Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon

by Rena Rocford

1,5 stars

I'm sad that I didn't love Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon. It has so much going for it, a gorgeous cover, a fun title, dragons and what seemed like an entertaining read.

Almost every single aspect is flat, shallow and underdeveloped. This book isn't exciting and failed to hold my attention. I couldn't relate to the characters, the romances are poorly written and the plot and world doesn't make sense. 

Alyson might not have much of a personality, but she's also the first character I've read about in a YA Fantasy who has acne. I like that the aspects she considers to be insecurities and flaws are the parts that make her unique and otherworldly. I also like that her makeup skills play a role in hiding her dragon nature. Unfortunately, some aspects are unbelievable such as her acceptance of mythical creatures and that she might be half-dragon without much hesitation as well as when she figures out the dragon stuff pretty quickly.

The plot is all over the place and I couldn't understand what was going on most of the time. It's like there's a bunch of different plot lines that don't make sense on their own, nor do they make sense in terms of the overall story. I couldn't understand what the characters are trying to achieve and what's the point of it all. 

I love books about mythical creatures and there are many different mythical creatures such as trolls, unicorns, centaurs, gryphons and dragons. However, I didn't like how they're portrayed. Some mythical creatures are explored more than others, but it's still very shallow.  The main character is half-dragon, but I still don't know much about the dragons in Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon.

I always felt like I was missing important information about the world, the creatures and the characters and the ending is abrupt. 

Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon could have been a fun read. Interesting ideas, but terrible execution.