🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Eve is a brilliantly intelligent, socially awkward 8th grader, and regularly finds herself in trouble with her teachers. She repeats phrases she doesn’t really understand, is relentlessly bullied by the clichéd mean crowd, and strange things happen around her. Oh, and she’s a Dragonologist. She studies everything she can about the magnificent beasts that appear in nearly every cultures’ mythologies. She knows every species, she knows their strengths and weaknesses. And she wishes they really were real. So, imagine her shock, horror and elation when after she’s dismissed from class one day, a real life dragon appears in the corridors and is responding to her thoughts. Dragons, it would seem, are real. But, with the revelation comes events that causes Eve’s meticulous routines to be disrupted and for her to somehow be accused of murdering a classmate.
Right from the beginning of This is Not a Story About Murder, the reader is sucked into Eve’s often chaotic mind as she attempts to navigate the difficulties her social anxiety causes her. She’s somewhat aloof, somewhat naïve and completely believable. This odd mix of arrogance (which is directly from her intelligence) and complete lack of social graces is highly reminiscent of Sheldon Cooper. She’s quippy, witty and adorable in her indignation when things don’t quite happen as she wished.
Dragon and Baert’s mysteriousness towards Eve is frustrating. She’s left in the dark so often about what is happening, that it slowly becomes annoying. As This is Not a Story About Murder is narrated from Eve’s perspective, it means the reader is left just as clueless as she is. Although this book is touted as a fantasy mystery, leaving the reader completely in the dark when discussing String Theory and complicated mathematics is not conducive to the plot. Personally, during these parts of the novel, I found myself losing concentration.
And as for the murder; well. As the title of the book suggests, it’s not about the murder of Eve’s classmate, even though it begins during his memorial service, and Eve being interrogated by detectives. It’s about the navigation of school when you have almost crippling social anxiety, avoiding the bullies, and trying to make friends. It’s about growing up, becoming aware of yourself and the people who surround you. It’s a joyous read, despite the odd part when it gets a little too intellectual, with believable characters – even the dragon and Brownie.
S. A.
First published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC program. You can read the original review here.
You can buy This is Not a Story About Murder by clicking on the books name. It’s available via Amazon.