Book Report: Dragonfly

I really liked the cover of Julia Golding’s Dragonfly when I picked it up off the shelf. Alas, when I was done with the book, I disliked the cover quite a bit. And, as you all know, I judge books by their covers. So what’s a fellow to do?

The issue is that the dragonfly on the cover is a jeweled pin, lovely and dramatic against the black background. And if the dragonfly in the book were a jeweled pin of some kind, I would not take points off for the picture not corresponding exactly to the description. If the dragonfly in the book were a real insect, I wouldn’t dislike the cover, either, I think; the image is a good one and probably better than a picture of an actual dragonfly. If the dragonfly in the book were a metaphorical dragonfly—that is, if there were no dragonfly in the book at all, but a running motif where people talk about dragonflies or some such—the jeweled dragonfly would be OK, as well, I guess. If the dragonfly just referred to a person, a nickname or alias or something similar, well, it would have to somehow work as a representation of the person, but fine. And the princess in the book is the dragonfly of the title, as a dragonfly is the symbol of her, um, don’t remember, a personal totem or a family emblem or something. But there is a plot point that involves her giving an origami dragonfly to someone, and it being damaged and then fixed. An origami dragonfly.

Which would have made a great cover. I mean, why not use an origami dragonfly for the cover? What’s the point of using a brooch instead? Why screw with it? Gr.

Coincidentally, the book had a lot of things in it that seemed like things I like, but which I didn’t actually like. I can’t say that a paper dragonfly on the cover would have changed, that, but…

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.