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A review by nooralshanti
Dragonfly by Resa Nelson
2.0
There's a really good story idea underneath this, but I had a hard time getting into it, because it was written in such a way as to make it completely uninteresting. And that's a shame, because I was looking forward to reading a fantasy that was focused on First Nations people and culture.
Here are some of the things that prevented me from enjoying it.
1) Characterization - the main character Greeta is introduced to us while she's talking to herself. Not a great start. She's also completely clueless about anything and very whiny. At first I had serious concerns about the author's portrayal of First Nations people, because if you take Greeta (who grew up among them) as an example you'd think they were very stupid. But I quickly realized that it was just Greeta, everyone else knows some things, but she's a complete idiot. I think the problem is that the author struggled with the "youth" voice that she was trying to portray. Because Greeta kept referring to herself as a woman and whining about how much she wanted a husband and kids, but then she sounded like a 4-year old. Hint: Don't talk down to youth, they are pretty smart.
2) SLOOOW telling style - I almost stopped at chapter 8 when Greeta decided to "go over" everything that had happened to her that day, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It was already boring enough for the first seven chapters and then that to top it all off. At about chapter 10 or 11 I decided I was either going to drop the book, which would be a shame since the idea and world were intriguing, or just skim through the pointless fluff. I ended up skimming.
3) Relationship arc in two seconds - underneath the fantasy and the First Nation setting and all the rest of it, the author seemed to really want to portray a modern relationship story (or stories if you count the Aunt's pointless story which came out of absolutely nowhere and served no purpose). Greeta's story with Finehurst, which maybe could have been realistic if developed over a time span of months, happens in about 10 minutes. If you want to tell a romance story just do it and ditch the magic and dragons, please.
4) Other unbelievable things - right after going through the entire (unrealistic and uninteresting) adventure Greeta finds out that EVERYONE can go to the Dreamtime if they want to. She's been living among them for her entire life, her aunt married one of them, and no one ever bothered to tell her that all the Shining Star people can do it. *shakes head*
At the end of the day this did have some interesting ideas, some promising characters, but the whole thing just didn't work and didn't hold my interest at all.
I think it could have been a great short story - maybe 1/4 the length it currently is - if the author wanted to just focus on the fantasy element. Or, if the author wanted to develop the characters more and have it be more of a love/searching for love kind of story then it would have needed to cover a much greater time span so that the relationships and characters could develop in believable ways. As it stands it's a really dragged out bunch of nothingness that doesn't know if it wants to be a fantasy or a modern relationship drama. I won't be picking up the rest, but I actually feel sad about the missed potential of this story. Although I'm an author I have never had to fight such an urge to take someone else's story and completely re-write it myself, but that's what I felt at several points through this tale. The idea was just that good and the execution that bad. Oh well.
Here are some of the things that prevented me from enjoying it.
1) Characterization - the main character Greeta is introduced to us while she's talking to herself. Not a great start. She's also completely clueless about anything and very whiny. At first I had serious concerns about the author's portrayal of First Nations people, because if you take Greeta (who grew up among them) as an example you'd think they were very stupid. But I quickly realized that it was just Greeta, everyone else knows some things, but she's a complete idiot. I think the problem is that the author struggled with the "youth" voice that she was trying to portray. Because Greeta kept referring to herself as a woman and whining about how much she wanted a husband and kids, but then she sounded like a 4-year old. Hint: Don't talk down to youth, they are pretty smart.
2) SLOOOW telling style - I almost stopped at chapter 8 when Greeta decided to "go over" everything that had happened to her that day, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It was already boring enough for the first seven chapters and then that to top it all off. At about chapter 10 or 11 I decided I was either going to drop the book, which would be a shame since the idea and world were intriguing, or just skim through the pointless fluff. I ended up skimming.
3) Relationship arc in two seconds - underneath the fantasy and the First Nation setting and all the rest of it, the author seemed to really want to portray a modern relationship story (or stories if you count the Aunt's pointless story which came out of absolutely nowhere and served no purpose). Greeta's story with Finehurst, which maybe could have been realistic if developed over a time span of months, happens in about 10 minutes. If you want to tell a romance story just do it and ditch the magic and dragons, please.
4) Other unbelievable things - right after going through the entire (unrealistic and uninteresting) adventure Greeta finds out that EVERYONE can go to the Dreamtime if they want to. She's been living among them for her entire life, her aunt married one of them, and no one ever bothered to tell her that all the Shining Star people can do it. *shakes head*
At the end of the day this did have some interesting ideas, some promising characters, but the whole thing just didn't work and didn't hold my interest at all.
I think it could have been a great short story - maybe 1/4 the length it currently is - if the author wanted to just focus on the fantasy element. Or, if the author wanted to develop the characters more and have it be more of a love/searching for love kind of story then it would have needed to cover a much greater time span so that the relationships and characters could develop in believable ways. As it stands it's a really dragged out bunch of nothingness that doesn't know if it wants to be a fantasy or a modern relationship drama. I won't be picking up the rest, but I actually feel sad about the missed potential of this story. Although I'm an author I have never had to fight such an urge to take someone else's story and completely re-write it myself, but that's what I felt at several points through this tale. The idea was just that good and the execution that bad. Oh well.