3 stars
For the most part, I enjoyed this book. I was originally drawn in by the cover. Plus, I’m a huge fan of dragons.
The beginning of the novel is very good. I really enjoyed all of the descriptive language. The premise of a fake dragon hunter is interesting and I liked the depth of Ansel’s character. Once the characters encounter the dragon, things get pretty gory. There are a lot of good descriptions, but it is pretty violent and bloody for a children’s chapter book. This is not necessarily bad, but there are definitely some young readers this would not appeal to.
This is a pretty quick read, because it is so suspenseful, written in a way that makes the reader want to keep going to find out what happens next.
I did really enjoy the different perspective on this dragon. Is it Satan? Is it evil? Is it just an animal trying to survive? I liked that Reeve included this depth in the novel. It really made the reader think about the role of the dragon and whether he was a villain or just an animal living in the mountains.
Overall, a good book with great descriptions. There are definitely some hard to read areas because of the violence and ill-treatment, but it also raises really advanced issues of the “evilness” of carnivorous creatures, empathy, and what is “right”.