Call Down the Hawk

Call Down the Hawk Book Review by Maggie Steifvater 

ASKDJSIDHKJDOHFBOSH. 

ANDJNDUEOUTNLF.

NFUFUBFJG.

EBRJEFN.

FNJFN.

#PYNCHISLIFE

This about sums up my feelings on Call Down the Hawk.  

No, but really, I love my Raven Boys and I adore Maggie Steifvater and her world of dreamers and I was so, so, so incredibly excited to read this next installment focused on the best rugged boy Ronan and Steifvater did not disappoint. 

This next trilogy in the saga, book one of The Dreamer Trilogy, is, as Steifvater says in the first line, a story about the Brothers Lynch. Which she delivers on immensely and exceptionally. 

The story revolves around of course Ronan (with the additions of Chainsaw, Opal, and Gansey via telephone), his brother Declan, two girls we are introduced to named Jordan and Hennessy (among a slew of others), a Moderator named Carmen Farooq-Lane, her visionary Parisfal Bauer, and then an addition of another powerful visionary known as Lilliana. 

There are some other characters sprinkled in here, Locke, two old ladies who are gruesomely murdered, the van-mom with her kids in the back who took on Lilliana the hitchhiker, the random children’s author who wants to be anything but a children's author, and….I think that’s it?

There were a lot of additional characters thrown in here actually and while Steifvater does it masterfully as always and she does well to interweave all the characters and how they relate to each other, I did get a bit annoyed. 

    I will be the first person to admit that this is a subjective opinion. To be honest, all I wanted was a glorified Pynch fanfiction that was canon and lovely and long and well…I didn't really get that. I didn’t assume we were actually going to be that blessed (maybe just in my most wild, ideal dreams) but Pynch (while definitely a tertiary factor) was not the main focus, and that’s truly okay because what Maggie Steifvater is doing is setting up her next trilogy and her big plot. 

Which mainly boils down to this: There are people out there called Moderators who work as a secret faction of the government that are hunting down dreamers (people who dream reality into being like Ronan and Hennesey) because visionaries (people who can see aspects of the future as it pertains to dreamers) have found that there is a dreamer planning to end the world by fire and burn it to the ground. 

    So while dreamers like Ronan and Hennessy are innocent, the government doesn’t know that, sees them as dangerous anyways and is hunting down and assassinating all dreamers in order to stop this fiery apocalypse from killing all life. 

    So that begs the question: who is this dreamer that is dreaming the fiery inferno that ends the world? And why? And what is the Lace? And is Adam actually a visionary instead of the Magician? And what is happening with Aurora? And what in the world is up with Bryde?

    So many questions and too little answers and too few pages for my tastes. 

    But Maggie Steifvater excels what she always excels at: metaphors, figurative language, magic, whimsy, relationships, characterization, and intrigue. So much intrigue. Because there are so many characters and because they’re all interesting and all fleshed out, I want to be reading their stories all the time, but they end so quick and go through a cycle that is maddening as it is enchanting. 

    This story was fast-paced and full of characters that I’ve loved for years (Ronan, Declan, Matthew), but also new characters that I already feel like I’ve known forever, Hennessy, Jordan, Farooq-Lane. I feel like they’ve always been here, in this Raven Boys universe, but I’ve just now been introduced to a good friend that I’ve forgotten I had. 

    I loved this book. And while the fangirl in me wanted more Ronan and Adam I was satisfied with what I got because the stakes are so high and the plot so steep and the new characters aren’t unnecessary additions, but instead welcome faces. 

Recommendation: If you haven’t read this first installment of The Raven Cycle then what are you doing? Truly, because these books are art and they deserve to be read. Please go pick one up today, bask yourself in the glory that is a Steifvater craft and then stare off into space as you enjoy the titillating feeling of being satisfied and sated of a book well read as we wait for book two to come out. 

Score: 8/10