Dragonfly Song
Wendy Orr
A little girl is left under a bush with no voice after raiders take her adoptive family. She is the only one to survive – and so she is relegated to the bottom of society and bullied mercilessly. Her one chance at escape is to take part in the Bull Dancing – but it is a perilous task that no one seems to know how to prepare for.
Nooo! Past me, why did you not write notes on what you enjoyed about this novel? I could have sworn I had some notes sitting in my draft folder. Ah well. I can tell you that this was an excellent example of teenage fiction, and I really enjoyed it.
I snatched this novel from the top of a new pile of bookies that came in, and devoured it. I wanted something light and easy to read and this fit the bill. I curled up on a warm couch and read it in one breathless sitting. I didn’t know what would happen next, and what horrific things would be justified in speaking to a ‘cursed one’.
Something I didn’t enjoy about this novel were the poetry sections. I’m never a fan of poetry anyway, and here, the poetry tried to be good (in fact, it might have been good poetry, I’m not a connoisseur) but for me it distracted from the otherwise beautiful prose of the story.
I’ll be keeping this novel for future generations. I felt that it had real potential as both a teaching tool (bullying is bad), but also a great storyline that didn’t turn out how I expected it to. I’ll be giving this 4 stars, not 5, only because I probably won’t reread it.
Allen & Unwin | 22nd June 2016 | AU$16.99 | Paperback
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