Dingo

Dingo (2008) Charles de Lint

This is another of Charles de Lint’s young adult stories–the characters are teenagers, though the setting is of course the secret magical world just beyond the sight of most of us.

Unfortunately, unlike most of his books, I found Dingo disappointing. Interestingly, I found myself surprised to discover the main character was male. As far as I can recall, most of his young adult books have female lead characters, and the red-headed girl on the cover also led me to assume the main character would be female. I have no idea is that is part of the reason the story didn’t work that well for me, after all, he’s written plenty of male characters in the past (even if the majority of his characters are female).

So what went wrong with this story? First, although I wanted to know what happened, it just didn’t draw me in the way his stories normally do, though I can’t precisely say why.

Second, I though the two boys were entirely two accepting of the faerie world they discover. These aren’t young boys, but are supposed to be 17 year-old high school seniors. Instead, they felt much younger, and acted in ways that just felt off to me. And although Miguel was the main character, I found Johnny to be far more interesting.

Although his book wasn’t horrible, it was very disappointing for a Charles de Lint book, and I can’t really recommend it if you’re expecting his usual quality.

Strangely, I think I would have rated this book higher if it had been written by someone else, however, I have high expectations for Charles de Lint, so this was a definite disappointment.
Rating: 5/10

Published by Firebird

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