Keep your eye out at the end for my take on Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)!
"Dreams are not the safest thing to build a life on."
As with all of Stiefvater's other works, this novel is a hard one to summarize because it's full of a million tiny, moving parts. Using her own summary will best explain it:
"The dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming - they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives - they will sleep forever if their dreamers die. And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all."
After dreaming freely for years, Ronan Lynch has finally discovered what happens when you stop; Nightwash-- a thick, black liquid that oozes from your eyes, nose, ears, etc. and won't stop until you pull something from your mind. For fellow dreamer Jordan Hennessy, Nightwash is a condemnation, as she's never been safe in her dreams. The closer she comes to her nightmares, the closer her creations come to sleeping forever.
Carmen Farooq-Lane has heard about the end of the world. Visionaries have agreed that our world will end in a fire started by dreams. As the sister of a murderous dreamer, she has taken it upon herself to help put a stop to dreaming and do her part to save the world.
"You are made of dreams and this world is not for you."
REVIEW
I don't know if I can put into words how much I wholeheartedly adore Ronan Lynch. He is my favorite character from The Raven Cycle. I love him in a "maybe we should be worried about Michelle" kind of way. I randomly started crying halfway through this book, without prompting, about how much I love him... Suffice to say, I was ecstatic to find out that Maggie was writing a series all about him, especially because I feel as though we really only scraped the surface of dreamers in TRC. This first installment shows that we're going learn all there is to know about them.
My favorite thing about Stiefvater's writing and why I always come back to her books is how terrifyingly planned out they are. Every detail is multifaceted and intricately placed throughout the story-- it is impossible to fully understand one of her books until you've read the entire series. She gives you only enough information to keep you from being confused, but you never figure something out before she wants you to-- and THEN when you finally get through it all and go back, you see this huge trail of breadcrumbs that she was laying out the entire time and HOW could you have possibly missed it?! She doesn't write books, she creates art.
"Hennessy," Ronan said, "please don't let me be the only one." This was the first gap she'd ever heard in Ronan's armor.
I was afraid I wouldn't love the characters in this book as much as I love her others-- Blue, Gansey, and Adam hold such a big place in my heart and I was worried that I'd keep comparing our new protagonists to them. Within a second I realized I had nothing to worry about-- Stiefvater is a master at creating some of the most unique, interesting, diverse characters I've ever encountered in books. I don't compare any of them to her others because there is nothing to compare-- they all bring something completely new and valuable to the story. Jordan and Hennessy are LITERALLY THE SAME PERSON and yet completely different (as an actor, all I could think of while reading about Hennessy's copies is how much fun someone could have playing this role). Farooq-Lane brings a sensible, stabilizing tone to her moments in the book, which helps to balance out the typically quirky and abnormal characters we usually come across. The Lynch brothers round our main characters out with the mischief we love from TRC along with the comfort of already knowing exactly who they are (or do we?). I also must say it-- a sentence I never expected to utter-- I might love Declan Lynch??? (Oh man! I'm in deep!)
I am so excited for the rest of this series, and I would recommend Call Down The Hawk to anyone-- genuinely, this is an ageless book and can be loved by all. If you're wondering; no, you do not need to read The Raven Cycle to understand what's going on, but I do suggest it to give you a more solid awareness of the world.
While Hennessy imagined flinging herself from a roof and falling, Jordan imagined flinging herself from a roof and flying.
BIENENSTICH (Bee Sting Cake)
"All I would like is a piece of Bienenstich the way my mother made it for me," Parsifal said, managing to sound as if she somehow maligned his mother. His long fingers constricted from the radio like a dying spider's legs: He had found opera. A chesty man cooed from the rental car's speakers. "And that is not to be had."
Guys!!! I was so excited the second Bienenstich was mentioned! I was afraid there would be nothing for me to bake this week, but oh boy was I wrong. This cake proved slightly difficult but came out pretty yummy! Since it's a well known German dessert, I had no trouble at all finding a recipe to follow, here's the one I picked: https://www.internationaldessertsblog.com/german-bienenstich-bee-sting-cake/
Here's how mine came out -->
If you didn't know, I bake something from a book every week and post live updates on my Instagram. Tune in to @picklesandpages on Wednesdays to check it out!
NEXT READ: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
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