According to my Goodreads account.
Link to the book: Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey
Link to Goodreads review: My older review of Dragonswood
Well I think I can safely say that I wasted part of my day reading this instead of doing homework or something.
VERY MINOR SOMEWHAT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I like the fact that this book is supposed to be a companion book to another book by the same author, Dragon's Keep. That's what the author bio says on the back cover. But throughout the 80 or so pages that I managed to choke down, I was confused by everything. Companion books are not sequels. You do not need one book to read the other. They simply take place in the same realm. But I constantly felt as though I was missing something, which is never a good thing to feel while reading a book.
Characters
Haha characters.
Tess
God-awful Tess. This woman was so infuriating, I felt a strong urge to reach into the novel, pull her into the real world, and splash her with some cold reality. She was an idiot all the time, and took crap from her "friends" that any sane person would obviously not tolerate.
"I know it's my fault. All of it."That's true," Poppy said, not bothering to look up at me.Meg sniffed and nodded, so all agreed.
This isn't a vote, Tess. It doesn't matter if they agree or not. Just stop being a limp shrimp and realize that this isn't your fault and you don't need to take that BS from them.
Poppy
Another infuriating character. I thought there would at least be one intelligent one, but no. But thank god there isn't any slut-shaming in this book. Though Poppy was portrayed as one of the main characters, I feel like she faded to the background in what I read.
Meg
Lemme lemme lemme. This girl. Can I just. Can I just.
Yet another weak, spineless, infuriating character that makes me feel so overcome with anger, I just don't know what to do with myself.
Wet as a dog and shivering, I hurriedly confessed what I'd done under torture.She constantly griped about how this was all Tess's fault, and if she didn't succumb to the pressure, neither she nor Poppy would be here.
Meg's freckled face grew blotchy as I told them both I'd named them, how sorry I was, that I hadn't meant to, and that I'd do anything to take it back. Her eyes went colder and harder with every word till she right out slapped me.
Well, I don't know about you, but it certainly is easy to talk about how you hate someone for making a certain decision, especially if you haven't been in there shoes.
If you were being tortured Meg, for example, having screws jammed into your thumbs (just like poor Tess was facing), what would you do? Tess had been telling the truth, which got her nowhere; she had been lying, which got her nowhere. What was she to do? Tess has apologized/beaten herself up over it, and all Meg can do is hate her for it, which I think is an incredibly lousy thing for a friend to do.
I'm not even going to go into even more depth about the characters. There really isn't much more to say, as I didn't finish the book. So instead, I'll talk about setting!
Setting
Setting? What setting? Half the time, I didn't even know I was reading a medieval book. Or is that what it was? I still don't know! Speaking of, those names? They don't sound very medieval to me!
As far as I could discern, there was a pact between the humans, dragons, and fae (AKA Fairies). I guess it wasn't going well or something like that. For some reason, dragons seem to save Tess wherever she goes.
If you read this review and decide that Hell's bells, who cares what that Aly girl has to say, then props to you. I actually do that a lot too. Reading negative reviews make me wanna read a book even more. I hope you enjoy it more than I did.
P.S. Though it may seem like a harsh review (and it kind of is), I mean no disrespect and am just giving my honest opinion.
FINAL RATING:
Please comment or do anything else.
While I have to admit that the book does tend to be more of a sequel than a companion, I can say that a lot of the problems with being confused clear up when you actually finish the book! And as for your opinions of the characters, they were actually very realistic. A lot of people say that they would be the hero, but most people would make better villains. Tess, Poppy and Meg were simply people thrust into the role of heroes when they would have preferred being side characters. I think this book deserves more than a measly 2.5 stars.
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