#hope to GOD that read notes work here. otherwise please keep scrolling I’m sorry😭

[seavoice]

mister impossible thoughts!!

I really loved the book, do NOT click read more if you don’t want to get utterly, utterly spoiled. I just want to upload my initial thoughts here for safekeeping until I go and (hopefully, eventually) reread MI.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

yeah this is going to be chock full of spoilers

I need to reread (with my eyes this time) before I form any useful thoughts on this book, but initial review: I loved it! It was such an enjoyable read, the pacing was very tight and it was a solid follow up to CDTH. It was tonally much darker and the ramifications were more high stakes than your usual Birdverse books.

Disclaimer: I’ve only listened to the audiobook so it’s very likely I glossed over stuff/misread some plot points/straight up forgot and/or didn’t register certain things. anyway lmao it’s reading just for fun? Keeping this as a refresher on what happened in this book because I can feel it leaving my brain as I type <3 it’s just gushing and rambling and seriously so fucking long.

CHARACTERS:

HENNESSY, FAROOQ-LANE AND LILIANA

—We got SO much more Hennessy POV this time around, and I just. I love her <3

I love her causing problems, I love her trying to fix these problems by going to people she thinks may help her, then going “fuck you guys, you suck” when they suck and finding other people who help her in a little better way. And then causing more problems, but this time with INTENT. You go girl! Love her monologues, and from the bottom of my heart fuck Jay Hennessy, Bill Dower and State of Pennsylvania. And also Bryde. Hennessy deserves so much better and I hope she finds that better with herself, her dreaming, Jordan and the new wlw murder couple which hopefully will progress into the wlw murder threesome (a girl can hope, a girl has been hoping since CDTH) and also become friends with Ronan again.

Mainly I want her to acknowledge how fucked up her abuse/neglect was and acknowledge how much that hurt her, and be happy and in a good place at the end of it, with a solid support system. I love her so incredibly much. Both the most heartbreaking scenes in this book for me were her scenes, and frankly so were most of the badass scenes. Her painting her own portrait because Jay abandoned it completely broke me (if you talk to me about Jordan in White and how it’s a sweetmetal I will start crying that is a threat) and so did the scene where she brings out the Lace in the kids’ house (also lmao the only place where I feel Bryde unequivocally said and did the right thing!).

Also the final dream showdown and the Game with Jordan were both awesome as fuck. I Love Women. It’s going to be very interesting to see how she fixes her relationship with Jordan and Ronan next book, and how her relationship with Farooq-Lane and Liliana progresses. They have a sword and an intent to kill the Lace, I do not think we are looking at failure here❤️I believe in the power of swords and love and (homoerotic?) friendship.

I feel her arc was definitely my favourite in this book, because it felt like she did complete a mini character arc in this book while reaching the climax point of her trilogy arc. And she was treated so kindly and sympathetically this book, by both the narrative and (most of) the characters and yeah, I’m going to get emo about her now. I can’t believe she just yanked out the ley line from under Ronan and Bryde, literal girlboss shit❤️

She has ways to go, but she did make some progress, start taking matters into her own hand and came to reasonable-ish conclusions by the end of it. It was good, she was so good.

—I really love the other characters in the book too, they were all great!! Farooq-Lane especially. She was the breakout star in my eyes, I will never get over this cowboy former-financial adviser with secret sword-fighting abilities. Using advice from her mentor on how to bridge the gap between the customer’s present and future selves to help time splitting visionaries. Like LEGEND. I love her and how outstandingly kind she is even if she makes some weird, ill-advised choices at times; but it’s okay because she’s so good at course-correcting and acknowledging when she fucks up. Her trying to keep promises to people she just met, doing her best to help lost dreamers, peppering in Young Professional advice🥰🥰.

Her and Liliana are very cute but I was gunning for Hennessy to join them since CDTH so I am...vibrating with excitement. And vindication. This trio is so good. I will read a whole book only about them. Also I am OBSESSED with that sword-fight with Bryde, but she deserved to shoot Ramsey too. Also is she the ONLY undreamt moderator?? FAROOQ-LANE WHAT ARE YOU HIDING.

—I can’t get a grip on Liliana but I do think it’s more by design than anything, I love that she’s like fuck you all I am not self-sacrificing myself for you guys. If you blow up, you blow up🙄CORRECT energy. This is the wisdom we need. I hope we get to know more about her, a little backstory, a little...frontstory, maybe a POV. I have a feeling she’s linked with Persephone/her brand of psychicness but no idea how that’d work. Carliana is cute, but with Hennessy their dynamic is vastly superior so I’m thrilled. The Lace is going to cause complications here and it’ll be delicious.

