A review by cassroberts89
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

I’m sorry, I could not get into this. It just wasn’t very well written. “Charm” started out as an interesting magical element, but it very quickly turned into something that just made everything come way too easily to the MC. She was able to do pretty much anything she needed/wanted to do while using it. Her problems just didn’t feel like actual problems as a result, so I found I didn’t care all that much how her story turned out. I also found I was confused on some parts, like

when the two friends (Sujin and Hureal?) were with Min, then betrayed her, then they were with her again, but then they… forgave Min? I don’t know. AND it made no sense at all how the mother reacted to seeing the ghost of her son return home! Like she had basically no reaction at all.

It just read strangely to me. This was our pick for my library’s tween book club. They seemed to like it a bit more than I did, but no one seemed crazy about it.