Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Thriller
Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words
Availability
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Author:
“Mindy
Mejia is a fiction writer, finance manager, weekend jogger, wife, and mother of
two. She writes compelling, plot-driven stories layered over larger societal
issues. She lives in St. Paul and is currently working on a murder mystery set
in rural southern Minnesota.”
For more,
visit Mejia’s website.
Description:
“A
zookeeper fights to save the animal she loves, even as her own life crumbles
around her…
Meg Yancy
knows she may be overly attached to Jata, the Komodo dragon that has been in
her care since it arrived at the zoo from Indonesia. Jata brings the exotic to
Meg’s Minnesotan life: an ancient, predatory history and stories of escaping to
freedom. A species that became endangered soon after being discovered, Komodos
have a legacy of independence, something that Meg understands all too well. Meg
has always been better able to relate to reptiles than to people, from her
estranged father to her live-in boyfriend to the veterinarian who is more
concerned with his career than with the animals’ lives.
Then one
day, Meg makes an amazing discovery. Jata has produced viable eggs—without ever
having had a mate. Faced with this rare phenomenon, Meg must now defend Jata’s
hatchlings from the scientific, religious, and media forces that converge on
the zoo to claim the miracle as their own.
Finally
forced to deal with the very people she has avoided for so long, Meg discovers
that opening herself up comes with its own complications. And as she fights to
save the animal she loves from the consequences of its own miracle, she must
learn to accept that in nature, as in life, not everything can be controlled.”
Appraisal:
Have you
ever known someone who related to animals better than people? I’d bet most of us
have. Meg Yancy, the protagonist of The
Dragon Keeper, is one of those people. Meg has what for her is the perfect
job, working as a Zoo Keeper at the fictional “Zoo of America,” (part of a
complex the author has imagined in between the actual Mall of America and the
Minnesota River, south of the Minneapolis airport). She works with animals, whom
she understands and relates well to, and is able to minimize the need for
interactions with people. That changes when events force her to deal with
people in order to defend her animals.
The Dragon Keeper has a story that, while classified
as a thriller, where you’d expect a character to be at risk, is outside the
norm, because the characters most in danger are the animals involved. Meg isn’t
lacking in risks, but they aren’t of the
life and limb variety. However, there is a lot more going on. A romantic
sub-thread, an education about Komodo Dragons, and a subtext that speaks to
preserving the environment and evolution, take this further outside of the
typical thriller storyline and do so in a good way. Not only is this a fun
read, but it’s not one of those books you feel like you’ve read before. Always
a plus in my mind.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating: **** Four stars
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