Book: Dragon’s Green (Worldquake Sequence 1) by Scarlett Thomas
Release Date: April 6th 2017
Tags: Middle Grade / Fantasy / Magic / Friendship / Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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Goodreads
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Synopsis
Effie Truelove believes in magic, as does her grandfather Griffin (although he refuses to do any magic, let alone teach Effie how to use it). After a mysterious incident leaves Griffin close to death, Effie is given an unusual silver ring and told she must look after her grandfather’s library of rare and powerful books. But then the books fall into the hands of shady scholar Leonard Levar, and Effie is propelled into the most dangerous adventure of her life.
Now, Effie and her friends—nerdy Maximilian, rugby-mad Wolf, helpful Lexy, and eccentric Raven—must discover their true powers if they are to get the books back. And Effie alone will have to travel to the Otherworld, where she will uncover the true meaning of the strange old book called Dragon’s Green…
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Review
Some books get all the hype internationally before they are translated to Dutch. But others do not. This was the case for Dragon’s Green as well. I had not heard of this book before it was translated to Dutch. But once I did it caught my attention immediately. With that book on the cover and the word dragon in the title I was all ears. Too bad I didn’t actually get a dragon…
Dragon’s Green is a middle grade fantasy book. As I started it, it initially seemed like a somewhat cute children’s story, but as the story progressed I caught some darker undertones here and there. Some characters asking for death. And the general darkness in some of the other side characters. In that regard there is a lot of potential to grow this into more than just a cute story but one that makes an impact. There was also humor regarding certain social norms when it comes to our appearances for instance.
There is a lot that happens in this book and it is a great adventure book. I did feel like the book lost some momentum as the kids were taken into the books and it lost my attention a bit there. Maybe it was the separation of our main characters because once they met up again, the story picked back up again.
The magic system in this book is somewhat different than others I’ve seen. There is clear payment that is needed to be able to use magic in our world. The basic things of this system have been explained in this book so I understand it. But I suspect that it will become a bit more complicated over the course of other books in this series.
As for our characters, Effie, is a bold and interesting main character to follow. She knows what she wants and tries to figure out how to go about that. Having said that, sometimes she does feel quite a bit older than her actual age and maybe a bit too fearless here and there. I was mostly drawn to Maxmillian who seems to have a bit more of a darker edge to him. Even if it doesn’t quite show itself now, there were some subtle hints here and there. Wolf, Lexy and Raven each added to the story but I hope we will learn more about them in the rest of the series.
Overal I think this is a solid start to a middle grade fantasy series.
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