Recent Reads Reviews 📚 Call Down the Hawk

You can really see the growth of Maggie Stiefvater in the writing of this book. While I love The Raven Cycle, Call Down the Hawk just outdid it for me. The depth, world building, growth of the characters & vibes of this book were on pointe. I loved discovering more about about Declan in this book. Especially diving into his & the other brothers childhood. There was a huge emphasis on family in this one but also on how childhood can shape you as you grow up. Ronan is such a precious character and I love him. Considering Ronan was my least favourite of the boys in The Raven Cycle I now adore him and want to protect him at all cost. Then there is Declan who let’s be real was kinda shitty in The Raven Cycle but I now absolutely adore. I also really enjoyed Jordan & Hennessy and I’m keen to see more from both of them. Even Carmen I would really interesting, though she was a bit frustrating at times. I’m very interested to learn more about her role in the series.

The plot of this one was very well developed and had a strong direction it was heading. That was one thing with The Raven Cycle is you kinda felt like you were just floating a little in the plot. Not really understanding the purpose outside of find Glendower. That was not the Case in Call Down the Hawk though. I’m very keen to see what happens next!

Now, why didn’t it get a 5 stars? Well for one the Carmen chapters. While I’m definitely curious to learn more about her and her role here those chapters took me out of the story a bit. They didn’t have the same energy and pacing as the other POVs. So it was a little bit of a right turn whenever we went back to a Carmen POV. The other reason I wasn’t 100% on bored is that it was just busy. There is a lot going on. Multiple POVs, fast moving parts, new characters, flash backs, old drama and it was a little overwhelming. I feel like if this was split into two books maybe with the focus more precise I would have enjoyed it more.