I loved the premise and the story in this fantasy novel - the concept of dragons living among us is one every fantasy reader loves and finding out they are there in our world makes for a great concept. There are a few issues that don't really work well with the novel, though. While the book needs to move along, there is too much of a rush in Allison getting her prosthetic eyes - it is way over simplified and doesn't ring true. There is nothing wrong with leaving time between chapters to make it feel more real. As a teacher, I am with teenagers all day every day and none of them talk and/or interact the way they are depicted in the book. In a lot of places, it just feels really awkward. (Yes, it gave me red pen fever.) Definitely more research/observation of teen behavior and language is needed here. Despite that, it is a fun story, and if you are a fan of dragons, you will love the ideas in here.

Dragons Walk Among Us is Dan Rice’s debut young adult fantasy novel. It’s a high-energy fantasy and young adult story. Mr. Rice has embedded multiple messages and current issues that many high schoolers face.

Allison Lee is talented but shy. She faces bullying at school, presumably due to her race, but just as likely to be a result of jealousy by the campus “queen bee”. The start of the book is a good but somewhat mundane set up to a standard young adult story. However, the plot abruptly ramps to high speed when Allison is attacked on a dark and stormy night. From her sci-fi recovery to the discovery of a secret power, the pedestrian young adult story quickly becomes a creature-filled fantasy.

Allison and her friends are thrown into an incredible adventure with golems, dragons, and humans. They face incredible dangers on their quest, and along the way they grow as a makeshift family of friends. While I’m not a huge fan of the fantasy genre, I enjoyed Dragons Walk Among Us. It’s a good book for middle schoolers and older readers that clearly illuminates the perils of being a teen whether you're a mere mortal or have fantastical powers.

A devastating attack, an experimental eye surgery, throws Allison Lee's life in turmoil as she starts seeing dragons walking among us. All Allison wants is to survive high school and avoid the tormenting of her bully. She escapes the pain through photography and has a real talent for it, even receiving praise from judges at a photo contest. She visits her friend in a homeless shelter and through an attack is rendered blind. Despair sets in as Allison has nothing to live for, that is until an experimental surgery promises to restore her sight. Sure, there are side effects, but she's willing to risk it if she can see again. Only what she sees throws her life in peril. Dragons walking among the living as she walks down the street? Is she imagining it or did the surgery reveal the true world?

Dragons Walk Among Us is a compelling young adult fantasy I read in one sitting. From the first page, the reader is thrown into Allison's world where she is inundated with cruel bullying. While I give credit for Dan Rice's descriptive narration, my stomach turned on several occasions as I read scene after scene of intense bullying. I connected with Allison right away and my heart broke as she lost her sight. The emotional narration is very real and pulled the reader into the story. The fantasy sub-plot with the dragons was so imaginative, I whipped through the pages just to find out what happened next. The plot moves at a great pace with plenty of twists and turns to entertain the reader. This is Dan Rice's debut novel, and I was honestly surprised as his writing is impeccable and sophisticated. I look forward to reading more from Dan Rice. If you love fantasy adventure, you'll want to read Dragons Walk Among Us. If you're an epic fantasy reader with a love for dragons, you need to read Dragons Walk Among Us. Highly recommend!

My Rating: 5 stars

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Dragons Walk Among Us is a debut novel by Dan Rice is a coming-of-age story about a teen girl named Allison and her ability to see dragons after a horrific attack. I love books about dragons so I automatically picked this book up. Although I enjoyed the characters and concept, I felt as though it was lacking some sustenance.

I was given a copy of this through NetGalley. I hate to review books poorly, especially debut novels, but I have to with this one. If it weren’t for the fact I was supposed to review it I would have DNF’d it well before I was 1/4 of the way through.

**Mild Spoilers (though part of the synopsis)

My first problem came when Allison decides to get her prosthetic eyes. Soon after finding out she is probably permanently blind and learning about a brand new experimental surgery that she will be the first to have she decides and her father agrees to it. I get that her father was part of the development, but still in less than a week she is having the surgery. I understand that it is necessary to move the plot along, but it just did not ring true.
I was willing to overlook this to get on with the introduction to dragons. I’m a sucker for any book about dragons, but especially intelligent, friendly ones. But soon I found it difficult to keep reading and could have finished it faster if I didn’t keep stopping so I could read something else. Something more interesting. First I got tired of hearing about coffee. Going to The Obsidian Roast for coffee, jonesing for coffee, talking about coffee. I don’t are for coffee myself, but I understand it’s a big part of a lot of people’s lives. The author must have a serious coffee addiction. It got to where I thought I’d scream if coffee was mentioned again. And of course it was. Then there was how the teenagers spoke. There were constant references to her “squad”, her friends. I’m around a teenager and a young adult almost daily and the way they talked in the book seemed incredibly awkward. In my notes I asked if any teenagers talked like this and did the author have any idea how they talked?
Finally there was the overall plot and premise of the book. There was an attempt to bring something new to the idea of dragons, but it fell short. Overall it felt incredibly predictable. But I’ll often enjoy a predictable dragon book if it is well written. This book wasn’t. It definitely could have used a better editor. If several problems had been fixed it could have been an average enjoyable read.

Dragons Walk Among Us by Dan Rice
1/7/2021
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Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Dragons Walk Among Us in exchange for an honest review.

While this is kind of a cool concept, I think the execution was really lacking. The narration consistently feels very, very undeveloped which which really makes any potential to care about the characters, mystery, or world difficult at best, impossible at worst. I think Dan Rice had some interesting ideas here, but this should have gone through a lot more drafting to prevent it from consistently reminding you you're reading a book about characters instead of a story about people.

DNF at 75%.

I hate DNFing books in general, but this was not worth my time. I tried really hard to get through it, but life is too short to read bad books. Normally when I read something like this by a debut author, I say something about how the author has potential, or how I really liked the plot but the writing needs work. Now, this is nothing personal against the author, but I have nothing good to say. In one word, Dragons Walk Among Us was slow. Three-quarters of the way into the book nothing had happened. And worst of all, I didn’t care. The characters were whiny and annoying with no positive development, the writing was sloppy, and there was no setting, world-building, or plot to speak of. Not worth my time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mature content: semi-frequent swearing, one instance of f**k. Some violence, not gory but somewhat disturbing, included a girl getting mugged and teenagers deliberately hurting someone badly to get information. Race is a minor issue.

•I was provided with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.•

This could have been something great, but it just didn't work unfortunately. The premise and storyline are super cool, super interesting, and the cover art is simply stunning! However, the writing style is not fantastic. It reads as if a child wrote the story, the language is very disjointed and doesn't flow very well.