Reading Life: Call Down the Hawk

(Going to start a new post tag: "Reading Life." A place to organize all my adventures in reading.)

Call Down the Hawk

Book One of the Dreamer Trilogy

By Maggie Stiefvater 

You are made of dreams and this world is not for you.

So says Bryde to Ronan Lynch, a refrain throughout the novel. This is true of Ronan, doubtless, but - without supposing too much about someone I've never met - I wonder if it might be true of Ms. Stiefvater, too. It's certainly a line still echoing in the back of my mind. What is an author if not a dreamer? And how melancholy it can be to learn that your dreams don't translate to others once you've pulled them out of your head and presented them on outstretched hands. 

Call Down the Hawk is a story about the Lynch brothers, who we met in The Raven Cycle. I love that series, so I'm of course going to recommend it; and it's in that series that we learn what a dreamer is; it's where Ronan loses his parents and learns how his strange powers work. Gansey and Blue, referenced in this book, but not seen, are front and center for most of TRC, characters worth reading, knowing, and loving. But I suppose you could start this new trilogy without the background. 

This is the first in a trilogy, and so, while we gain some answers, we end with mostly questions, and that's okay. That's how series work. We learn that the magic in this particular universe is much more dangerous and slippery and impossible than we originally thought reading TRC. This book takes the world built in TRC and blows it wide open; expands it in every direction. 

While reading, I was struck by the thought that, though technically a YA book, this new trilogy already feels very much like an adult series in a way that The Raven Cycle didn't. This isn't a criticism; I love YA, and The Raven Cycle is excellent; but it felt like our heroes were kids - because they were. They had kid worries - in addition to their supernatural worries. This novel has a more grown-up flavor, though. Probably because Ronan is growing up, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see a fiction saga grow as the characters grow. 

Ms. Stiefvater has such a gift for POV. She uses several in each book, and this one is no exception; a deft shift of personalities, mindsets, goals, and approaches with each one. Even if you don't like a character - Farooq-Lane for me in this one - they feel instantly knowable. In this book, we meet several new characters, among them Jordan, who is instantly sympathetic, despite her situation being one none of us could have ever experienced. I was pleasantly surprised to spend time with Declan, a character I previously didn't hold an opinion of, good or bad, and to find that I really like him, now that I've been inside his head. 

Craft-wise, I think this is Stiefvater's best book yet. I love all of her work, but it's fun to look across the entirety of her catalogue and see how she just keeps growing as a writer. This book reads like one she was meant to write; like something that was always brewing inside her, waiting to be let loose. 

I loved it. No complaints. I do have a wish, though - I'd love to see more of Ronan and Adam together. The moments she did give us were understated, and powerful, and made my heart so happy. Ronan in love is a beautiful thing.