“”You can just be friends with people, you know,” Orla said. “I think it’s crazy how you’re in love with all those raven boys.”
Orla wasn’t wrong, of course. But what she didn’t realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn’t all-encompassing, that wasn’t blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.”

What keeps me coming back for more, the soul of this series, is the friendship between our beloved gang. I just... I love them all so much, and I love them with each other, and how close they got, and how much each and every single one of them cares about one another and it's just... so so nice to read about, especially as someone who's never had this kind of friendship and love!! It makes me yearn, and that's pretty much all I do anyway, so it speaks to my soul HAHAH

What also was the standout of this book for me was Adam and his huge development, yet again - he's just my favorite. Of all time. I want to hug and protect that boy at all costs. The courthouse scene, where he's finally able to see that he's worthy of being cared about? That the care that Gansey and the others have for him is not conditional in any way? That all he has to do is be himself for him to be loved?? That's beyond hard to do, especially since he never had it before (again, I should know). It's one thing to know that you're worth it in a conceptual, abstract everyone-is-worthy-including-myself sense, but it's significantly more difficult to actually believe it fully, and I'm so proud of him!!!!!!

That being said, I will admit that, while enjoyable, this third novel definitely felt a little less impactful than the first two ones for me ("The Dream Thieves" still reigns supreme, and it's already carved a space for itself in my heart as a favorite book of... ever). Very excited to see how the events that have led us here play out in the finale, though (FINALE