JORDAN, DECLAN AND MATTHEW

— Jordan and Declan were also so so good this book. They were mostly happy (and so fucking HORNY) for a fair chunk of this book, which they deserve, but the way things ended i’m very very excited to see how they deal with the storm that seems eminent. Also Declan. Jordan. They’re so insane, they’re like one minute away from fucking in the museum. They’ve decided JSS is the third person in the relationship. They are talking about getting married. They have known each other for a month. Maybe two.

— I love nice and kind characters, but I don’t necessarily need characters to be nice and kind. HOWEVER can we all give it up for Jordan, who is nice and kind, and is not actively making the worst decisions of her life?

I do not blame anyone too much for the decisions they are making and I think they’re all, at least a little bit justified in why they make their decisions, but Jordan is actively and with single-minded focus figuring her shit out! Dealing with the girls’ deaths! Her own episodes! Even makes good money on the side! She steals a car, learns about how to keep herself awake in case the worst happens, learns to make a sweetmetal herself and generally is just doing her best. I want her and Hennessy to make up and be close again I cannot take them fighting for any longer :( That reunion scene was heartbreaking but it was also simply the best, and I can’t wait for them to work their shit out.

Really hope Hennessy and her reunite again early next book and they are doing shit together! Crime, dream magic, switcheroo shenanigans, anything! Also the missing Jay memories was one thing that I felt was definitely more about Hennessy than Jordan, but then at the end of the book she is awake? The whole world goes to shit and she’s awake??? Is she a sweetmetal herself? Did she get separated from Hennessy? Is she somehow not a dream (anymore?)?

Also Jordan flirting with the bartender in the beginning <3

— Declan, for all his lapses in judgement, is actually quite good at course-correcting too? Not Farooq-Lane level good, but it was nice to see him think about the Aurora and Niall situation and his own relationship with the criminal underground with is a level of reflection that’s pretty impressive considering how much he’s still repressing. Also he got to be bitchy and an asshole this book, and poor Matthew, yeah, but also Declan’s literally earned this. Love him, he’s truly insane <3

He’s going to have a fucked-up time in the first part of next book, and it’s going to be interesting to see how he deals with it, considering his whole thing about “letting my guard down/living for myself will get my brothers killed” and then kind of living for himself for a second there and his brothers being in danger. And also the fact that he made an idiotic decision that put Ronan in danger and made him distrust Declan (and made Ronan push away the little support system he was willing to accept)! Like, of course only one of those things is considerably more his fault than the other, he does deserve to live for himself and he shouldn’t have to sacrifice that, it’s not causation, it’s barley correlation, but I’m wondering how he is going to see the situation? Anyway, big sad for him and his brothers at the end, he’s literally the last Lynch awake :(

— Matthew was also generally kind and nice. I was so, so proud of him in the end with him deciding that he’s real. He deserves to punch Declan <3 But I do love their relationship and am so fascinated by it because it’s genuinely a messy, messy situation. Like Declan’s essentially been Matthew’s sole parental figure since Matt’s been in middle school?? He’s only four years older to Matthew, but Matthew just has to accept him as his legal guardian! That’s an age difference that works quite differently when you’re thirteen and your older brother is seventeen, and differently when you’re almost eighteen and he’s twenty-one, so it’s messy there because his older brothers have “oh Matthew is a baby” bias already, which can get grating on its own.

But then he’s also a dream. He’s a dream and they’ve known all this while! That makes everything infinitely more complicated. His friendship with Jordan is so cute. I’m glad she tells him about how a lot of it is also just growing up, because a lot of Matthew’s inner narration pointed at that as well!! It’s interesting to see a growing up, teen-angst arc in a book mostly about young twenty-somethings, it’s a lot of the problems TRC characters faced, but through a different lens. I do wish we’d gotten his thoughts on other stuff too (getting kidnapped! Aurora!) but it’s okay he’s in existential crisis mode, I’ll let it slide.

And WTF why are you throwing yourself into the security system, Matthew? Lynch brothers are fucking insane. But also welp, he’s asleep now. Do NOT go towards the voice Matthew D:

RONAN AND BRYDE

—Ronan!! Ronan, babe, what the hell. I felt so bad for Ronan this book, especially towards the end. He was being a little short-sighted, but ultimately it was a sympathetic arc. It’s also so deeply an arc about loneliness and community and something I want to look at more closely when I reread (not only through Ronan’s arc, but also Hennessy’s and Declan’s and Jordan’s and Farooq-Lane’s). Where much about Ronan trying to figure out how and where he fits in the world—his whole what am I please tell me what I am crisis gets front seat this book.

