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ammbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Really loved the idea of the book.... but somehow it did not grab me like the Blue Sword did
cimorene1558's review against another edition
4.0
I've long been put off by the first-person narrative, it just didn't seem right, but I have finally overcome my prejudice, and really quite enjoyed this. It's definitely not her best book, but it's pretty darn good, all the same. Especially if you're a bit dragon-obsessed, which I am.
kareader's review against another edition
2.0
I was really disappointed with this book. Robin McKinley is one of my all-time favorite authors and I've read everything she's written, but this book was really tedious. If this is your first McKinley novel to read, please don't judge her by this one book...I PROMISE her other books are better.
The writing style is interesting, but I think it impedes the reader a little bit. Jake, the main character, tells the story in his own slang and such. Sometimes it's amusing, but other times it just gets in the way of the story. And there is a lot of rambling. I think the whole book could've told the same story in half the pages.
The idea of the book is clever--Jake grows up in a dragon park/zoo where his father is the manager. He saves a baby dragon and raises it. Interesting idea, poorly carried out.
The writing style is interesting, but I think it impedes the reader a little bit. Jake, the main character, tells the story in his own slang and such. Sometimes it's amusing, but other times it just gets in the way of the story. And there is a lot of rambling. I think the whole book could've told the same story in half the pages.
The idea of the book is clever--Jake grows up in a dragon park/zoo where his father is the manager. He saves a baby dragon and raises it. Interesting idea, poorly carried out.
jamesbullinger's review against another edition
4.0
I almost love this book. It has so much going for it. It’s a great world with good characters and interesting ideas. I think if it hadn’t been for the first person narrative, it would have been five stars, but it really took away from the story. Being told in first person was distracting. It took me out of the story so many times. I particularly hated when he said things like, “I’d tell you about this more, but you already know how it turned out,” because the people the character is writing for already know the world they are living in. But I as an actual reader do not. Terrible. First person almost ruined this great story, but it wasn’t enough to keep it from being great. 4.5
claire_loves_books's review against another edition
2.0
I did like the plot but the writing is just so ponderous, it takes ages to get anywhere. It felt like weird style, the author as deliberately leaving out huge chunks of information leaving me clueless- it's ages before dragons are actually mentioned- I was starting to think "perhaps it's just called dragonhaven and there aren't actually any dragons" and Jake lives on a dragon sanctuary- dragons aren't in any way a secret for Jake, but for some reason they're just not mentioned for the first 30 pages or so. The author just kept describing things and then telling us pages later what was actually happening, (We're told jake sends some time at the orphanage- but it's a while before we're told that the orphanage is their cute name for where they look after the baby animals the rangers find).
The beginning added nothing to the story- it's just Jake being vague about the story he's got to write, mentioning a few names and talking about a dictionary (we don't actually find out what the dictionary is all about until right at the end). The intro didn't give me any information, was dull to read and could easily have been skipped.
It also jumped about a lot time wise, sometimes Jake would be writing in the present tense as he's writing the story (often having a go at the reader) but mostly it was set in the past but he jumps backwards and forwards a bit (telling us one bit of information and then saying but that comes later).
It's just frustrating, second guessing what's going on all the time and when a secret's revealed instead of being interesting I was already bored of hearing about it and just relieved that the confusion was finally cleared up.
It was a very frustrating read.
The beginning added nothing to the story- it's just Jake being vague about the story he's got to write, mentioning a few names and talking about a dictionary (we don't actually find out what the dictionary is all about until right at the end). The intro didn't give me any information, was dull to read and could easily have been skipped.
It also jumped about a lot time wise, sometimes Jake would be writing in the present tense as he's writing the story (often having a go at the reader) but mostly it was set in the past but he jumps backwards and forwards a bit (telling us one bit of information and then saying but that comes later).
It's just frustrating, second guessing what's going on all the time and when a secret's revealed instead of being interesting I was already bored of hearing about it and just relieved that the confusion was finally cleared up.
It was a very frustrating read.
beckyh617's review against another edition
1.0
I wanted to read and like this. But the first chapter was a struggle. I gave up.
dobsonfly314's review against another edition
3.0
I love Robin McKinley, but this one didn't really do it for me. It was decent, but it didn't really grab me like her other novels. Your basic boy and dragon story, nothing really unique or special about it.
aliciaking3's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
genderqueer_hiker's review against another edition
2.0
I read this the first time; I just finished listening to it as an audio book yesterday. This book drags. Like, a lot. The protagonist's voice is choppy and inconsistent. The narrative jumps around a lot and it's hard to follow. The protagonist is rather two dimensional and feels more like a curmudgeonly older person's caricature of a teenager rather than an actual true-to-life teenager. Frankly, the protagonist perseverate so much, I was bored by the end of the audio book and couldn't wait for it to finish. I almost gave up and stopped listening, though I've never done that before. The book also had prolific ableist language.
chanizzle's review against another edition
2.0
This story was 'written' from the perspective of a teenage boy - which is the biggest thing that I did not like about it. The story itself was good, it was just hard to get through all the teenage rambling, vocabulary and slang, etc... Jake (main character) would start describing something, which would lead to this topic, which would lead to this thought and a page and a half later he finally goes back and finishes what he was originally talking about. (This happened a lot). So I want to give this 1.5 stars - if it was just the story it would be 2 stars, but because of the extra rambling stuff it brought it down - I don't think it's quite to 1 star though.