Illustration of flying hawk

About the Book

Title: Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy #1)
Published: 2019
Series: The Dreamer Trilogy
Swoonworthy Scale: 6

Cover Story: Mystery Hawk
BFF Charm: Make It Rain
Talky Talk: A Gorgeous, Tangled Web
Bonus Factors: College Adam, Series Starter
Relationship Status: I’ll Wait (Some More) For You

Cover Story: Mystery Hawk

Okay, I have a confession to make…I don’t remember the part of the book that explains the title. I’m SORRY, OKAY? I’m told it was somewhere toward the beginning, but I started this book while I was on a trip to Italy and I somehow did not retain that little bit of knowledge. I am sure that there was a good explanation, and if I could remember it, this cover would make much more sense to me. Because the hawk…it’s clearly being called down. To where? For why? IDK. I promise I will reread this book at some point and figure it out, but in the meantime, feel free to tell me off / explain this mystery to me in the comments. 

The Deal:

~*~sPoILeR aLeRt~*~ This is your official warning that Call Down The Hawk is the first book in the Dreamer Trilogy, the foundation for which was built in The Raven Cycle series, and thus, this book report contains some major spoilerage for The Raven Cycle books. Do you NEED to have read The Raven Cycle to enjoy Call Down The Hawk? Maybe not, but I H I G H L Y recommend that you do read them first. Continue at your own risk, babies.

Here’s what we know: Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. A Greywaren. He can manifest objects from his dreams. We also know that he wasn’t alone – his father, Niall Lynch, was a dreamer, and so was fellow Aglionby student, Joseph Kavinsky. Now, Ronan is finished with high school, his best friends Gansey and Blue are traveling across the country, and his boyfriend Adam is a freshman in college. Ronan splits his time between his childhood home, the Barns, and his brother Declan’s Washington D.C. townhouse where Declan and their younger brother, Matthew, live.

Declan was always privvy to Niall Lynch’s secrets in a way that Ronan wasn’t, and sensing that he’s losing his brother for good, he decides it’s time to bring Ronan into the fold and show him the much darker side of their father’s secret life. A side that could get Ronan killed – if dreaming doesn’t kill him first.

Jordan Hennessy is also a dreamer, but she always has the same dream, and it’s killing her. Every time she allows herself to dream, she wakes up with a copy of herself. Now, she and her clones live secretly together in a big house, waiting for the day when Jordan dreams her last copy and all the girls drift into the deep sleep of dreams who’ve lost their dreamers. That day is looming closer and closer, and Jordan has to figure out a solution to save herself – all of her selves.

Carmen Farooq-Lane hunts dreamers, including her own brother, whose dreams drove him to murder. She and the other hunters use Visionairies, or people who have visions of the end of the world, to track down and kill dreamers, because they know that dreamers will be responsible for it. As you might’ve guessed, Carmen’s work has her hurtling in Ronan and Jordan’s directions, but as each of these characters chase and outrun one another, they’re also running from their own demons – both literally and figuratively.

BFF Charm: Make It Rain

BFF charm holding an umbrella

I will most likely name my firstborn child after Ronan Lynch, so that BFF charm has long been a given, but in Call Down The Hawk, Maggie managed to make me……love Declan? Like, a lot? Declan is great! Declan is secretive and protective and well-dressed and a total Capricorn. Declan pops antacids like they’re candy. Declan…..reminds me……of my husband? Not enough time to delve into that, but if Maggie Stiefvater can do anything, she can completely change your mind about a character from one book to the next (*cough cough* TRB Adam vs. TDT Adam) so this really should not have come as a shock to me or anyone else.

Jordan Hennessy, who goes by Hennessy, is a bit harder to pin down at first because she’s constantly fighting off death (fair!) but her first clone, Jordan, shall take a BFF Charm in her stead. Jordan is an art forgerer which is ethically not cool, but also totally SO COOL. She and the other clones pull off crazy art heists and general badassery in a way that’s both intimidating and awesome. I’m not nearly cool enough to be Jordan’s friend, but I would hope she’d take me on as a sad pity project nonetheless.

