Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dragonhaven
Book Review: Because it's McKinley it's still good, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
I dearly dearly LOVE the work of Robin McKinley. "Sunshine" "The Blue Sword" "The Hero and the Crown" "Spindle's End" and "Beauty" are books I will read continually throughout my life. It isn't just young adult literature - these novels are so amazingly thoughtful, inspiring, thought-provoking and engaging I can find new things within the text each time I read. I am awed, uplifted and inspired with each new reading. All the characters are dynamic, well-drawn and endearing (endearing except of course for the essential bad guy) - but regardless, engaging, dramatic, etc. Her normal storylines are so very clear yet multi-layered. Once you start reading, you can hardly bear to put it down.
In the case of "Dragonhaven," however, this particular version of 1st person gave me a bit of the headache Jake describes from the dragons. "Sunshine" too is written in first person - more like the diary of someone going through something no human has ever experienced before and goes through several months of not knowing what to do about it. This novel is written the same. It's Jake's diary of raising a baby dragon and all the goings-on of Smokehill. And I will say, McKinley's description is, as always, incredibly detailed and evokes wonderful images during the reading. But the frenzied, unorganized, slang-heavy voice of Jake seems to insert a scattered, wordy barrier between the reader and the heart of the story.
On another note, it takes a totally different direction from McKinley's other writings. For one, it's in the voice of a male character. Also, it's in a world very much like our own except for the presence of dragons. This is good, she's branching out, it's new and interesting. I just wasn't as caught up due to the lack of major epiphanies and clear-cut, new found talents that seem to come from a previously-hidden source, etc. Jake is still pretty much just a normal human who did something (raising a dragon and communicating "telepathically") that other humans could learn to do too. It doesn't make him into a new person as wholy as these totally-life-altering situations make McKinley's other characters. It changes him, certainly, and sends his life in a new direction, but I don't see any MAJOR major breakthroughs.
I'll compare it to "Sunshine" a little more as they do have similarities in style and format. Rae definitely has experiences with a vampire no human ever had before, she tends to go off on pages-long tangents in the course of the book, she's never comfortable or confident with her previously-unknown talents or "affinities," and the novel is set in a world of cities, automobiles, phones, computers, etc. BUT, there are HUGE themes of magic, supernatural creatures galore, great personal discoveries, defeat of an ultimate evil, and romance. My favorite story elements, personally. Sure, Jake has some romance in the end, but it's sort of a brief sideline as opposed to a key, hinging element of the whole plot. Yes, intelligent, "telepathic" dragons are certainly supernatural, but in a different way entirely.
Mainly what I'm saying is, there are those books I mentioned at the beginning of the review, and then there's "Dragonhaven" which I doubt I will read again. It was more like trudging through a word-clogged swamp than floating through a rich, colorful, enthralling landscape. Kudos to McKinley for doing the teenage-dialogue so well though! Her description and her talent for dialogue are truly great. Perhaps my biggest issue is that I just don't like listening to frantic, unorganized, hyper teenagers - not even when I was one myself!
Regardless, McKinley is an author of RARE talent and I will continue to return to her works with great anticipation and enjoyment. To use L.M. Montgomery's way of describing people with like-minds, I feel she is essentially a "kindred spirit."
Book Review: Believable world
Summary: 4 Stars
The details are so perfect, I felt like I should be able to take a field trip to this Dragon park and look at the museum and buy a scale to take home. I totally felt what the main character did, too. This is not a copy of someone else's idea of a dragon book!!Book Review: Dragonhaven
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed the story very much as it revealed the boy growing in awareness regarding his world and his response to it as effected by his mothers death. The dragons are not overwhelming but are still much in tune with the growing problems they presented. All in all a nice story but it did ramble on when these incidents could have been included in the main story.
Book Review: McKinley's diverse greatness
Summary: 5 Stars
McKinley's strongest assest as a writer is her ability to captivate you with her characters depth. Every book that I have read has been great, and this one is no different! DragonhavenBook Review: Oh Robin, why?!
Summary: 3 Stars
Although I hate to repeat what so many reviewers have said already, this book was a disappointment. That is not to say it isn't a wonderful book. The story is wonderful, and the dragons just as magical as they are different from the Hero and the Crown dragons. The characters, especially Billy, Eric, Jake, Lois, and the Dad are wonderful three-dimensional characters. Her writing is brilliant and witty--but, and I really hate to say this because I love Robin McKinley, rather annoying. I read the first couple of chapters and had to stop. I ended up purchasing a second copy of the book and finished it out of loyalty. But although it was sad to not cherish every page like I'm used to, I sort of saw it coming. Sunshine was another story much more character and POV-driven than plot-driven. Sunshine was sort of cinnamon roll, cinnamon roll, secret, early morning, ate another apple, still keeping the secret, not all vamps are bad, cinnamon roll, Charlie, cinnamon roll. Dragonhaven was HEADACHE, BIG DRAGON, goop, burn, teenage attitude, bold, uppercase, secret, HEADACHE, dragons aren't all bad, HEADACHE. The writing was really bold, and I can imagine it being assigned as required reading or for reading groups in sixth grade classrooms all over just because it is well done. I just wish she hadn't been so good at what she set out to do. It was interesting, but where's the beautiful language, the wonderful heroine, the romance, the danger? You've created another wonderful world--sort of a 90% earth like in Sunshine--but where's the drama, the suspense? I know you don't like being pestered about the Damar books because they were a long time ago and blah blah and you like to focus on current books--but could you bring back a little of the Damar style? Or just reverse your trend, go back even to Spindle's End-Rose Daughter-Outlaws of Sherwood style. Those were beautiful books. And your short stories in Water were captivating too! I will let Jake Mendoza, and to a lesser extent Sunshine, fade into the back of my mind, and sincerely look forward to Chalice.
More Dragonhaven reviews:
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