okay i think i figured out part of why greywaren was so disappointing!! stiefvater’s best work has never been in her plots. seriously, i know it’s a joke that none of us can explain the plot of the raven cycle, but could tell you intimate details about each character’s psyche and motivations but it’s true!!! her strength has always been in how she crafts characters and their arcs and relationships, never in the plot itself. in greywaren, we have a book that’s incredibly plot-driven, striving to tie up all the loose ends she created in the first two books. as a result, the character arcs and the development that we initially saw in the series took a backseat to her hastily trying to finish the storyline. that’s why many of the characters’ endings seem to lack the nuance and complex emotional arcs that we’ve come to expect from her work.
don’t get me wrong, the ending is sweet + happy + cheesy, which is lovely, but it didn’t give many of the characters (ESPECIALLY the lynch brothers, who were meant to be the primary focus of this series anyways!!!) an ending that felt true to the emotional growth and experiences they had throughout the series. it just wasn’t a satisfying conclusion by any means and that’s where the book fell flat. it’s hard to end a series with this many characters and this many questions up in the air, but i think she lost focus of her characters (again, what she does best) in the end and that’s why greywaren feels rushed and overly simplified when compared to stiefvater’s prior work.
