Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by yearofbluewater
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale by Cressida Cowell
i really really enjoyed this one! probably my favorite since the second one. there was a lot going on and i liked all of it (spoilers ahead):
- humongously hotshot. famous hero! reluctant assassin! heartbroken lover! master swordfighter! skilled metalworker! terrible singer! the man does it all and he does it with style. i love an assassination attempt failing because of the assassin's moral compass; here, we get like 5 of those in a row. literally what more could i ask for.
- the EGG. not much detail to this one; it's just always a good day when a small round object turns out to be an egg.
- old wrinkly in the hole
- camicazi gets to be in this one! to be fair she's been in every book since she was introduced, but every time i go in worrying that she won't appear. now i can probably rest easy and just assume she'll be in every book from here on out. thank god. i love hiccup & co. but it is really lovely for there to be a Girl. she doesn't even have to do much; her mere presence (e.g. appearing for 20 or so pages to be kind of obnoxious and irritating) makes me unduly happy.
- volcanoes are cool
- toothless genuinely trying to be good during the reindeer-herding lesson; being overcome by temptation; and then genuinely feeling bad for messing things up. character growth!
- the epilogue in this one made me cry. we've been foreshadowing it for weeks with the almost-tears, but this one actually finished the job. cressida cowell you hold so much power over me; i am but a jester dancing when you say dance; i would die for you.
yes i'm aware i just listed most of the things that were/happened in the book. lastly and most importantly the, like, underlying themes slapped so hard it's not even funny. humongous and valhallarma's story is so fucking good. it's such a classic doomed love narrative, made better because there's no happy ending and no real resolution.
sometimes you love a person and you don't ever get to be with them. maybe you get over them; or maybe you carry your feelings for them with you for the rest of your life. maybe you never open your heart quite the same way again; maybe that pain can't ever be healed. but it doesn't make your love for the person you're with now any less meaningful. life goes on.
god it's !!!! in my brain. and that's just valhallarma's version! meanwhile, humongous was lied to and poisoned for years but his essential good nature won out over all of that. he was in inhumane circumstances but he never lost sight of himself. and he was able to do in the end what valhallarma couldn't do for him, by saving her son from a horrible fate.
and there isn't even a question of their meeting again! the intersection of their paths ended long ago. it's been fifteen years; this isn't that terrible book my friend spent half an hour complaining to me about earlier today, where two people are still somehow in love with each other after ten years with no contact. i saw a post a while back that was like, "permanence isn't the only measure of success" and this book really digs into that concept; the whole series does, actually. nothing lasts forever but there is so much value in the ephemeral. relationships end; ages end; stories end; but they each leave their mark. like alvin's increasingly scarred body, we cannot escape unscathed from the thing that really matter.
like i said: it fucks so hard!!! sorry for swearing in this review of a children's book. i will not apologize for writing so much about this book because it was very good and everyone SHOULD know all my thoughts about it, acutally.
- humongously hotshot. famous hero! reluctant assassin! heartbroken lover! master swordfighter! skilled metalworker! terrible singer! the man does it all and he does it with style. i love an assassination attempt failing because of the assassin's moral compass; here, we get like 5 of those in a row. literally what more could i ask for.
- the EGG. not much detail to this one; it's just always a good day when a small round object turns out to be an egg.
- old wrinkly in the hole
- camicazi gets to be in this one! to be fair she's been in every book since she was introduced, but every time i go in worrying that she won't appear. now i can probably rest easy and just assume she'll be in every book from here on out. thank god. i love hiccup & co. but it is really lovely for there to be a Girl. she doesn't even have to do much; her mere presence (e.g. appearing for 20 or so pages to be kind of obnoxious and irritating) makes me unduly happy.
- volcanoes are cool
- toothless genuinely trying to be good during the reindeer-herding lesson; being overcome by temptation; and then genuinely feeling bad for messing things up. character growth!
- the epilogue in this one made me cry. we've been foreshadowing it for weeks with the almost-tears, but this one actually finished the job. cressida cowell you hold so much power over me; i am but a jester dancing when you say dance; i would die for you.
yes i'm aware i just listed most of the things that were/happened in the book. lastly and most importantly the, like, underlying themes slapped so hard it's not even funny. humongous and valhallarma's story is so fucking good. it's such a classic doomed love narrative, made better because there's no happy ending and no real resolution.
sometimes you love a person and you don't ever get to be with them. maybe you get over them; or maybe you carry your feelings for them with you for the rest of your life. maybe you never open your heart quite the same way again; maybe that pain can't ever be healed. but it doesn't make your love for the person you're with now any less meaningful. life goes on.
god it's !!!! in my brain. and that's just valhallarma's version! meanwhile, humongous was lied to and poisoned for years but his essential good nature won out over all of that. he was in inhumane circumstances but he never lost sight of himself. and he was able to do in the end what valhallarma couldn't do for him, by saving her son from a horrible fate.
and there isn't even a question of their meeting again! the intersection of their paths ended long ago. it's been fifteen years; this isn't that terrible book my friend spent half an hour complaining to me about earlier today, where two people are still somehow in love with each other after ten years with no contact. i saw a post a while back that was like, "permanence isn't the only measure of success" and this book really digs into that concept; the whole series does, actually. nothing lasts forever but there is so much value in the ephemeral. relationships end; ages end; stories end; but they each leave their mark. like alvin's increasingly scarred body, we cannot escape unscathed from the thing that really matter.
like i said: it fucks so hard!!! sorry for swearing in this review of a children's book. i will not apologize for writing so much about this book because it was very good and everyone SHOULD know all my thoughts about it, acutally.