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A review by woodge
Dragonfly by Frederic S. Durbin
4.0
I found this while browsing in a bookstore and I must admit that the arresting cover caught my eye. Upon a closer look, the cover would seem to appeal to a Young Adult audience but an even closer inspection revealed that to be misleading. (There's a moral here somewhere.) From the back cover:
As Hallowe'en approaches, young Bridget Anne ("Dragonfly," to her friends) begins hearing strange things coming from the basement of her uncle's funeral parlor peculiar noises and odd voices speaking of a stairway... a stairway that is almost complete. Uncle Henry, suspecting sinister forces may be at work, summons his mysterious friend Mothkin to investigate. Mothkin goes down the laundry chute for a look. And Dragonfly stubbornly follows him into the strange and spooky underworld known as Harvest Moon...
In addition to that were various blurbs that described the book thusly: "Children's fears become real in this intriguingly odd, old-fashioned dark fantasy of a world beneath ours..." and "think of an even more twisted version of a A Nightmare Before Christmas" and "A classic, epic, action-adventure fantasy, chronicling the struggle between good and evil... imaginatively dark with gruesome creatures... " and so forth.
Well, it was as advertised. This imaginative, original story gets cracking from the very first pages. The imagery is lush and painted with a rich vocabulary. There's nothing cutesy about the story (thank God) and it manages to include all sorts of beasties. Vampires, werewolves, gypsies, and other various ghouls all make an appearance in this unpredictable tale. And when the action is really moving it brings to mind thrills you might find in a summer blockbuster. Good times.
As Hallowe'en approaches, young Bridget Anne ("Dragonfly," to her friends) begins hearing strange things coming from the basement of her uncle's funeral parlor peculiar noises and odd voices speaking of a stairway... a stairway that is almost complete. Uncle Henry, suspecting sinister forces may be at work, summons his mysterious friend Mothkin to investigate. Mothkin goes down the laundry chute for a look. And Dragonfly stubbornly follows him into the strange and spooky underworld known as Harvest Moon...
In addition to that were various blurbs that described the book thusly: "Children's fears become real in this intriguingly odd, old-fashioned dark fantasy of a world beneath ours..." and "think of an even more twisted version of a A Nightmare Before Christmas" and "A classic, epic, action-adventure fantasy, chronicling the struggle between good and evil... imaginatively dark with gruesome creatures... " and so forth.
Well, it was as advertised. This imaginative, original story gets cracking from the very first pages. The imagery is lush and painted with a rich vocabulary. There's nothing cutesy about the story (thank God) and it manages to include all sorts of beasties. Vampires, werewolves, gypsies, and other various ghouls all make an appearance in this unpredictable tale. And when the action is really moving it brings to mind thrills you might find in a summer blockbuster. Good times.