The implication of Bryde being a manifestation of Ronan’s want for a utter loneliness/father figure/guide/freedom-to-dream that’s being nurtured in secret for more than a decade is really heartbreaking, and also the whole situation...just really fucking sucks for Ronan dude. He’s been dealing with so much for so long.

Bryde being an amalgamation of his need for freedom + Ronan’s loneliness and (self)isolation + need to do something and make it meaningful + need for a guiding force + the whole what am i please tell me what i am crisis, all put together in the shiny veneer of your classic hero figure is very sad but also super uh, sexy (?) from a narrative choice point of view. Very apt for the Lynch family.

Also, what felt worse was that Ronan has been clearly dealing with self-worth issues as well as the feeling that he’s not built for this world the way his brothers and friends are (and that the world is not built for him), insecurities with relationships, his fraught control between reality and dreaming, the plethora of parental neglect issues and has just given a voice/physical form to it and have that form make it seem...better? Different?

Instead of dealing with those issues as things that need to be addressed, Bryde is dealing with them as non-issues or very black and white problems (and also pushes most of the time that the problem is that the others don’t care? Which we know isn’t true, and it’s not really their fault here at all, but the implications of that being Ronan’s mindspace is saddening. Also a mindfuck. Bryde’s isolation tactics are Ronan self-isolating?). It feels pretty par for the course, with Ronan himself seeing issues as black or white a lot of the times! We’ve been told this multiple times.

I do think there’s more to Bryde though. I think he may also be an ancient existing entity separate of Ronan and Lindenmere. Just given a man-suit (like the tree suit).

(also now I do think as I’m writing this I don’t think this arc is necessarily a lot of steps back for Ronan. I think it’s an improvement in a certain way—I don’t think it necessarily erased Ronan’s progress in TDT—while still being realistically sad and difficult. Recovery isn’t linear! Like yes, he runs away from everyone he loves but at first it’s with a surprising layer of [thin] optimism. But then it gets bad again.).

I’m sorry but I think it’s a little funny too, honestly, Ronan all but joining an ecoterrorist cult with he, himself and Bryde, but the implication of why Bryde was dreamt was pretty 🤧.

The way his dreaming was stifled in his childhood developing into a manifestation of a figure who could teach him how to dream is one thing, but the fact that it gets manifested not when he needed it the most (around TRB-TDT??) but after he figured out the ropes a bit and wanted to help other dreamers in terrible situations? RONAN🥺. Ronan really internalised the hero stories, which makes perfect sense to be honest, and is a neat little metaphor for the Lynch family and the book’s stance on dreaming/stories as a whole, mythic as they come. I think Maggie a long time ago said that this series is about the “stories we tell about ourselves” so this is like. Well, first rate taking control of the narrative, Ronan! Dreamt a whole hero and villain and...an entire governmental agency? (That part is not confirmed I guess). He’s hungry for something more, we know this, the metaphor was not subtle in the least lol.

Anyway, he was good, really good. Corruption arc my beloved. He’s not in the best head space, he’s making bad decisions and slowly pushing people away, and with what happened at the end, with the mods and Declan and Adam, and then Hennessy and the ley line, and THEN Bryde’s reveal, he’s just straight up just not having a good time this last hundred pages! While he was hasty in the end, he was not unreasonable in feeling betrayed or hurt by Declan and Adam (and while we know the reason why they did that didn’t have anything to do with stifling Ronan/ensuring he’s a controlled dreamer—Ronan (through Bryde) has shown to struggle with that line of thought! So this probably feels like a worse betrayal for that reason). Like, yeah I guess I wish he’d talked about it more in the end, but also obviously I don’t, because we need a third book.

The Lynch brothers are wrong about each other a truly impressive number of times, but I do think Declan hit it right on the head when he was giving that monologue to Farooq-Lane. Ronan is a bit of a follower, and he does wrap himself up in his “Person” at the time, and I think dreaming up his inherent wants as Bryde hints at both this and his avoidance issues.

But I have faith in him and that he will stop eco-terrorising and learn from this and emerge triumphant and face his issues head-on and all that good stuff, so I know that getting from where we are currently to where we have to go will be a good, worthwhile journey, and I’m excited! Endgame for him will be helping other dreamers, but in his own way, and I can’t wait for it.

Other Stuff:

1. The book is so much about chronic illness, and being hungry for creation, and art and control and community and the loneliness of early adulthood and what stories mean to people and it’s all so well done. It’s also a gut punch. Multiple gut punches one after the other. Magic as a metaphor is my favourite concept in fantastical novels, and it’s a huge part of these books, and Mister Impossible does an amazing, amazing job running with that.

