[Review] Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Something is happening to the source of the dreamers’ power. It is blocked. Diminished. Weak. If it goes away entirely, what will happen to the dreamers and those who depend on them?

Ronan Lynch isn’t planning to wait and find out. Backed by his mentor, Bryde, he is ready to do what needs to be done to save the dreamers and the dreamed … even if it takes him far from his family and the boy he loves.

Jordan Hennessy knows she will not survive if the dreaming fails. So she plunges into a dark underworld in order to find an object that may sustain her.

Carmen Farooq-Lane is afraid of the dreamers — which is why she’s agreed to hunt them down. The closer she gets, though, the more complicated her feelings become. Will the dreamers destroy the world … or will the world be destroyed trying to eliminate the dreamers?

In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits — and shows what happens when they start to break.

★

Genre(s): New Adult, Urban Fantasy
Series: Dreamer Trilogy #2
Published by Scholastic Press on May 18, 2021
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➤ Representation: (click to show)

gay Northern Irish American MC [Ronan], bi/pan Black MCs [Hennessy & Jordan], WLW MCs [Farooq-Lane, Liliana], bisexual secondary character [Adam], M/M established relationship, queer F/M interracial relationship, F/F relationship, Latinx minor characters [Angelica & kids]

➤ Content warnings: (click to show)

non-graphic violence, blood & bodily fluids, mention of body horror, serial murder, binge eating, child neglect, industrial sabotage

I have to confess that I was among the fans super disappointed by the cover and title — but oh my gosh, does the book itself deliver. Honestly, I enjoyed it even more than Call Down the Hawk, maybe because, with so much exposition out of the way, there’s space to really explore everything: dreaming, the relationships and dynamics, even some setting, though to a much lesser extent than in the Raven Cycle. (Based on CDTH I thought Mister Impossible would be the DC book for my Cross-Country Reading challenge, but it turns out it takes place in several states!)

As always, character dynamics and perspectives are a strength of Stiefvater’s. It was so much fun to see interactions between characters who are getting to know each other for the first time, or getting to know each other in different ways, and/or getting to know themselves better. The Lynch siblings continue to bring both heartwarming and heartbreaking scenes; Jordan and Hennessy push their own and each other’s limits; Declan and Jordan gave me all the feels. Truth be told, I’m still less invested in Farooq-Lane and Liliana’s part of the story, so I appreciated that there are longer stretches between POV switches and the characters all converge more frequently.

With regard to tone this is much more thriller-y and action-y than the Raven Cycle or CDTH, though I would say it’s still primarily character-driven urban fantasy. There are major developments in the overall plot arc, and so much tension in so many places, and this review has been tricky to write because I have a lot of feelings about some very specific reveals/ twists and scenes. It’s so long until the next (and last!!!) book, so I guess I’ll just be rereading the TRC/ Dreamer saga and coming up with theories and maybe getting back into fanfic while I wait.