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A review by mspilesofpaper
The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The Dragon's Promise is the sequel to Six Crimson Cranes, which was/is one of my favourite Young Adult fantasy books because it was beautifully written, and I loved the mythology, the inclusion of fairytales, and the budding romance between Shiori and Takkan. While it did take me rather long to read the finale of the duology, I was excited to read it because of how much I liked the first book. Although I was a bit anxious about it as well because Six Crimson Cranes could have worked well as a standalone too (well, with a few tiny adjustments).
Unfortunately, the second book disappointed me. While it's still beautifully written, it's so hectic in terms of plot because the author has to finish the dragon arc, the pearl arc, the demon arc, the stepmother arc, and the romance arc, which results in a stressful read and very superficial descriptions (especially for the first part where Shiori is in the dragon kingdom). The dragon arc is so quickly paced and dealt with that I felt like getting whiplash when Shiori gets back to her home country. The other arcs are similarly quickly finished, which results in all these chapters having tiny cliffhangers as Shiori either faints, blacks out, was forcefully moved from place A to B, ... - which just increases the stressfulness of the book. There's rarely a moment where the reader could just breathe in.
The fast-paced treatment results in side characters becoming not very important. Takkan? Does barely anything aside from confessing his love for Shiori over and over again. The brothers? Very similar, they just appear to help Shiori out when she's trying to get on with one of her ridiculous solutions. Seryu? Just appears in the first part and then dragons vanish pretty much completely (aside from one side character), which results in "the first 30% are a different book than the rest of the novel". Everything that Shiori learned in the dragon's kingdom about the pearl, could have been handled in 50 pages but the constant "Shiori gets arrested, gets freed, gets into trouble again, gets arrested again, ..." stretches the part out.
And please, do not get me started about the end of the book. For the majority of the two books, demons are portrayed as evil beings that would ruin the kingdom if they were freed. Suddenly, they are more than just evil creatures and they deserve the reader's compassion and sympathy? Yeah, no. The demon antagonist was also rather lacklustre here.
TL;DR: It feels like a Disney movie with all the high stakes that are conveniently solved despite Shiori's poor planning and reckless behaviour. Too many plot arcs need to be dealt with, which results in quickly finished arcs that feel underdeveloped and often pushed to the side to include a new arc (e.g., the cult).
Unfortunately, the second book disappointed me. While it's still beautifully written, it's so hectic in terms of plot because the author has to finish the dragon arc, the pearl arc, the demon arc, the stepmother arc, and the romance arc, which results in a stressful read and very superficial descriptions (especially for the first part where Shiori is in the dragon kingdom). The dragon arc is so quickly paced and dealt with that I felt like getting whiplash when Shiori gets back to her home country. The other arcs are similarly quickly finished, which results in all these chapters having tiny cliffhangers as Shiori either faints, blacks out, was forcefully moved from place A to B, ... - which just increases the stressfulness of the book. There's rarely a moment where the reader could just breathe in.
The fast-paced treatment results in side characters becoming not very important. Takkan? Does barely anything aside from confessing his love for Shiori over and over again. The brothers? Very similar, they just appear to help Shiori out when she's trying to get on with one of her ridiculous solutions. Seryu? Just appears in the first part and then dragons vanish pretty much completely (aside from one side character), which results in "the first 30% are a different book than the rest of the novel". Everything that Shiori learned in the dragon's kingdom about the pearl, could have been handled in 50 pages but the constant "Shiori gets arrested, gets freed, gets into trouble again, gets arrested again, ..." stretches the part out.
And please, do not get me started about the end of the book. For the majority of the two books, demons are portrayed as evil beings that would ruin the kingdom if they were freed. Suddenly, they are more than just evil creatures and they deserve the reader's compassion and sympathy? Yeah, no. The demon antagonist was also rather lacklustre here.
TL;DR: It feels like a Disney movie with all the high stakes that are conveniently solved despite Shiori's poor planning and reckless behaviour. Too many plot arcs need to be dealt with, which results in quickly finished arcs that feel underdeveloped and often pushed to the side to include a new arc (e.g., the cult).