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A review by jadejuniiper
The Dragon of Ynys by Minerva Cerridwen
4.0
3.5 *
What a sweet and pleasant surprise this novella was!
There is so much to like about the story, the characters, and the overarching themes and morals that you expect of a children’s fairytale. This story was truly about acceptance, inclusivity, and covered topics having to do with both gender and sexuality. Our MC is aro/ace (as is the author) and a lesbian couple, one of the women being trans, played a major supporting role. Pronouns were spoken about candidly.
While the book is listed for all ages, and I believe on Goodreads for adults, I would definitely put this in the children’s section as I found the tone and writing style, and approach of subject matter more on the juvenile side. I believe this book could make a huge difference in a child’s life due to this wonderful representation from an own voices author.
The dragon Snap was definitely my favorite character, though I did grow very fond of our knight Sir Violet, you really just couldn’t beat all of Snap's witty remarks and one-liners. It really made for a joyful read.
My reasons for lowering my rating has to do with technical errors such as an overly large amount of ellipses use (about once per page and on one page I found *four*), and quite a few awkward dialogue moments that I had to take note of as I feel at times it distracted from the story. (Characters making oddball remarks that didn’t make sense with the moment, or an overly large exposition, etc).
I would like to make note that I am reading the 2020 edition of this book and that a rewrite was written after sensitivity beta readers found the book not up to an acceptable standard. I’m happy to report I feel the story was much improved based on the reviews I had previously read and I would happily put this on my shelves.
I received this ARC via net galley in exchange for an honest review.
What a sweet and pleasant surprise this novella was!
There is so much to like about the story, the characters, and the overarching themes and morals that you expect of a children’s fairytale. This story was truly about acceptance, inclusivity, and covered topics having to do with both gender and sexuality. Our MC is aro/ace (as is the author) and a lesbian couple, one of the women being trans, played a major supporting role. Pronouns were spoken about candidly.
While the book is listed for all ages, and I believe on Goodreads for adults, I would definitely put this in the children’s section as I found the tone and writing style, and approach of subject matter more on the juvenile side. I believe this book could make a huge difference in a child’s life due to this wonderful representation from an own voices author.
The dragon Snap was definitely my favorite character, though I did grow very fond of our knight Sir Violet, you really just couldn’t beat all of Snap's witty remarks and one-liners. It really made for a joyful read.
My reasons for lowering my rating has to do with technical errors such as an overly large amount of ellipses use (about once per page and on one page I found *four*), and quite a few awkward dialogue moments that I had to take note of as I feel at times it distracted from the story. (Characters making oddball remarks that didn’t make sense with the moment, or an overly large exposition, etc).
I would like to make note that I am reading the 2020 edition of this book and that a rewrite was written after sensitivity beta readers found the book not up to an acceptable standard. I’m happy to report I feel the story was much improved based on the reviews I had previously read and I would happily put this on my shelves.
I received this ARC via net galley in exchange for an honest review.