Call Down the Hawk discussion

Who else was disappointed with this book? Who else found it to be unoriginal? All I keep seeing is people gushing about its greatness.

Call Down the Hawk is well-written, and I think Maggie Stiefvater is able to capture dream-like elements in writing in a way that I've never read before.

Having said that, I did feel a little disappointed. It's just my personal opinion, but I think that more should have carried over from TRC. Adam, Opal, Ronan's quest to wake sleeping dream items, etc.

I was expecting this to be Ronan's story, but it didn't seem like Ronan's story. I felt like Ronan to a backseat to Jordan Hennessy and even Declan. That's not entirely a bad thing... It was nice to see things from Declan's POV. It's a fun reminder that these characters are unreliable narrators.

Unfortunately, I came into this caring about pre-existing characters. I love Adam, and not only was he barely in it (I could get over that), but his own powers seemed worthless. (Hopefully they will be more prominent in the next installment.) Opal didn't make an appearance until the 84% mark. When Ronan dreams, the highlight isn't Ronan...it's Bryde. I care about Adam and Ronan and Opal. I enjoyed and expected having new characters introduced but, again, I feel like it was at the cost of reading about characters I already care about.

I almost wish that the trilogy had focused on entirely new characters, with Ronan only coming in to play later in the series. Because this is the first book in a trilogy, and it spends a lot of time setting up the new characters and scenarios, it almost feels like the characters/story is being completely rebooted.

The Raven Cycle is a completed series, and it's not really fair to judge Call Down the Hawk against a completed series. But I can't really help it, since TRC is one of my favorite series of all time and I was so hyped for more about these characters. I still think it was a solid read. I really do love the author's writing style, and there were some beautiful moments. I think the story will feel more complete once the next volumes are released.