Review: Shadow Scale

Shadow Scale (Seraphina #2)

By Rachel Hartman

Random House Children's Books March 2015

608 pages

From the library

The kingdom of Goredd has maintained a shaky peace between humans and dragons for many years. But war is now on the horizon. Their best hope for a united kingdom lies with Seraphina, who is half human and half dragon. When she learns that there are others like her and that their combined powers could turn the tide of the war, Seraphina sets out to find them. She expects to be in charge of her motley group, but another half-dragon makes a power play to control the ityasaari (half-dragons). Seraphina will have to convince the others to join her, fight off powerful enemies, and make it back home in time to save the kingdom. 

Seraphina is one of the rare YA books I adored. I loved the world that Hartman created and getting to know her unique and fascinating protagonist. In the sequel, this author really expands her world. We get to travel to other realms with Seraphina, meet lots of new characters, and go deeper into the politics and scheming that are guiding current events. Unfortunately, this is an example of a book that went too wide and not deep enough.

In the first book, readers came to know and love Seraphina's uncle Orma and her close friends Princess Glisselda and Prince Lucian. But we spend little to no time with these characters in this new book and not enough time with most of the new characters to really care for them. Seraphina travels to new and exciting places too and I wanted to spend more time with them and get a feel for their peoples and culture instead of just passing through. 

I did love Seraphina's experiences meeting the other ityasaari. She assumed that they would all band together as an instant family of misfits. But Seraphina learns, as most of us do, that having the same scars doesn't mean that we react the same way or want the same things for our futures. 

It seems like Shadow Scale suffered from many of the follies of sequels. Readers get a lot of information and many important events happen away from the eyes of our protagonist. There were several moments that I wish Seraphina was present to witness, instead of hearing about it afterwards. And the ending? It seemed awfully quick and convenient, but still left me wanting more information and more time with the characters. 

Seraphina is a book I very much enjoyed reading and I am impressed by Hartman's ability to give us characters to love and new lands to dream about. I wish some things had happened differently in Shadow Scale, but I still recommend the series so that readers can experience Seraphina coming to terms with who she is and finding the strength to fight for what she believes in. 

My review of Seraphina 

Review: Seraphina

Seraphina

By Rachel Hartman

Random House 2012

451 pages

From the library 

Seraphina Dombegh is a court musician in the kingdom of Goredd. The land has been at peace for years, ever since a tentative peace was brokered between humans and dragons. As the anniversary of the treaty draws close, dragons begin to arrive to the court in human form to attend the celebration. When a member of the royal family is murdered, seemingly by a dragon, no one at court is above suspicion. Seraphina has a secret reason for wanting this mystery solved and begins assisting Prince Lucian in the investigation. Will her involvement in this court catastrophe reveal her own hidden origins?

As you know if you often read this blog, I approach YA novels with a certain amount of trepidation. But I'm trying to move past that. When I heard that this story was set in a fictional past and that its heroine is a musician, I thought this might be one I could get into. As it turned out, I really enjoyed this book. 

Seraphina is slated to have a sequel published next year and I think Hartman has created a world and a group of characters who are deserving of multiple books. While this is an imagined world with imaginary conflicts between dragons and people, there are obviously a lot of parallels to be drawn about those who have power and a sense of belonging and those who are on the outside. In Seraphina's world, dragons are outcasts who are forced to wear bells around the neck when in human form so that everyone can avoid them. Despite their great power, they are the lowest members of society. 

Seraphina herself is a really compelling character. She is guarded with other people because she doesn't know who she can trust, but she is also incredibly resilient and layered. While I liked her a lot, she often struck me as very mature for her age. We are told she is 16, but she thinks and acts much older than that. She has a great deal of responsibility, as someone who is responsible for instructing musicians and organizing music for the entire kingdom. She also has a firmly established sense of morality for a teenager and has the ability to really empathize with others and consider their feelings and reactions. It's a wonderful change from the typical self-centered teenage heroine.

I also really appreciated the romantic aspect of this story. It's easy to tell, fairly early in the story, that Seraphina will begin a romance of some sort with a certain character. But it's not the crux of the book. It's a slow build and the story is more about Seraphina coming to terms with who she is and how she navigates her world than about her feelings for the other character. Seraphina's experiences could stand without a love interest, but having one certainly adds some tension to the story.

Rachel Hartman's Seraphina is a perfect book for immersing yourself in another world. It's a fantasy world with rich characters and a fast-moving story and a YA book with a protagonist who cares more about self-awareness and the world around her than the cute boy next door. I am glad that I gave this book a try and I look forward to seeing what happens in the sequel.