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Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy #1)
Maggie Stiefvater
472 pages | Published by Scholastic Press
Ronan Lynch is a dreamer, in that he can literally pull things from his dreams into real life (like a watch, or his little brother, for example). Ronan and his brothers begin to dig deeper into the secrets of the world and their family, meeting more dreamers and dreams. But also in this world are those who want to stop dreamers from dreaming - because one of them is sure to bring about the end of the world.
This is how you do a spin off.
Call Down the Hawk feels entirely different than The Raven Cycle (in terms of its tone - Maggie's writing style is very similar, which to me is great because I LOVE her style). If you're looking for a found family, ride or die clique like the Gangsey, you won't find it here. CDTH is a much darker and grittier story than TRC. This is Ronan now in the real world - The Raven Cycle felt sheltered and safe in comparison. I appreciated the callbacks to The Raven Cycle, with quick and succinct mentions to catch you up and keep you informed. I do feel like a lot of readers will be disappointed with the lack of Ronan & Adam interactions - but their relationship is not the focus here. Do I think Adam could play a larger role in a later book, with his perspective and psychic abilities? Yes. But the Dreamer Trilogy is clearly about all of the Lynch brothers, and there are two of them that we still need to get to know on a deeper level. (I could always use more Gansey Boy but ugh I get it this is about Ronan.)
Declan was a standout for me in this book. I never disliked him in TRC the way that I think other readers did - I always just felt like we didn't have the whole picture. I'm glad we got into his head here and I hope the series keeps peeling back the layers of Declan.
I'm hoping we get more from Matthew in the next installments - I really enjoyed Jordan as a character and her relationship with her dreamer Hennessy, but since we already know Ronan I'd be interested to see that same perspective from Matthew.
Flipping to those that are attempting to stop dreamers, I'm wondering what we'll see from Farooq-Lane in the future. She never seemed loyal to the mission to me, and it'll be interesting to see if she switches sides at any point to help dreamers.
All in all, I thought this was an awesome follow up to the story of The Raven Cycle. Ronan's struggle to figure out where he's supposed to be and what he should be doing felt very honest and real and I hope that within this trilogy he finds his place in the world.
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