2. lmaoo Adam scamming his college mates with tarot cards. Good for him! But also this web of lies is definitely going to end up collapsing on him at some point. He’s insane. I cannot believe that both Ronan and Adam went, basically, I will help the other Ronan/Adams of the world! And then one decided to become a cult leader via proxy dream and the other decided to spin a fake personality for himself and lie about every facet of his life while joylessly buying his acquaintances $14 dollar waffles. Iconic behaviour legends <3 Learning curve!

3. Speaking of which! Oh god, Hennessy and Ronan! I love Gansey, he’s a good friend mostly, but even in his bluntest moments he does not call out Ronan the way Hennessy does. I love Ronan, but also he deserves that 100% from Hennessy, he is often times a major asshole. The things they said to each other! That dreamt phone store! That final showdown! They’re at two extreme ends of what is (I hope? Maggie come throughhhh) a complex problem and they need to meet in the middle eventually until they can become the fast friends they saw in Rhiannon Martin’s mirrors. Learning curve.

4. lmao the thing is, after CDTH, I had kind of called Declan getting sort of desperate, being in cahoots with the moderators/joining up with them because he thinks he can help Ronan like that but the whole plan massively backfiring in their face, and also causing Lynch Brothers Split 2.0. Not exactly what happened, but close enough! I think the initial plan is absolutely the well-meaning but utterly presumptuous sort that’s in character for Declan, and tbh it was after the Museum scene when Bryde really started ringing those danger signals, like that guy’s monologue and orbs are fucked up, so I’m not. Surprised. I am a little more curious about Farooq-Lane doing what she did but then again not surprised. However I am incredibly surprised that the plan didn’t fuck up due to terminal overthinking but instead due to terminal underthinking. Learning curve?

5. Uh oh sisters, now there is like. Actual cause for Adam concern, coupled with definite cause of concern for Ronan. Dream space arguments? Dreaming up copies? What is in storeee

6. Ronan not knowing the difference between dream and reality FUCKED ME UP. That’s hands down the trope that fucks me up the most, so I was stressed the whole time for that trope. I was worried it would happen with Hennessy tbh. It wasn’t so bad though—I was expecting season 3 Teen Wolf-esque fuckery.

7. Rhiannon Martin’s mirrors. Rhiannon Martin as a whole. That whole sequence was batshit and I am just. Feeling things.

8. The scene after the dreamer kids house where Hennessy is just. Done and broken and Ronan hugs her? 😔🤧besties❤️

9. Hey, Bill Dower you entered late but with a bang on TRC’s Running List of Shitty Dads

10. Farooq-Lane lying in the shallow icy fountain with a straw and a sword. Just. BABE. what the fuck.

11. declan 🤝farooq-lane when it comes to basing off their entire life mantra on pieces of generic day planner advice from their overworked “mentor” figures. insane young professionals.

12. Also NATHAN. FAROOQ. LANE. WTF is up with him and his scissors and his “explosive” murders which seem visionary-esque and his weird relationship with trees and what is the backstory/family situation there and mainly why doesn’t Carmen fall asleep like the rest of the moderators? She is the only undreamt moderator? Who even dreamt the moderators? What is UP with her. We need more Farooq-Lane family lore.

13. Lynch brothers have got to hug once at least, otherwise this is kind of unacceptable you know? :/ They all deserve a huge hug and a fucking break.

14. Mór Ó Corra please come back and cause problems, thanks.

15. Originally I had only Bryde and the New Fenian on the list of possibe deaths, I didn’t think Hennessy OR Declan would genuinely be in danger of dying in this series (who were the only two main characters with actual death foreshadowing). I think Hennessy is truly safe at this point, but I’m putting Declan back on the chopping block 😔rip dude, you had a good run. I hope it’s not the case, and I still think it’s unlikely, but likelier than post-CDTH me had thought.

16. Last thing, I do think the Ronan and Bryde plot is going to involve...mostly Ronan and Bryde and maaaybe Adam’s uh, severed consciousness in dreamspace (Chekhov’s shared dreams!) but also I think the comedy potential of Jordan, Declan, Matthew (?) + Hennessy, Liliana, Farooq-Lane meeting up and trying to deal with a liberated Bryde on their own for a bit is just. Extremely good. Four out of those six people have actually tried to murder Bryde.

17. Sorry I lied. Actual last thing. HOW THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO EXPLAIN THIS TO THE WORLD NOW THAT AIRPLANES ARE FALLING FROM THE SKY??? And....the beetles...

