genre: fantasy
rating: 5/8 tentacles
In a world where humans and dragons live in tentative peace after years of wars, Seraphina must conceal the fact that she is half-dragon. Because dragons can take the form of humans, this is not as weird as it sounds.
I love the way that Rachel Hartman sets up the differences between humans and dragons. Her dragons are obsessed with knowledge and logic and lack the ability to mimic the social niceties of humans. I wish I could go around behaving like a dragon. Hartman's worldbuilding is economical and informative and the vocabulary she creates around her dragon culture is fun and lends her world authenticity.
The characters lean a little toward cartoony but the ambiguous subject matter--prejudices against a foreign "race"-- adds back some complexity. As does Seraphina's fear of being found out as a fraud. Even people without secret dragon scales may be able to relate to her insecurities.
I hated the mental garden scenes. We watch as Seraphina withdraws into her imagination and describes creatures that we assume she has made up. This stuff does become relevant later, but until the end of the book, we float away from the plot and the tangible world and waste time hearing about seemingly random creatures that have no anchor in the story and no discernible purpose. I was completely bored during these scenes.
Even though Seraphina drags in places, the premise captivated me and I stayed up late to finish it instead of doing things I was supposed to do. Always a sign of a good book.
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