The Mark of the Dragonfly

Reviewed by: Martha Van Wyck - Portland Public Library/Burbank Branch, Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: June 11, 2014

Review

This tale starts strong - the setting and characters are skillfully drawn and the plot is engaging from the get-go. The premise: an orphaned thirteen year old girl in a vaguely dystopian world makes a living by fixing machinery. The machines she repairs fall from the sky during meteor showers (the meteors carry objects from other worlds). Her life changes when she saves another girl's life and then feels responsible for saving her from a mysterious, menacing man. The pace lags a bit in the middle of the book but picks up again toward the end with some surprising twists. This story stands alone but sequels are possible; especially welcome in a sequel would be more about those mysterious meteor showers and why they carry things from another (read our) world.

Overall Book Score: very good