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Cressida Cowell – How to Break a Dragon’s Heart | Review

Title: How to Break a Dragon’s Heart

Author: Cressida Cowell

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 320

Rating: 4*/5

Cressida Cowell – How to Break a Dragon’s Heart

When I first picked this one up, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to finish it. I mean, it’s a kid’s book, right? But it turns out that despite being the eighth in a series of which I’ve only read the first, it was actually quite the cracker. I really enjoyed it, and I’m glad that they’re written in such a way that you don’t have to read them in order. It means I can keep on picking them up from charity shops as and when I see them.

If you’re familiar with the movie (or the TV show) of How to Train Your Dragon then you pretty much know what to expect here. In this adventure, Hiccup finds himself saving his friend Fishlegs by accidentally proposing marriage and having to complete an impossible task to win permission from her father. Along the way, he learns a little more about his ancestor, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Second, and meeting plenty more dragons along the way.

Sure, it can be a little daft at times, but it’s pure escapism and it proved to me that you’re never too old to enjoy a good tale about dragons. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I now plan to add the rest of the series to my Goodreads wishlist, which must mean something. Cowell’s writing style is perfect for kids without being offputting to adults, and the illustrations throughout the book really helped to bring it to life. I also noticed a few differences between the books and the movie/TV shows, including the fact that in the books, Toothless is green. But he’ll always be black in my head because the animated Toothless is the spitting image of my cat, Biggie. So cute.

Cressida Cowell

Click here to buy How to Break a Dragon’s Heart.

Erin Morgenstern – The Night Circus | Review

Title: The Night Circus

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 506

Rating: 4*/5

Erin Morgenstern – Night Circus

This is going to be a difficult review for me to write because there was a lot I liked here and a lot that I didn’t like. The problem is that the two are intertwined in many ways and so by the end of the book, while I was glad that it was over, I was also glad that I’d read it.

The best parts of the book are undoubtedly Morgenstern’s writing style and her world-building skills. The characters might be one-dimensional and unmemorable (I constantly forgot who was who and now, twelve hours after finishing it, I already can’t remember any of their names), but the actual setting of the story – the night circus – is unforgettable. It’s just a shame that the author didn’t spend more time describing the environment and investigating the different acts and the different tents, because that was what I found interesting – as opposed to the actual story line, which didn’t really exist.

The big problem is that the narrative, such as it is, jumps backwards and forwards through time, and I don’t think there was any need for it. I guess Morgenstern was attempting to write literary fiction, but I feel that a story like this would have been better – and more enjoyable – as more of a linear plot but one which spanned generations. I get that the point here is more to show different snapshots of the story but it didn’t feel deliberate – it felt like it all came together accidentally. Then there were the occasional sections in which the manuscript used second person, which I hate. But a lot of this is personal taste, and so I can’t complain too much.

Erin Morgenstern

And yet despite all of this, I did still enjoy it. I liked the way it made me think, and I thought that little bits of it – like the splashes of red worn by the rêveurs – were fantastic. But no amount of beautifully constructed sentences and stunning imagery can make up for the fact that it felt like nothing much happened. It could have been a third of the length and still done the job, and I’d argue that that’s what it needs. Imagine an illustrated version with all of the crap cut out so that you’re left with a condensed copy that packs a more powerful punch. It might even have earned a five.

Still, I can’t give this a three or below purely because it is a good book – it’s just not as good as I was expecting. People go on and on about it – or at least they did when it was released – and it’s not something I’d recommend going out of your way for. I picked it up in a charity shop and left it on my shelf for a year before reading it. In hindsight, I feel like that was appropriate. And at last, I can move on from the circus.