Moorigad Dragon (Age of the Hybrid #1)

DARK FANTASY:  Kyra is a runaway dragon, living in a carnival hidden from human sight. Her friend, Sebastian, is a carnie as well, but she doesn’t know what he is. The carnival chooses who to let in, and is constantly changing locations, both within and without its foggy borders. A half-breed mix of fire and water dragons didn’t make growing up a pleasant thing, but in her new world, she’s the only dragon; until now.

Go into the story knowing that the carnival itself is a shape shifting, pseudo-living entity all on its own will help one acclimate to this multi-author setting. Being a part of the Mystic’s Carnival Collective, separate stories, yet using the same characters, is a brilliant move on the author’s part; building a common world in an uncommon way, a technique used well in TV and movies, but not seen nearly often enough in current books. The downside to that is that characters flit in and out, seemingly random to this tale, but apparently known from previous tales. Body language and significant “looks” are employed too often for a reader to grasp what is happening and those instances create a dizzying flip-flop in actions and emotions. Crucial events simply happen, like a Jack-in-the-Box popping up. There is little solidity to anything until the last 30 pages, setting up for the continuation. As frustratingly amorphous as the storyline is to understand, the language is vivid and poignantly written to convey confusion and shiftlessness so central to this sentient carnival. An unsteady, but wonderfully fantastical tale, this story is worth the ride through the bizarre.

Julie York