Eon (Dragoneye, #1)

by Alison Goodman

[ladygrey]

ugh.

I mean, I liked the story. a lot. It's a really different world and it's interesting with the dragons and the characters are all really well developed.

But I can't get over how infuriating this book is. Eon spends 200 pages being so ridiculously stupid it drove me crazy. Because the answer was so obvious. And it wasn't like Twilight where she just didn't see the obvious answer, she kept making choices that were more and more stupid and my knowing how bad those choices were just made it terrible. And, yes, years of conditioning and cultural rules, I know. It doesn't matter when I wanted to stop reading and I wanted to punch her in the face but she's fictional so that wouldn't work very well. Eventually it turned around like I knew it would and the story actually became more interesting again after that. But that second act was really long.

Also, there's way too much description for my tastes. Some people like a very vividly evoked setting. I like people and emotions and relationships. So the fact that every single room they walk into is described, what every single person who walks into the story is wearing, just broke into the story.

Those are my two major criticisms. It was a hard book for me to read. But the story was enough to overcome that. Because the first act (before she starts ignoring the obvious and reacting without thinking!) was good. I really liked the bit about how Eona became Eon.

But most of all I learned how not to be watched. ... that look of temporary possession that some men gave... And even at twelve years old, the knowledge of it was already in the way I moved my head, my hands, my shoulders. ... I had to stop being alert to the turn of a man's head toward me. Stop glancing up to meet his gaze in fleeting connection. Stop falsely veiling my eyes from his momentary interest.
Every woman knows that and I loved the way she expresses it and weaves it into Eon's character.

And the third act was interesting as well, full of action and horrors and (of course) too much description but also revelation and the unexpected. I liked who she was in the end quite a bit which makes it easier to look forward to the sequel.