Review: Dragonfly

8/15/2019

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If you're a usual reader of my blog (which, if you are, thank you!), you know that I tend to stay away from historical fiction. I'm not entirely sure why - I love learning about history! Slowly I've been trying to get out of the habit of "dismissing" the genre, and I can happily say that Leila Meacham's Dragonfly has certainly encouraged me to keep delving in to the genre!

Firstly, Meacham's writing is absolutely gorgeous. It is easy to follow, yes, but most importantly, her writing almost places you into a trance so that you keep on reading her words. They are perfectly placed together to form the story for your imagination. To say I was reading the story isn't quite right; it felt like I was sinking in to and almost becoming a part of the story.

I am a huge fan of organization. I love for concepts, for example to have an order to them. Sometimes it's chronological, other times it is by a different sense of organization. So, what I truly appreciated from Meacham's writing for Dragonfly is that we know exactly where we are going in the story - not plot wise necessarily - I wouldn't describe this book as predictable. No, what I mean is that we know when we're in the present and when we are flashing back to the past. This may be a simple thing to be appreciating in writing, but believe me when I say that I have read some confusing timelines in fiction, and this definitely wasn't one of them.

Another aspect I must gush about is the characters. I am a sucker for well-rounded, well-described characters and that is exactly what I got with Dragonfly. We meet each one of our major players, and they each are described in such a way that I feel I honestly know them as the story unfolds. They become friends of mine and it is almost as if I am part of the story as well. I found myself truly wanting to learn about their situations, and so I constantly stopped reading to ask my husband (an ex-history teacher!) about certain aspects of the history (I said I like history, not that I remember it all that well...). I wanted to fully understand, the best that I could, what each one of these characters was experiencing - around them and even within themselves.

Meacham does a gorgeous job in unfolding a story that is not just about history, but also about people. These characters are some of the most intricately described and well-rounded characters that I have encountered in my many years of reading. Dragonfly is a big book - and it is definitely worth the read.