What's Hot? Books.
The Dragonfly Prophecy by Jacquelyn Castle.
I wasn't really sure what to make of The
Dragonfly Prophecy when it first landed on my doorstep as I had never heard of
this novel before, nor did I have any preconceptions. When I first saw it, I
thought this book was all about dragonflies. It is not. Whether or not this is
a good thing or bad thing is for you to decide, but, I repeat, The Dragonfly
Prophecy is not about dragonflies. It
is; however, about 17 year old Lexi Blane who seems to be living the perfect
life. She has a boyfriend who adores her and parents who’d do anything for her,
but there’s just one problem – Lexi has sudden and inexplicable fainting spells.
In addition, she has odd dreams when she’s unconscious, or maybe reality is
actually just a dream and the dreams are reality. Lexi’s life is turned upside down
as she is suddenly thrust into a war between two worlds, reality and the
alternative reality, but first she needs to figure out what’s real and what’s
just a dream, who she can and cannot trust, and most importantly - which side
she’s on. Two guys, from different worlds, are fighting for her affections and
whilst she’s in love with both, she knows she has to make a choice; however,
one of them is lying to her – but which one is it? Lexi’s life quickly spirals
out of control as she finds out she is, in fact, ‘gifted’ with special
abilities and with these abilities comes a long list of responsibilities. She soon realises that there may be other forces at work in her
life, was it fate that she survived the fatal car accident that killed her
parents?
Lexi’s list of questions gets longer and longer
as the story goes on and all is revealed in a dramatic finale. I’m quite happy
to say that I actually could not predict the ending to this novel and that is
what drove me to continue reading. Teenage fiction can be very repetitive these
days with story after story being published when really the plot lines are all
the same, but The Dragonfly Prophecy is truly unique.
The book is narrated from the point of view of
Lexi herself and so we are really immersed in the story and feel like we are
living life through Lexi’s eyes. I think that the character of Lexi is
absolutely spot on and she feels acts and speaks exactly like a 17 year old
teenage girl would. For this reason, I’d say that The Dragonfly Prophecy will
probably appeal more to girls than boys. Lexi’s character is continuously
developing throughout the book and so is the plot and this keeps the story fresh
and interesting throughout. There is a sense of mystery and suspense
surrounding both William and Chace – the two love interests – and the reader is
left completely in the dark as to their true intentions right until the very
end. There are lots of twists and turns in this novel that I wasn’t expecting
even though I knew to look out for them!
My only criticism of this book is that I did not
see the relevance of the title for a very long while and even after I had
understood the connection between the title and the content I did not feel that
this was the most appropriate title. Both the blurb and the title suggest that
this book is all about dragonflies, when in fact it is not. Personally, I don’t
believe the symbol of the dragonfly plays a big enough role to justify the title
of the novel.
I’d definitely think that this novel has been
overlooked and should be given a lot more credit. It is a brilliant and unique
story that had me gripped from the beginning to the end and I simply could not
put it down. I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of ‘I Am Number Four’,
as there are similarities between the ‘gifted’ ones and the people of Lorien;
however, the story lines are still completely different.