In a small quiet seaside town, Miguel meets an exotic girl- Lainey with the red-gold hair and the accompanying red-gold dog. She's from Australia, but he soon finds out that there's something more strange about her than just a foreign accent. She is a shape-shifter, a "were-dingo" on the run with her twin sister from an ancient persona who simply calls himself Dingo. He wants her life, in order to free himself from a tree he's been trapped in for centuries. Miguel must convince another boy from highschool- his enemy no less- to join with him in the quest to save the dingo girls. They travel into the dreamland and back, involving some adult figures in preparations and plans but having to face the final test alone. I liked the beginning of the book, when Miguel was puzzling out the true identity of his new girlfriend, and I liked the end, when the final meeting with Dingo turned all expectations inside out, but the middle dragged on rather dully. Again, I don't know for sure if it's just that this writer's style doesn't fully engage me, or that I've outgrown YA fiction and should leave it well alone, but although the story was interesting and the inclusion of Australian mythology new to me, my mind kept sliding away from it all. I think I'm going to put the de Lint books aside for now, and look for something else to read. They just aren't grabbing me.Rating: 2/5 ....... 213 pages, 2008
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I thought it was interesting that you picked this one up after abandoning another book by this author - I don't like reading books by the same author close together - especially if I haven't enjoyed the recent one. I'm pleased that you made it to the end of this one though! Time to find some better books now though!
ReplyDeleteWell, I had several checked out from the library and I felt bad to turn them all back in without giving at least a few others at try.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's the book for me either, so don't feel bad.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first book I read by this author, and I've a few of his other books in my pile. Not sure when I'd get to those... I guess it has to depend on my reading mood.
ReplyDeleteThe Australian mythology part sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteI find that De Lint's book can drag a bit. I've read a couple of his short story volumes and The Little Country and they do seem to lose focus in the middle - even the short story books. Judging by what you've said here I see that it's not just me that feels that way and I'm not sure if he's an author that I'll return too - much as I like the *idea* of his Newford books.
ReplyDelete