Carmen, despite being a freaking ASSASSIN who is most likely hunting down my bb boi Ronan, still gets a BFF Charm. She was dealing with some seriously dark family shit, and there’s a lot of complexity within her character – I’m hoping the forthcoming books will give us a bit more of Carmen’s backstory. Plus it was hilariously relatable when she got stuck with an annoying work project that no one else wanted to take on.

Swoonworthy Scale: 6

I know what you’re thinking: how dare you give Pynch a swoon score lower than 8??? And to that I say: plz be advised, dear reader, that this ain’t a Pynch book. I hate to be the bearer of bad news! And there are some Ronan-and-Adam scenes, so don’t worry too much. But Adam is away at college now and Ronan’s dealing with his own shit, so their time together is very limited.

However!!!! Someone (okay, Declan) meets a girl whose name isn’t Ashley, for once, and their moments together are very tingly and touchy and new and exciting and swoony and I can’t wait to see where it leads!

Talky Talk: A Gorgeous, Tangled Web

In Call Down the Hawk, Stiefvater is laying a foundation for a complex, multi-layered story in the way that only she can. Like The Raven Cycle, each chapter is written in close third person from a different character, giving us a glimpse into their minds without giving away all their secrets. Stiefvater never babies the reader or lays all her cards out at once – it’s just not her style. She feeds us bits and pieces on an as-need basis, the plot peeling back like the thin layers of an onion. You will have questions, and you will be confused. But if you’ve read any Maggie Stiefvater at all, you know that there will come a moment when all of these puzzle pieces fit together perfectly to create a mind-blowing big picture. And, no surprises, she never sacrifices style. I highlighted quotes on nearly every page, but my favorites were always the perfect little tidbits that so clearly illustrate exactly who her characters are:

On Ronan:

On weekdays, he gave in to the impulse of adding to his strange herds. On weekends, he spent Mass regretfully apologizing to God for his hubris.

He looked like his brother, in a harder way, like Declan Lynch had been inserted into a pencil sharpener and Ronan Lynch had been taken out after.

And Declan:

“Here’s the situation,” Declan said. This was a classic Declan way to start a conversation. Other hits included Let’s focus on the real action item and This is what it’s going to take to close this deal and In the interest of clearing the air.

Overall, though, the tone of this book felt different from The Raven Cycle. If The Raven Cycle was Gansey in a freshly laundered private school uniform, The Dreamer Trilogy is Ronan in a leather jacket: darker, grittier, and with a happy ending feeling even less certain than before.

Bonus Factor: College Adam

Elle Woods in a Harvard classroom

You guys, Adam went to Harvard! *sobs like a proud mother* I don’t want to give away all the details, but Ronan spends a weekend with Adam and his new college friends and I just! I just! I’m just so proud of my grown adult son.

Bonus Factor: Series Starter

Stack of YA book series

This isn’t always a bonus factor, but for me, MORE RONAN FOREVER PLZ. I cannot wait to see how the pieces of this puzzle fit together.

Relationship Status: I’ll Wait (Some More) For You

Book, I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you. Okay, fine, I’ve been waiting since, like, 2016. And now that you’re here, you’re everything I wanted and more. I’m committed! I’ll wait for your second and third installments, no matter how long it takes, like an old-timey army wife, waiting at the window for her husband to return from the war, glancing despondently at a locket I wear around my neck with your picture in it.

Literary Matchmaking

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)

OBVIOUSLY if you’re looking for something else to read, I suggest a Raven Cycle reread to get you started.

Places No One Knows

For more magical realism with an edge, check out Places No One Knows, about an insomniac who keeps *oops* magically waking up in a hot boy’s bedroom, by Brenna Yovanoff.

A Million Junes

Generational family feuds, friendly ghosts, and hazy memories. If you’re craving dreamy, magic places and lived memories, check out A Million Junes by Emily Henry.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from Scholastic. I did not receive money or Girl Scout cookies of any kind (not even the gross cranberry ones) for writing this review. Call Down The Hawk is available now.

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Rosemary lives in Little Rock, AR with her husband and cocker spaniel. At 16, she plucked a copy of Sloppy Firsts off the "New Releases" shelf and hasn't stopped reading YA since. She is a brand designer who loves tiki drinks, her mid-century modern house, and obsessive Google mapping.