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A review by outsidestar
Talon the Black by Melissa Mitchell
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
I heard “dragons” and came running. And then I DNFed it.
By the looks of it, I’m the only one who didn’t like this book. Seeing the reviews I'm tempted to give it another chance some other time. It’s not entirely that I didn’t like it, but I just couldn’t get into it .
This story begins in Indiana, where 22 year-old Claire is driving back home at 3am and, to her utter astonishment, sees a dragon fall from the sky and pretty much land in her backyard (which happens to be a corn field). When she gets there, all she sees is a wounded, bleeding and unconscious man lying in the middle of a dragon-sized crater. After saving him, she learns his name is Cyrus and he comes from a land called Dragonwall. Oh, and he’s a Drengr, a dragon that can shape-shift into a human.
You know those movies when a knight from medieval times somehow time-travels to modern day? Well that’s what happens here. Cyrus tells Claire everything about Dragonwall, the threats they face and how he ended up in her world, all while trying to wrap his head around how a TV works. Then he dies, but not before making Claire vow to help his world and tell no one but the king everything he told her. A second after Cyrus dies, his Drengr friends show up to rescue him (too late) and take Claire with them. So that’s how a girl from Indiana ends up in Dragonwall and the rest of her nowhere girl turns heroine and probably falls in love story happens, I didn’t get that far in.
I was 10% in when I started thinking about DNFing it. I thought it was too soon, so I skimmed through it until 25-30% to give it a chance to hook me, but it didn’t. I wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Not even a little. I felt like I was thrown head first into this world and given multiple POVs that I did not care about. The characters seemed one-dimensional and the dialogues were overly simple. Most of the time the writing felt rushed but at the same time the pace felt slow.
The premise isn't bad, I'm all in for shape-shifting dragons. I don’t know, this book just wasn’t for me, I guess. If I were a 15 year-old and new to YA I may have enjoyed it more.
A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital review copy in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.
By the looks of it, I’m the only one who didn’t like this book. Seeing the reviews I'm tempted to give it another chance some other time. It’s not entirely that I didn’t like it, but I just couldn’t get into it .
This story begins in Indiana, where 22 year-old Claire is driving back home at 3am and, to her utter astonishment, sees a dragon fall from the sky and pretty much land in her backyard (which happens to be a corn field). When she gets there, all she sees is a wounded, bleeding and unconscious man lying in the middle of a dragon-sized crater. After saving him, she learns his name is Cyrus and he comes from a land called Dragonwall. Oh, and he’s a Drengr, a dragon that can shape-shift into a human.
You know those movies when a knight from medieval times somehow time-travels to modern day? Well that’s what happens here. Cyrus tells Claire everything about Dragonwall, the threats they face and how he ended up in her world, all while trying to wrap his head around how a TV works. Then he dies, but not before making Claire vow to help his world and tell no one but the king everything he told her. A second after Cyrus dies, his Drengr friends show up to rescue him (too late) and take Claire with them. So that’s how a girl from Indiana ends up in Dragonwall and the rest of her nowhere girl turns heroine and probably falls in love story happens, I didn’t get that far in.
I was 10% in when I started thinking about DNFing it. I thought it was too soon, so I skimmed through it until 25-30% to give it a chance to hook me, but it didn’t. I wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Not even a little. I felt like I was thrown head first into this world and given multiple POVs that I did not care about. The characters seemed one-dimensional and the dialogues were overly simple. Most of the time the writing felt rushed but at the same time the pace felt slow.
The premise isn't bad, I'm all in for shape-shifting dragons. I don’t know, this book just wasn’t for me, I guess. If I were a 15 year-old and new to YA I may have enjoyed it more.
A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital review copy in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.