Seraphina (Rachel Hartman)

Author Biography:

Rachel Hartman is a Vancouver-based comic book artist and music lover. Seraphina and its sequel Shadow Scale are her first novels.

Published By: Random House

Year: 2012

ISBN: 0375866566

Reading Level: Grades 10 and up.

Reader’s Annotation:

In a world where dragons can take human form, secret half-dragon Seraphina serves as a musician at the royal court. What will happen when the kingdom faces a draconian enemy, who might be Seraphina’s own flesh and blood?

Plot Summary:

For forty years the kingdom of Goredd has maintained a peace treaty with the dragons, but anti-dragon prejudice is rampant. The beasts can simulate human forms, known as saarantrai, but reject “messy” human emotion and are regarded as soulless monsters. Therefore, sixteen-year-old Seraphina Dombegh, a prominent musician at Queen Levonda’s court, is forced to hide her heritage: while her father is human, her dead mother was a saarantras. With her silver scales hidden by clothing and her powerful psychic visions controlled by a meditation ritual, no one knows her secret except her saarantras tutor, Orma – actually her uncle.

But any semblance of safety is soon shaken. First, Crown Prince Rufus is murdered in a suspiciously draconian fashion. Then Orma warns Seraphina that her banished grandfather, the rogue dragon Imlann, has reappeared. Did Imlann kill the prince, and could other leaders, both dragon and human, be next? Might Seraphina be the only person who can stop him?

Critical Evaluation:
This fantasy doorstopper offers a unique, gripping spin on dragon mythology. These dragons are sapient, knowledge-loving creatures with their own government, culture, and remarkable psychic powers, who can interact with humans by assuming their shape, but who are characterized by a Vulcan-like rejection of emotion. Their relationship with the pseudo-European human kingdom mirrors the experiences of legally tolerated yet despised ethnic or religious minorities. We follow half-dragon Seraphina as she struggles to hide the secret that could turn both kingdoms against her, while using her sharp intellect, psychic abilities and skill as a musician to try to protect humans and dragons alike from a deadly threat. Meanwhile, she finds forbidden love with the queen’s nephew, Prince Lucian Kiggs.

The plot itself, for all its length, is fairly simple, rarely straying from its genre’s conventions – including an ugly and clichéd “third act misunderstanding” in the otherwise warmly endearing romance subplot. Still, it captivates with its richly detailed fantasy world, its creative and complex vision of the dragon species, its loving portrait of medieval-style music making, and its deft yet never preachy handling of real-world social issues. Goredd’s pervasive anti-dragon prejudice gracefully confronts young readers with the subject of racism through the comfortable filter of fantasy, while Seraphina herself, torn between affinity with her mother’s species and seeing herself as a “monster,” is a character that any readers who have ever felt “different” will relate to. Particularly readers with neurological disorders, due to her attacks of psychic visions that resemble epileptic seizures and can only be controlled through an elaborate “mind garden” ritual, as well as to the autism-esque social awkwardness and seeming emotionlessness that characterize all saarantrai. This poetic, atmospheric book is one that any intelligent, fantasy-loving young adult should enjoy.

Curriculum Ties:

•Fantasy worlds

•Music

•Racism and prejudice

Challenge Issues:

•Mild profanity

•Violence

•Sexual references

•Homosexual references

Why This Book?

Both as a unique, poetic, exciting fantasy, and as a vehicle for discussing relevant issues, Seraphina has no shortage of riches to offer.