Review: Call Down the Hawk | Maggie Stiefvater

CALL DOWN THE HAWK | Maggie Steifvater

Book Specs

Series: The Dreamer Trilogy (Book 1)
Hardcover: 480 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

Synopsis

“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. . . . ”

‘I didn’t recognize you,’ they both said at the same time. Ronan thought this was a ridiculous sentiment. He was unchanged. Completely unchanged. He couldn’t change if he wanted to.

The Raven Cycle is one of my favorite series and Ronan is one of my favorite characters in YA. When I heard that there would be a spin-off series that focused a little more on Ronan (and Adam), my excitement was off the charts. This book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019 and I am so happy to say that it lived up to my expectations and beyond.

This book is a testament to Maggie Steifvater’s literary genius. That woman has a way with words. Her diction makes words seem like new again. Stiefvater reminds us that language is not a uniform business and that it has many different stunning qualities. The language of this book is eerie, lyrical, beautiful, evocative, and singularly a product of Maggie Stiefvater. Her words are like a tidal wave of humanness wrapped in poetically blunt symbolism. The prose itself is a character and adds character to the overarching narrative.

I’ve never been let down by Stiefvater’s prose and Call Down the Hawk is one of, if not the most, shining example of her writing. That’s not to say that her storytelling is easy to follow. Not really. The path Stiefvater chooses to traverse in order to tell this story is an extremely winding one. In fact, it’s a path that diverges constantly among several different characters, only to come back together again in a multitude of different places. And, enchantingly enough, each of those paths are littered with intimate revelations, powerful observations of human nature and the self, and fear of the unknown. It’s all very magical, mystical, and so very nebulous.

There was only the quiet that came when you were the only one left. Only the quiet that came when you were something strange enough to outsurvive the things that killed or drove away everyone you loved.

I should have known better than to expect this book to be strictly about Ronan and Adam. Steifvater has always been about telling all her characters’ stories, and there are several of them. Yes, this book is about the dreamer Ronan, but there are other lives and stories attached to his. And so the book ends up being maybe 25% about Ronan and even less about Adam. Call Down the Hawk is just as much about Declan, Carmen Farooq-Lane, and Jordan Hennessy than it is about Ronan.

At first I was slightly bothered that there weren’t that many intimate moments between Ronan and Adam, but then I realized that was short-sighted. There is a larger story to tell. Ronan and the dreamers are being hunted and the people who are hunting them have dreams and fears of their own. And at the center of all this is a dark, impending cosmic force pressing in on them, forcing all the characters to look the unknown in the face and be very afraid.

The best thing about Stiefvater’s storytelling is not just her writing, but her ability to make all her characters seem so human. Each has their own secrets, their own nightmares, their own dreams, their own burdens to bear. They all have conversations with their innermost selves to further explore the world, their existence, and their purpose within it all. I can feel every single emotion that they feel.

The author makes it easy to sympathize with Declan, who just wants his brothers to be safe; to sympathize with Carmen, who just wants peace; to sympathize with Jordan Hennessy, who wants a life of her own; to sympathize with Ronan, who wishes to both keep his dreams alive and to have functioning relationships with Adam, his family, and his friends.

“Tanquam–‘ Ronan said.

‘–alter idem.”

It took me a while to get used to this new cast of characters, especially Jordan Hennessy, but as I got to swim deeper in their depths, I found myself falling for each of them, no matter what “side” they were on. They are all so very human that it’s hard to ignore all that they are and simply mark them as “good” or “bad.”

The ending is foreboding and not at all the ending I expected. It whisks you away to a mysterious place with mysterious figures and an ambiguous future. I’m afraid for Ronan and his brothers, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Ronan will handle this new terror, as well as his new connection to other dreamers and his relationships with his family and Adam.

One thing’s for sure though. I’ll never sleep on “dull” Declan again. There is so much more to him than meets the eye and I am FLOORED by these new revelations.

All this to say that, yes, this book is fantastic and I love it to bits.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5