You know how they say 'never meet your heroes'? Well I think maybe we should have a 'never revisit an author you loved as a teen just in case they turn out to be problematic AF'. That's what happened with this book. I'd read Secret Sacrament and The Raging Quiet when I was at school and loved them, but now I'm not sure if they were like this book and I just didn't pick up on it.
Jude, the main character, lives in a land that had been riddled by dragons. After extensive hunting the people thought they were near wiped out, until one started burning towns again. Jude loses his home and family to the dragon's fire, and ends up on a mission to try and slay the last dragon. On his way he meets a Chinese lady, Jing-Wei, who's kept captive in a circus. Together they share the burden of the mission.
I realised quite early on that the book was more teen than YA, which in itself was fine. However, Jude's attitude and the general message of the book was where things really went downhill. Jude is the knightly hero of the book, and his 'kindness' to Jing Wei in taking her out of a cage and washing her to put her back in the cage is something that's written as though its admirable. The whole story encapsulates in a 'romance' where Jude has to get over the disgust he feels at Jing-Wei's 'otherness' and only really accepts her as a person when other people do. The whole thing was actually pretty gross and made the book my least favourite read last year.
It's not something I'd really recommend - there's so much great teen/YA fantasy fiction out there that doesn't have these issues.
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