Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland

2 reviews

madamenovelist's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lolajh's review

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adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow. What a strong opening to this series that makes me infinitely excited to dive into this fascinating world. There’s so many things set up for development: the flaws in the dragonets’ relationships with each other, how they undermine and ridicule each other, and the fact that they are severely unsocialised and lack in general knowledge of dragon interaction and culture.

As a book itself, flaws such as these that are consistent with each character became quite irritating when they went unrecognised and undeveloped throughout the book, such as the constant poor treatment of basically all the dragonets besides Tsunami, which of course is a good thing for her and I feel is very deserved, I love her, however it is unequal, especially when she is the one to often probe the other dragonets about things she deems are not good enough. The dragonets are completely undermined by each other, making for a fragile relationship with not a consistent foundation of trust and respect for each other. But that is where the room for improvement exists in a series, for these dragonets to believe in each other as well as themselves, for Sunny, Starflight, Clay, and Glory to get the recognition and respect they deserve.

Another thing about that: the ableism of dragons! Kestrel especially is very unwelcoming and disrespectful to anyone with “differences” like Sunny “looking different” (she is so disrespected for her appearance throughout the book); Clay for his intelligence and obliviousness, which is honestly totally normal and honestly a neurodivergent trait that he shouldn’t have been ridiculed for; Glory for literally just being a Rainwing; and
Kestrel’s literal son for not being good enough for her
I hate Kestrel with all my being, and at times the dragonets who poked fun at Sunny, Clay, Glory or anyone really about things they had no control over. It was so disheartening to see the dragons that were supposed to be each other’s friends still treating each other like this all throughout the book, and I feel it definitely normalises the wrong things for adolescent friendships to young kids, the target audience for this book. I’m so glad I didn’t read this when I was 12; I would have had nightmares about what a dead dragon looks like, and I might have had more difficulty recognising these toxic traits among my real-life friendships, as they are so normalised to the point where Sunny and Glory are hardly respected by the group and are blatantly being bullied by them, honestly.

I do however believe the toxicity of Clay and Peril’s relationship was handled well
with them parting ways eventually and the pair of them having that heartbreaking but necessary realisation that they are not the same, and, at least in this point in time, are not suited for any sort of relationship with each other
I have looked at the titles of the rest of the series, and am excited to see how Peril’s character develops up until her book, as she is definitely a character worthy of and has room for development.

And I just really really love Clay. The most deserving main character of the book, the kindest, the sweetest, and the one that doesn’t torment his friends for things they can’t control. His pacifism was a really interesting perspective to see from a dragon.
He deserved parents that loved him. Poor baby :(


Overall, if this book were to be a stand-alone, I would have a very different and more negative review of it, and whilst it probably will not end up being my favourite of the series I do still wish to continue it. I think it sets up a strong foundation of the world that the audience is introduced to, that dragons can be
completely dominant to the human species and
such intelligent creatures with their own hierarchies of power and alignments in a war and the capability of being able to prioritise different values, feel different things, than just an instinctual animal driven to kill.
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