Dragonfly

I remember picking this book up on a lark. It was the name and the cover that caught my eye. We were just about to leave the store when I saw it and knew I had to have it. I'm glad I got it. Imagine Neil Gaiman meets HP Lovecraft and this is one possible reality. Dragonfly is the story of a 10 year old girl, who foolishly adventures down into a horrible realm (much like Lovecraft's Dreamlands). Dragonfly, follows a strange “exterminator” down into her basement that has been strangely changed into a horrifying world. She then discouvers a horrible plot by the ringleader, Sam Hain (get it? get it? giggles), who steals children from our world and forces them into slavery. No matter where she goes, trouble follows; even if all she wants to do is go home. Dragonfly finds that no matter where she goes, trouble follows. People she loves die or get caught and all she wants is to go home. Finally, after a weird and bizarre battle that is both fitting to the story and not quite fitting, she does go home... only to forge a bond with many of the characters that leaves the book open for future sequels. I enjoyed this book, but found it a bit hard to digest. Durbin's prose is thick and dense and filled with puns. The print was small and I found my self constantly re-reading passages that my eye may have skipped over. In the end I added another fiction book to my reading list and cleared one more book off the table. Yay! 7 more to go.