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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
3.5*
honestly I'm disappointed. Call Down the Hawk is one of my favorite books and I just feel like the story was rushed to an ending. I still love all the characters and their interactions, and Meggie Stiefvater writes like poetry and dreams run on her veins, but the plot and the conclusion just fell flat.
i think its particularly underwhelming because Stiefvater is really good at making books character driven, she thrives in it, but this one felt like all the characters had nothing to do.
a bit of spoilers ahead but I'm pretending the epilogue doesn't exist. i absolutely despise time jumps in epilogue, but I can swallow them if they are just funny fanservice. This felt like she had a bunch of unsolved problems with character arcs and didn't feel like solving them, so she wrote a time skip and said "fixed :)". Ronan and Adam in particular were so disappointing. I admit not a huge Pynch fan, but i cant be the only one who felt like their issues were magically solved thru weird soul bonding right?
anyways. I'm really underwhelmed :( Hope her next projets are as good as her other books.
honestly I'm disappointed. Call Down the Hawk is one of my favorite books and I just feel like the story was rushed to an ending. I still love all the characters and their interactions, and Meggie Stiefvater writes like poetry and dreams run on her veins, but the plot and the conclusion just fell flat.
i think its particularly underwhelming because Stiefvater is really good at making books character driven, she thrives in it, but this one felt like all the characters had nothing to do.
a bit of spoilers ahead but I'm pretending the epilogue doesn't exist. i absolutely despise time jumps in epilogue, but I can swallow them if they are just funny fanservice. This felt like she had a bunch of unsolved problems with character arcs and didn't feel like solving them, so she wrote a time skip and said "fixed :)". Ronan and Adam in particular were so disappointing. I admit not a huge Pynch fan, but i cant be the only one who felt like their issues were magically solved thru weird soul bonding right?
anyways. I'm really underwhelmed :( Hope her next projets are as good as her other books.
I've been steadily losing patience with this Raven Cycle spinoff from the start of the second volume on, and unfortunately, nothing in this final novel (which appears to close out the entire franchise, at least for now) does anything to reverse that trend. The two characters I find most interesting, Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch, are barely in it, and the latter spends the majority of his scenes floating in a weird dreamspace that doesn't add much to the narrative. We're given additional retcons about people being either not dead as previously indicated or else secretly someone's dreams brought to life, and that's a twist with pretty diminished impact after how many times author Maggie Stiefvater has sprung it on us over the course of this saga. It's likewise disappointing to learn that Ronan is something of a chosen one, when the most remarkable thing about the premise of this trilogy heretofore has been its treatment of his magical gift as more commonplace than anyone realized in the original series.
In my review of the previous title, I noted "a certain haziness throughout the affair, with no one’s motivations ever feeling particularly well-grounded or urgent." That's exacerbated here, and while the mystical vibe allows for some occasional striking imagery and the writer's typical flowery prose, it's less satisfying when so abstracted from any concrete relationships. Despite regular reminders that "this is the story of the Lynch family," the brothers hardly interact with one another at all, and their parents' backstory feels unnecessarily tacked-on after readers have gotten to know the boys on their own terms for so long. I'm lukewarm about the result as an individual installment, and downright unhappy with it as a conclusion to the extended plot of this setting.
[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]
This volume: ★★☆☆☆
Overall series: ★★★☆☆
Volumes ranked: 1 > 2 > 3
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In my review of the previous title, I noted "a certain haziness throughout the affair, with no one’s motivations ever feeling particularly well-grounded or urgent." That's exacerbated here, and while the mystical vibe allows for some occasional striking imagery and the writer's typical flowery prose, it's less satisfying when so abstracted from any concrete relationships. Despite regular reminders that "this is the story of the Lynch family," the brothers hardly interact with one another at all, and their parents' backstory feels unnecessarily tacked-on after readers have gotten to know the boys on their own terms for so long. I'm lukewarm about the result as an individual installment, and downright unhappy with it as a conclusion to the extended plot of this setting.
[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]
This volume: ★★☆☆☆
Overall series: ★★★☆☆
Volumes ranked: 1 > 2 > 3
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
pynch my beloveds (the epilogue healed me oh my god)
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Abandonment
Moderate: Grief
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A