Flying Blind (The Dragon Diaries 1)

by Deborah Cooke

I will shift shape and I will cast dreams and I will be everything that I am forecast to be. I am the Wyvern. And I will claim my birthright, right here and now. Zoe Sorensson is a perfectly normal teenage girl. That's the problem. She's always been told she's destined for great things - she is a dragon shape shifter, a Pyr, and the only female one of her kind. But Zoe's powers are AWOL, so she's sent to Pyr boot camp. Zoe quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line -unless Zoe and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

• ISBN13: 9780749040628
• Publish Date: 31 October 2011
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 23 June 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Allison & Busby
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: https://murdochbooks.com.au/browse/books/9780749040628

Reviews

"The present is where the past shakes hands with the future."

Flying Blind is a light and breezy YA paranormal novel with dragons.

Zoe Sorensson, the main character of Flying Blind, is the Wyvern, the only female dragon shapeshifter of the Pyr, and is supposed to have special powers. Unfortunately, her powers are missing in action so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp to help her master them.

Zoe is a typical YA protagonist and she's difficult to like. She's immature, petty, proud and self-centred. Although she does some ridiculous things, she keeps a cool head in most situations and she goes through lots of character growth. I started to like her more when she got over herself.

The secondary characters aren't well-developed and the situations that they're placed in don't put them in a good light. I understand that Garret, Nick, Liam and Zoe were under a spell and their negative emotions were heightened, but they acted so stupidly and turned on each other so fast. I also couldn't deal with Zoe's feelings of jealousy and hate towards Isabelle (because if Zoe really thought about it, she and Nick wouldn't have worked out) especially because Isabelle was trying so hard to be nice to Zoe and gain her friendship.

Zoe has a crush one of her best friends, Nick, but Nick just sees her as a little sister. She then meets Nick's cousin, Jared, a typical bad boy who rides a motorcycle and is in a band. I don't have any strong feelings towards Zoe and Jared. The only thing that I don't understand is what Jared finds so fascinating about Zoe because he's so much older and Zoe seems so immature. There's a destined romance between Nick and Isabelle and the trope subversion is interesting.

The dragon lore is quite interesting and while there's some info-dumping at the beginning, most things are gradually revealed later on. I also like the addition of Mages and spellcasters and other shapeshifters. I'm excited to explore more of the world in The Dragon Diaries series.

The plot progression is okay, but I'm not a fan of all the time that's spent at the boot camp cabin. I like the idea of the elder Pyr working together with the younger Pyr. It's nice to see the positive and close relationships between adults and children.

While Flying Blind has DRAGONS, interesting lore and a light and humourous tone, the characters are less than stellar.