my first somewhat dystopian novel, since i got into reading in my pre-teens. i can say that it was a good choice. i really like it.

Fasinating world and interesting story, but poor delivery. The other was definately telling, not showing. Telling what readers what Marcus felt for Sadie. Telling what Leopold thought about about places he visited. Telling that to characters had developed a rich friendship, without showing any of the development.
I greatly enjoyed teh world and the plot, I just wuish the writing was stronger.

A fun new fantasy series with a MC with a prosthetic arm and uses a cane! It was fun, had adventure, love, loss, friendships and is about finding your power while also helping others.

Looking forward to more!

August 19, 2021 – Shelved2 Show more
Review I was excited to read this book with friends and magic, especially someone with a prosthetic. The story starts off well with the introduction of the characters and setting the stage. The fantasy world is well described and is made very real. The story seems to drag a bit with the interactions of all the characters. I would love to have 2 things added to this book, a map for the fantasy world and a dictionary for how to pronounce and what the words mean, it would make the reading flow better. I wanted to love this story more but just couldn't.

The writing was repetitive and stiff, and the dialogue was unnatural and awkward pretty much all the time. I realize the target audience is younger than me, so perhaps someone younger would not mind these things, but I personally had trouble ignoring it. The story itself also wasn't completely up my alley. One of the main reasons I wanted to read it was that the main character is a young teenage boy with a prosthetic arm. I thought it was interesting to see a new kind of protagonist, and this part of the story I still think is great. It's great for young people to see many different kinds of heroes in their stories. Diversity is so important

Trigger Warning

There are references to an accident caused by drink driving which resulted in Marcus’ disabilities and left his mother with scars.

If I was reviewing Drōmfrangil solely based on the worldbuilding then this book would be getting a resounding five out of five stars as a rating. The world that McDonald has created is gorgeous, it draws you in and like Marcus and his friends I wanted to return to explore and learn even more about Drōmfrangil and its people. But worldbuilding is just a part of a book, and as I began to work on my review I began to realise a few things didn’t quite sit right with me about it. They were enough for me to adjust my initial rating from four stars to three and a half.

As I mentioned, I fell in love with the world that Marcus and his friends, Leopold and Sadie, find themselves in. The three native races of Drōmfrangil are highly unusual and they are wonderfully described by McDonald. Her form of storytelling utilises her characters as explorers, and through their questions and actions, the reader learns all about Drōmfrangil. It does mean there is a lot of information to digest at times, however, I personally did not find that this was too much. I like to know about the world I’m reading about and the method used made sense rather than when an author just randomly divulges information on a whim. The three teenagers are all curious characters and were eager to learn about the world just as I was!

It would have been nice to have a map to visually explore while reading, although that was more a wish than a necessity. What I do think is a necessity is a glossary as I struggled with some of the names in the book; even the book’s title gives me trouble as I’ve never been very good with accented letters. While the names were inventive, they were just a bit too far outside English to be as easily understood as they could have been if a glossary at the start of the book was available.

As I mentioned in my first impressions, what draw me to Drōmfrangil was a disabled main character and this book has fantastic disabled representation. While I cannot comment on the accuracy of the representation of a disabled character with a prosthesis, as someone who suffers from chronic pain I can comment on this representation in the book. I appreciated how many times McDonald repeatedly mentioned Marcus’ pain and how he was feeling, whether it was pain or fatigue. That may come across as annoying to non-disabled readers, but for me, it was nice to see myself and my struggles correctly represented in a book for a change. There was a lot of travel in this book and I was right there with Marcus when he struggled to keep going, especially when he wanted to not let his friends down or be a burden to them. Those are feelings that I’m sure will resonate with many people.

A few things bothered me about the two secondary characters and that is what brought my rating down. The first is an element of one of their identities was revealed at the very end of the book, and I feel that by leaving that revelation to the end that it ended up being a tick off a representation/diversity checklist rather than a legitimate moment of character growth. There were plenty of moments when the two characters were together during the book when that particular conversation in question could have happened, and I feel it would have been much more appropriate for it to have been revealed nearer the middle of the book. The way it was done just felt like an afterthought.

The other was the way that the female friend, Sadie, was always seen crying and visibly upset when she was as strong, tough and independent as the two boys, and they were also as upset as she was. That’s not to say that the boys didn’t cry too, they did, but I just feel that it was pointed out more often that Sadie was upset or needed support. It just felt at odds with the rest of Sadie’s character, someone who didn’t hesitate to jump into things or do what needed to be done.

The final issue I had with Drōmfrangil was some of the language choices. For the entire book it was PG, and then suddenly in the last few chapters curse words suddenly appeared. The teenagers were stressed throughout the book, and if they were prone to swearing then they should have been using that language throughout. It wasn’t the swearing that bothered me, it was the lack of continuality. Either they were people who used curse words or they weren’t. You can’t just throw them in wildly. There were a few other times that the overall language used by the teenagers felt out of place for their age. At one point Marcus agrees with someone and states “I wholeheartedly agree”. I don’t know many adults, let alone teenagers, who use that word. It was extremely out of place for a teenager’s vocabulary.

Drōmfrangil is an interesting book with fascinating worldbuilding, an interesting magic system and wonderful disability representation, but some of the other details let it down. I feel that the end of the novel in particular was rushed as that was where most of my issues lay, and the novel ends on an extremely odd cliffhanger. If this is book one of a series then that makes a bit more sense, although there is no information to suggest that is the case. There is so much potential with this book and with more beta reading, and including some sensitivity reading, it could be truly outstanding.

Struggled to enjoy this. Lots of info dumping that felt very unnatural, also trauma dumping that felt forced. Very cliche. The story pace was very slow. And the differences between the three main characters didn’t feel natural. Characters would regurgitate history of laws, their whole trauma to strangers, it was clear it was for the reader but didn’t feel natural. Tried to ignore it for the rest of the story and plot as it’s more of a fantasy book, but they were just so bizarre. And there was so much time explaining ‘human’ things to the creatures rather than furthering plot. I was excited as this is a book by a disabled person, with a disabled MC but was deeply overshadowed.

An adventure-packed fantasy story.

'Dromfrangil' features the story of Marcus Talent, a 16-year-old who woke up in a mysterious forest one night, and lost his prosthetic arm in an attack by a terrifying creature. As he returned home just in the way he had gone to the strange world, he found himself wounded, which only confirmed that he had not not been dreaming. His father, Deacon Talent, who had the answer to all the questions that were setting his head ablaze, rushed into the room and helped him with the injury, but Marcus was only offered a brief explanation. He was left in confusion for the night. Marcus could barely wait for school to end the following day but as he returned, his father was nowhere to be seen. Several clues led him to believe something was fishy and he was proved right by a note that claimed Deacon was abducted. It was time for Marcus to return to the mysterious world to rescue his father but what he did not expect was to take along two of his friends.

It was undoubtedly a fun read that held the proof of the author's power of imagination. I loved her views on disability that have been portrayed through the character of Marcus Talent. The story also conveys a beautiful message that physical strength does not necessarily come with gallantry and it is not even a prerequisite.

There are certain parts in the story that, I believe, can still use a little work. Some of the scenes came up a little abruptly and some of them lacked the essential dramatic effect. Besides, there was a little inconsistentcy at the end.

It was an interesting story nevertheless. The author surely has got potential.

Recommended for fantasy loving middle-graders.