Ah, Maggie Stiefvater. I adore her writing and was a big fan of The Raven Cycle. It got inside my head and heart, worked its way in and rearranged everything and became a part of me, so I was very excited when I heard Stiefvater had a new book coming out. Call Down The Hawk is the first book in a new trilogy (The Dreamer Trilogy) featuring Ronan Lynch who was one of the characters in The Raven Cycle. This is not an extension of The Raven Cycle, it is a new story, with new characters. Best make room in your head and heart for new characters that are going to get under your skin and cause all sorts of feelings.
So, Ronan Lynch is a Dreamer. He can take objects out of his dreams. One of these was his brother, Matthew. Neither a dream nor a Dreamer, the other brother, Declan, is doing his best to appear as invisible as possible whilst trying to hold his family together. As Stiefvater says in the prologue; “This is going to be a story about the Lynch brothers.” It appears family dynamics and angst await!
When we left The Raven Cycle, it left us readers knowing that Dreamers, dreamt objects, and the dark market for them went beyond just Henrietta, Virginia. Call Down The Hawk starts with introducing the Moderators, a group of people out to get all of the Dreamers as there has been a prediction that they will bring about the end of the world. There are plenty of chapters from the point of view of one of these moderators, named Carmen Farooq-Lane. Follow them closely.
Where does the new character Jordan Hennessy fit in? You will have to wait and see. I am not going to spill everything here. She is a talented art forger and just all kinds of awesome. I don’t want to say too much to avoid spoilers, but I already LOVE her story and I just cannot wait to see where it goes next. Dreams, forgery.. are you seeing a connection!
One could probably pick up Call Down The Hawk having not read The Raven Cycle (but why haven’t you?), however, in all honesty, I would probably suggest giving it a read or at least look at a really good recap about it first. I enjoyed The Raven Cycle as it was full of so much wonder and discovery. There does feel slightly less of this in Call Down The Hawk, probably as Ronan has already got to grips with his power. However, I am already getting the sense that something big is coming, and I feel there will be new things to marvel at further on in the trilogy.
One of the things I think puts Stiefvater above the rest is the way she writes her characters. You really get to look inside them. I think all sorts of readers could read her books and find a character that they can resonate with or who reminds them of someone they know. The crafting is great. No character is bland or forgettable. Each one seems to have certain personality traits, some of which are described with humour, which is cheeky and adds another depth to the book. You don’t just get told what they are like, you get to see WHY they are the way they are. For example, Declan Lynch was a minor character in The Raven Cycle, but by the time you come away from reading Call Down The Hawk, you’ll know so much more about him, feel so much more about him. Not only that, you’ll be rooting for him, and still want to see what’s going to happen next.
It’s great to see Ronan take center stage in his own chapters in Call Down The Hawk. I feel like we get to see a softer side to him in some parts, he seems more open and vulnerable. However, we also still get his sarcasm and his language!
The characters and relationships make a book for me. You can give me an amazing plot but I just won’t relish it as much if it doesn’t have the complex relationships to delve into, and memorable and interesting personalities to go with it. This helps leave a lasting impression.
This whole book is a MOOD. I can’t explain what mood because I lose the ability to form a coherent sentence when I talk about any of Maggie Stiefvater’s work, but she wants us to feel something.
Call Down The Hawk is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Will you be picking up Call Down The Hawk? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming – they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives – they will sleep forever if their dreamers die.
And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all.
Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. He can pull both curiosities and catastrophes out of his dreams and into his compromised reality.
Jordan Hennessy is a thief. The closer she comes to the dream object she is after, the more inextricably she becomes tied to it.
Carmen Farooq-Lane is a hunter. Her brother was a dreamer . . . and a killer. She has seen what dreaming can do to a person. And she has seen the damage that dreamers can do. But that is nothing compared to the destruction that is about to be unleashed. . . .
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