Discarded Dragons
by Jennifer M. Zeiger
PLOT SYNOPSIS (from the back of the book)
Not all dragons are created equal, as you well know. Some have wings intricately designed so their metal plates fold smoothly against their ribs. Others boast jeweled eyes that sparkle in the night. And still others possess needle-sharp claws that help them perch on the edges of shelves like birds of prey. All these dragons are useful, beautiful, and graceful.
You are not one of these, however. You hide in a pile of discarded metal parts on the floor and watch the others through a single, murky glass eye. The Maker tossed you aside when he found your thin wings were too weak to carry your body. Months have passed since that day and other discarded bits press down upon your frame, sharing their rust with you right along with their weight.
The Maker’s current project holds a lot of hope for you, though. She’s small like you, and many of the parts not deemed worthy of her perfect shape might fit you. One in particular caught your eye while the Maker worked today.
As night sets, you see your chance to sneak out and complete your design, to be a finished creation, but choose wisely, Dear Dragon, for success or failure depends on your next move.
Series: Single Book
Age Recommendation: 7+
Content Notice: Mild peril
Faith Based: No
ISBN: 978-17351-2262-5
Overall
Characters
Story/Plot
Writing
Setting
Consistency
THE BOTTOM LINE
A fun choose-your-own-adventure story.
THOUGHTS…
Discarded Dragons is an exciting story well-suited to younger audiences. The writing is great and the main character, a cast-aside mechanical dragon, makes for the perfect underdog protagonist. The characters in the story are mostly dragons or other automatons and, due to the age range and nature of the genre, are somewhat shallow in depth. The Maker is barely a character but in one particular direction of the story, there is a girl who is pretty solid considering how much page-time she has. The plot of the story can, as this genre implies, go in many different directions based on the decisions the reader makes. Some are better than others, but all are constricted by the overall length of the tale. Nevertheless, there were two which took some truly unexpected twists and left an impression. In conclusion, expectations for this book should be tempered by the many limitations of the chose-your-own-adventure genre. It will not be a master’s thesis topic for any literary students but will make a fun afternoon for children up to young teens.
RANTS AND RAMBLES
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- DISCLAIMER: When I review books, weaknesses and inconsistencies tend to dominate my discussion; therefore, I will emphasize that any particular rant (and, yes, they can be long-winded) does not have special bearing on my unified opinion of the book. Foe this, please refer to my overall star rating. Additionally, this review is my personal opinion, intended to help like-minded readers navigate the plethora of available options. Use it as a tool but do not assign undue importance to it (i.e. feel free to disagree with me).
- I am a completionist, so reading a chose-your-own-adventure book is always a challenge as I feel compelled to experience all possible endings. I appreciated the manner in which the sections of the book were organized which made it easy to read through the volume trying different options but always being able to easily back-track and try a different path once an end was reached. This is probably a small thing to normal people who do not suffer from irrational, completionist compulsions, but I found it to be a plus.
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