Reviews

Devil Dragon by Deborah Sheldon

bolynne's review

3.0

****I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway!****

This book was so much fun to read. I haven't read many cryptid-based horror books, though I am deeply creeped out and fascinated by the idea of these creatures being out there and us not knowing.

I really enjoyed the characters here, especially Dr. Harris. I love when professionals get so consumed with their expeditions that you just know there's going to be horrible decisions made and excellent horror will ensue. It's one of the main reasons Stephen King's miniseries Rose Red is my absolute favorite work of his. Professional acceptance and glory is a very powerful and relatable drive that helps make the entire thing more believable, as opposed to your normal slasher horror where the victims are just plain stupid. Of course they will make bad decisions, they are consumed by the need to be proven right, which makes them look even more crazy.

Definitely interested in reading more by this author and so happy I got the chance to read this.

tbr_the_unconquered's review

3.0

The movies which hit a real high for me as a kid almost always had large animals running amok in them and these included Jurassic Park and it’s sequels, Jaws and Anaconda amongst others. What this has left me with (even in my 30’s) is an unreasonable love for monster flicks and this extends to the books I read as well. Deborah Sheldon’s novel falls totally into this territory where a seemingly extinct giant reptile wreaks havoc in the wilds of Southern Australia.

The story is fairly straightforward : a deskbound scientist – Erin Harris while on vacation comes across a half-eaten carcass of a heifer that she believes could be the handy work of Varanus priscus. This strange name belongs to a giant extinct mega lizard which was the ancestor of today’s Komodo Dragon. Erin is by no way a strong or a likeable person and she is overburdened with an immense inferiority complex and daddy issues. Her mind comes up with a rationale that if she were to find this lizard and present it in front of the world then that would be salvation from her own complexes. A rag tag group of hunters and farmers come together to mount a little expedition into the forest to search for the lizard. As expected, things go utterly wrong and that forms the rest of the story.

There aren’t much by way of details and if you have read a fair number of monster stories and watched Hollywood flicks then none of what happens would surprise you much. The gore element is less and the author focuses more on the central character of Erin and how she comes almost fully undone during the events. Enjoyable !

whatmeworry's review

3.0

‘Devil Dragon’ is a solid, entertaining creature feature type novel, not desperately original or rich in meaning, but gripping and fun. It’s about a herpetologist (Erin) searching for a Devil Dragon (basically a massive Komodo dragon in the Australian outback. Uptight city girl Erin is accompanied by a local farmer, eager to get payback on the monster that has attacked his livestock, and a husband and wife duo of hunters. The urban/rural tension is familiar but fun and the action builds slowly but pleasingly to a brutal and rousing final third, although the very end felt like a bit of a swizz to me.
There’s not much here you haven’t seen before, but the combo of decent characters, a well described setting and a big fuck off monster make for a fun read.

lilyn_g's review against another edition

4.0

Devil Dragon was a book I chose because it was a horror novel written by a woman. I realized I’ve been really bad about showing support in that area that month. (Of course, it didn’t hurt that it promised to fulfill my creature-feature needs.)

By the end of the book, I was truly enjoying Devil Dragon. However, the beginning of the book, with our first introduction to the main character, starts off a bit rough. Mostly because Erin is the type of walking cliché that makes you grit your teeth when she appears. However, as soon as I relaxed a little bit and realized this was going to be pure gory cheese, she was easier to handle. And, luckily, she actually gets much less irritating throughout the book.

If you like the idea of realistic ‘dragons’ – such as the Komodo – this is the book for you. Devil Dragons - Varanus priscus –actually existed at some point. That adds an extra layer of neatness when reading the book. I mean, reading about mutated gigantic monsters spawned from man messing with nature or aliens is cool, but throwbacks are nifty too. (However, Sheldon does admit that she took a few liberties, so don’t expect something completely true to known science.)

Deborah Sheldon gives readers the true bad-good B-movie experience with each page of Devil Dragon. There’s a plethora of action scenes and several “Nope. NopeNopeNope. No-pe!” moments. The drama between some of the characters in the story is needlessly high, but that kind of just adds to the entertainment factor, honestly. I mean, sometimes we all just need a little schlock to keep us entertained, don’t we?

I’m pleased to report that Devil Dragon is a clean copy with no real cringe-worthy issues. I did feel like the very end (last couple of lines) were a bit rough and awkward, but that wasn’t a big thing. Overall, Devil Dragon is a fun, mindless read that requests only that we sit back and enjoy the ride. And – let’s face it – we need that sometimes.