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A review by dracobatreads
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
5.0
“Khalid wasn’t a dragonfly. He wasn’t anything that I could touch or see. But he’s been with me all along. He’ll stay with me until the end of time.”
i haven’t read a middle grade book in such a long time, but this book was so beautiful i couldn’t put it down. in 230 something pages it managed to cover such important topics like queerness, abuse, racism, loss, grief, homophobia etc in such a short amount of time and it was executed beautifully.
i loved king. i loved reading his pov. it was heartbreaking, blunt, truthful, naive, raw and real just the definition of seeing the world through a kid’s eyes. the way he was heavily influenced by the words from his brother, friends, and father. being black and gay in louisiana and just the struggles he has to go through, the way it was executed was done in such a way that just pulled at your heartstrings.
the conversations between king and his father were so truthful and heartbreaking and i absolutely loved them. so many of the characters showed so much growth. i loved the conversations sandy and king had and how determined king was to help sandy with his situation and how sandy helped king find himself and come to terms with himself. i loved how they leaned on each other.
grief and loss was written so well in this book. the symbolism of the dragonfly, the different stages the family went through throughout the book, the journey the author took us through page by page was done so well. i only wish the book was a tad bit longer, the ending felt a tad bit rushed but overall i really enjoyed this book so much.
side note: probably one of my top reads this year.
i haven’t read a middle grade book in such a long time, but this book was so beautiful i couldn’t put it down. in 230 something pages it managed to cover such important topics like queerness, abuse, racism, loss, grief, homophobia etc in such a short amount of time and it was executed beautifully.
i loved king. i loved reading his pov. it was heartbreaking, blunt, truthful, naive, raw and real just the definition of seeing the world through a kid’s eyes. the way he was heavily influenced by the words from his brother, friends, and father. being black and gay in louisiana and just the struggles he has to go through, the way it was executed was done in such a way that just pulled at your heartstrings.
the conversations between king and his father were so truthful and heartbreaking and i absolutely loved them. so many of the characters showed so much growth. i loved the conversations sandy and king had and how determined king was to help sandy with his situation and how sandy helped king find himself and come to terms with himself. i loved how they leaned on each other.
grief and loss was written so well in this book. the symbolism of the dragonfly, the different stages the family went through throughout the book, the journey the author took us through page by page was done so well. i only wish the book was a tad bit longer, the ending felt a tad bit rushed but overall i really enjoyed this book so much.
side note: probably one of my top reads this year.