by Rachel Hartman
Hardcover, 451 pages
Published July 10th 2012 by Random House Books for Young Readers (first published July 2nd 2012)
ISBN 0375866566 (ISBN13: 9780375866562)
Blurb
Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
The Good
- The Sons of St. Olgo. The Sons of St. Olgo were a really interesting addition to the story. Their actions were well-explained and the author did a great job of showing how, to them, segregating and killing dragons was totally justified.
- The names. I adored the titles and names Hartman gave to her characters. I mean really, how badass does “Ardmagar Comonot” sound?
- The twist on dragon mythology. The heart of the worldbuilding in this novel was obviously the twist on dragon mythology, and it is fantastically done. The best part, in my opinion, was dragon reactions to emotions. When overwhelmed with emotion, dragons completely panic at the loss of control they have over their own bodies. I also really loved the idea of dragons hoarding knowledge and books instead of gold—so clever!
- The love story. The love develops slowly, although it is heavily hinted at for the majority of the book. The interactions between the love interests felt sincere and I could see them happening in real life.
The Bad
- The garden. I really didn’t care for the garden of grotesques in Seraphina’s head. The parts of the story where she spends time “tending to it” felt slow and a little boring. The whole thing felt more like a way to move the plot forward easily than it did an interesting ability of Seraphina’s.
Favorite Quote
"We were all monsters and bastards, and we were all beautiful."
Overall Rating
I do not normally read high fantasy, so at times the book did get a little confusing. There is a glossary of terms and characters in the back of the book though, which helped a lot. Overall this was a really great book with fantastically developed characters and interesting mythology to back it up.
