lost without Gansey there. But there were just a little too many coincidences for me to suspend my disbelief for that scene. 

And then before I forget, because how can I move on to talk about the ending without mentioning this, the Gansey for Noah trade. Did I mention that the first time Gansey mentioned he died once,  I legit thought that it was a metaphor? “Wasp squirming him, enclosing his entire body in death” seemed more metaphorical to me than real, yet that happened. 

And Noah paid the price. 

That was really chilling as they pieced everything together. So, kudos to Maggie Stiefvater again, though… I’m not sure how much this works, mathematically? The world wants Gansey to be alive, and Noah was on the ley line to be sacrificed, so they killed Noah and let Gansey live. But like… Noah was on the ley line to be sacrificed, wasn’t he, was death not his ending even without Gansey encountering death on the other side of the globe and needing Noah to swap him out of it? And yet they acted like Gansey killed Noah with his own two hands, because that was equivalent, the unwitting, unknowing, unwilling exchange. 

Also, Noah seemed weirdly chill with it for someone who unwillingly died for someone else (Gansey), and why did he end up in Gansey’s group anyway. Did Noah willingly chose to seek Gansey out knowing this was the boy that he died for? I was also expecting a little more of him and Whelk’s analysis towards the end, after all, Whelk killed Noah and they were friends before, yet… weirdly not much? I do think that was in part because Noah’s bones were moved from the ley line, so he was weaker and stuff, but at the same time, Cabeswater was full of magic, so eh, I don’t see why there wasn’t a bit more. 

Anddd, that’s about it? I was really excited to talk about the ending, but then it’s been a while and most of the details escaped me. 

Stuff that I remembered that stuck out to me: 

what happened to Neeve was just weird, Maura seemed weirdly chill about Neeve’s fate into the unknown for being her half-sister

 after all that happened between Adam and the rest of the gang (betrayal, anyone?), it seems to strange that they slotted seamlessly back together like nothing happened and despite the fact that there seems to be a bit of implications that Adam’s not quite human anymore?

the image of the gang digging up Noah’s bones from his grave is so strangely hilarious

the last line of the book: “I pulled Chainsaw out of my dream,” wtf, Ronan, don’t end like that???!!

So yeah, that’s about it. Sorry that this ended up being a bit rushed and incoherent at the end, but I did really wanna finish this post, so here’s what I thought about it. If I seem a little harsh on it, I’m sorry, I think I feel it too. All I can say is that maybe I’m too old to read YA fictions now.

If you have a scene/moment that you wanted me to talk about that I didn’t in this review, feel free to message/ask me about it.