 So I had this routine of turning off all of the things that make noise in my apartment and closing all the windows and waiting for the computer to stop making that fan noise and waiting for the actual fan to stop Fanning and now there are two ducks out in the swimming pool of my apartment and they keep It's like a dude saying the word Greg And I have no control over it and I really just wanted to stop so I could make this video. Hi I'm Kim Miner, and this is a spoiler-free review of Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. I Never picked quotes for this book so I've just tried to find a quote that like adequately expresses how this book is written how it feels like and I really can't there's not a single paragraph that that is particularly salient there's not a Single quote that is non-spoilery that I can I can just hand to you and say oh, yes This is this is the essence of Seraphina. This is the quintessence of Seraphina I really can't do that. So I guess I've already broken my streak of One video in which I start a review with a quote. I First heard about this book while standing in a Barnes & Noble with my go-to zombie apocalypse squad Not that we'd survive the zombie apocalypse, but they're a good bunch to do the whole once more into the breach difference once more thing with Other people do that, right? Anyway, we're standing in there looking through their YA section and A young woman named Gretchen is helping us and it turns out she has a Twitter that she reviews books And so like she and I got to talking I have a note on my phone That's just a list of book titles and like occasionally like a single word no because she was going so fast I was like I have to get all of these because they all sound so good So what I have for written down for this one is Seraphina dash dash dragons all caps three explanation points and That's an inadequate description of how wonderful this book is The dragons of Rachel Hartman's Minescape are not your traditional dragons. They're not Khaleesi's children. They're not even Hagrid's Norbert Imagine if you will smog from Tolkien's The Hobbit Plus Vulcans straight out of Star Trek and those are Rachel Hartman's dragons. They are hyper logical They see emotion as weakness and they really love shiny pretty things. It's Wednesday No Tuesdays are leaf blower days Our heroine Seraphina lives in a world where there is a very fragile peace treaty between humans and dragons That is fraying at the edges fear and prejudice has the human royal family placing more and more restrictions upon dragons They cannot keep their natural form their dragon form. They have to be human shaped But because the dragons are now human shaped humans are afraid that the dragons will pass for human and then be Sneaky and devious in their human shapes And so the dragons are required to wear bells on their shoulders thus distinguishing them from humans They are similarly policed from the dragon side living in constant fear of becoming too emotionally invested in their lives or their friends and Being summarily stripped of all emotions and memories by the sensors Dun dun dun All the while resentment is building on both sides and mobs led by the extremist group the Sons of Ogdo Attack law-abiding dragons, which is a sentence previously unsaid I'm pretty sure it was Ogdo Meanwhile an extremist group called the Sons of Ogdo are radicalizing against law-abiding dragons All of this as the kingdom prepares to host Ard Magara Kamenot Yes, that is his title and his first name He is the highest leader of the dragons for the 40th anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty What could possibly go wrong as you can see there's some serious politics going on in this book already Seraphina herself is something quite unusual and possibly illegal in so far as an individual can be illegal That's not a thing. Let's just be clear. Her father is a human lawyer Her mother is a dragon and a musician Seraphina just wants to make some music and be the assistant to the court composer but she somehow gets like drawn into this investigation of a conspiracy and Really, it's just gonna make her life very difficult Rachel Hartman uses so many big words. It's fantastic It fits so beautifully with the half dragon mind Seraphina has It's sharp as a tack, very precise and analytical to a fault I'm not allowed to have gummy bears while I'm making a video Was I not paying enough attention to you? Was I not paying enough attention to you? And yet her father the human is the lawyer and her mother the dragon was a musician beyond compare Seraphina got her analytical abilities from her human genes and her musical genius from her draconian genes Therefore dragons are more than the box that they have created for themselves and humans are more than dragons give them credit for This book gives me feels This book tackles big issues And it does it messily and without bias and gives it a solid perspective from both sides And it's from the unique perspective of someone who is directly on the line between the two factions I love it neither side is portrayed as the enemy from Seraphina's uniquely balanced perspective prejudice the dangers of groupthink immigration um the concept of passing and being of mixed Species The the the parallels for mixed race fantasy gives us a unique ability to discuss things metaphorically Therefore making them more accessible But it does put me in the awkward position of just having said the phrase mixed species So when I was in elementary school, we did a our test on every book that we read It was essentially to prove that you had read the book by Taking a specific test about that specific book even if your teacher hadn't read that specific book Essentially, it made me feel like I was constantly being called the liar because I would turn in a reading log What said I read the book and then yeah, I was I was a weird I was a weird 11 year old AR places this book at uh level 6, which is 7th to 12th grade reading level And that just means that if you're above 13, you can read this material Um, and I guarantee you that even as an adult even as a well-read adult You will still have to have your phone handy because Siri looked up so many words for me and it's great You've got seraphina. You're unlikely heroine. You've got cakes. You're unlikely prince slash captain of the guard You've got uncle arma. You're unlikely dragon scholar and then there's princess glistelda You're unlikely soon to be ruler matriarchal society queens all the way down the line Overall, I would give this book four and a half out of five stars The character development is given even handedly. This is not the csi miami of why they fantasy political intrigue abounds Important issues that we face in our modern day society are showcased and made accessible to discussion And you get to learn a bunch of new words like what's not to love. Oh, did I mention it with steampunk? I don't think I mentioned that it was steampunk seraphina By rachel hartman has some steampunk dragons and a lot of new words and some political discourse for you check it out Let me know in comments if you have read the book and what you thought or if you want to read it or if it sounds like something that's up your alley and Yeah, if you know more books like this recommend them to me. I'm always on the hunt for new recommendations so Yeah abiento