Other other stuff!! (ramblings? weirdness? questions? criticism?)

1. We got nothing of Blue or Henry, and just a couple of mentions of Gansey and the Gray Man, and I don’t really mind, but the TRC people I was most surprised to see were absent were the Foxway ladies. I thought there was a snippet with Maura? Hopefully next book!

2. I’ll be honest—the Bryde reveal was not a surprise one bit, because 1) we all cycled through so many Bryde theories we hit that one a fair few times, and 2) we have had a “this entity is a dream” reveal as a plot twist literally every book, so it was a little expected. But it didn’t really need to be completely unexpected because it made thematic sense, and the logistics of Ronan dreaming Bryde provides enough “twist” to it.

I just hope that we get to know about the logistics. Those rumours at the Fairy Market? The moderators? Based on past experience, this has potential to go super unresolved at the end of the series😬But, like, hopefully it will end up making sense!

2. I overall really loved the pacing, plot, character development, relationship development and so on! It was a good sequel, and it took us to dark but, I think, logical places. HOWEVER I do feel, later on when I’m judging this series and this book, a lot is going to depend on how well Maggie manages to resolve the plot in third book.

3. Because even leaving alone the new/side plots (the Lace, Mór Ó Corra, Jordan not falling asleep, Farooq-Lane not falling asleep, whatever the fuck is up with Liliana, the sweetmetal lore, just a bunch of character arcs in general, maybe more lore about the three dreamer families—there’s a fair chunk) the Bryde plot itself has a lot of mind fuck moments that I generally liked, but felt a liiittle plot holey to me. Anyway! We’ll see. I just hope the plot is satisfactory, because character stuff is Maggie’s strong suit and as much as I LOVE Bryde’s character and the implications of his character, I do want concrete answers.

4. There’s so much mis/non-communication here to make this plot work (surprisingly I have more issue with off screen non-communication than anything that happened in the book), and usually I’m not a fan of that, but considering who the characters are, it...honestly makes sense. The story really is about non-communication, at the core, so yeah. But I can also see how people may get annoyed at it, and that’s fair, because a truly ridiculous amount of the plot depends on that. I’m just going to try to take it as a feature instead of a bug, so to speak. It’s fine, the plot we get out of the non-communication is mostly worth it!

5. I think Ronan and Hennessy struggling with whether or not they want to reach out to their loved ones is [while obviously contrived, I don’t fault Stief it. We do need a novel] makes a ton of sense with their arcs and where their characters are at mentally, BUT a lot of other non-communication, with regards to information that characters would logically have/conversations that would have taken place, kind of took me out of the story at times—and I am not really here for the logistics! I can totally imagine people who perhaps read Mister Impossible more casually/more objectively taking issue with the book for it and again, honestly. That’s fair.

6. Same vein, with any spinoff series, there’s a little retcon. Personally, I didn’t care about the retcons, because they were minor and generally I don’t care much about them even in books I don’t like (and I really liked this book!) but again I can see why people might be a little confused about it. I was kind of surprised we didn’t talk about a lot of things in certain characters POVs though (Matthew not thinking about the kidnapping, not much about Hennessy’s girls from either Jordan or Hennessy’s perspectives, a few other stuff like that) .

7. I admit I got distracted by Will Patton and his terrible accents for a little bit, but I think we didn’t really get confirmation about what the Greywaren is? We got an explanation of a sort—about it meaning Protector and that tree (Illidorin?), but still a little vague in the details. How did Niall know about it? Why did he know about it? Also did he know about sweetmetals? I feel there are references to it in Opal and that Declan short story but I cannot explain to myself why he would not stock up on those OR at least tell his sons about it! It doesn’t seem to be a huge secret! Just. More answers about the Greywaren business.

8. Also a little more clarity in the magical system would be nice, because I’ve been bugged by these things for years and would like some answers! Also Bryde’s existence raises some very interesting points, but also a couple of wait what? moments, and I hope that also starts to makes little more sense! I feel the Lace and Mór and Liliana are all plot points we’ll definitely cover next book, but Nathan Farooq-Lane is the mystery I am most curious about, and Moderators being dreams was for some reason, the more unexpected dream reveal in this book? DREAMS HUNTING DREAMERS. I’m just worried we may not go back to this plot point lmao. It’s fine, it’s f😔✌️

ANYWAY! Immensely enjoyed this read, I cannot wait for book three and see how the plots gets resolved. Loved it💖 I’m going to just use this Rambling as a refresher when the time comes I guess!