DRAGONFLY GIRL by Marti Leimbach – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Dragonfly Girl by Marti Leimbach
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on February 23 2021
Genres: Young adult, Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A unique blend of YA and adult, sci-fi and spy thriller, I can honestly say I’ve never read anything quite like Dragonfly Girl.

I had a lot of fun with Dragonfly Girl, Marti Leimbach’s well-written YA debut (she has written a bunch of adult titles as well). For readers who are dying to see a female main character who is interested in STEM, this book is a must read. Leimbach goes beyond that though, and infuses her tale with some unexpected international intrigue, a little romance, and some edgy sci-fi elements. But while I enjoyed many aspects of this story, I also have some reservations about the overall story arc and the sheer number of things going on with these characters. With an unusual blend of both YA and adult elements, it’s almost as if the book wasn’t sure what it wanted to be. Still, there was never a dull moment, and I had an absolute blast reading it.

Kira Adams is a seventeen-year-old high school senior who is brilliant when it comes to math and science, but an utter failure at her other classes. She struggles with fitting in at school, where the other kids tease her for being so smart, but her love of science keeps things bearable. At home, Kira’s mother is dying of cancer, and so her time away from school is filled with caring for and helping her mom with the household bills and chores. Because of the expensive cancer treatments, they are on the brink of financial disaster, and so Kira’s mom has been borrowing money from a shady criminal named Biba in order to pay the bills.

But Kira has a secret. She’s written a scientific paper on how dragonflies track their prey and entered it in a prestigious competition. So she fudged the information on the entry form a little—she doesn’t actually have the required PhD, but does anyone really need to know the truth? When Kira wins the prize in her category, she’s invited to Stockholm, Sweden to attend a conference and accept the cash prize. She knows without the prize money, she and her mother will be in trouble, and so she figures out a way to attend. But once she arrives, Kira realizes how tough it’s going to be to fool the other attendees. Even wearing her friend’s borrowed clothes, Kira knows she doesn’t fit in with the other, older, prize winners. And a fellow winner, an unpleasant man named Will, knows something is up and won’t leave Kira alone until he figures out the truth.

And that’s where I’ll stop with the story recap, as this is a tough one to sum up in only a couple of paragraphs. Also I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible! I’m going to start this review off with the things I loved about Dragonfly Girl. First, bravo to Marti Leimbach for creating a female STEM character. We definitely need to see more YA stories dealing with STEM, especially those that focus on girls. There are a fair number of well researched science elements in this story, and I was fascinated by the descriptions of the lab work that Kira gets involved in, especially the science behind bringing a dead rat back to life. 

And speaking of Kira, I absolutely loved her character. She has a lot to deal with: a sick mother, bad grades in school, and bullying, and yet she follows her passion for science and makes things happen. And despite her age (which I have some opinions about, see below), Kira has a pretty good head on her shoulders and manages to make good decisions, even when things do not go well. But she also lacks self-confidence and has an air of innocence about her, qualities that made her character more believable.

I also loved the exotic setting of Stockholm: the crisp, cold snowy landscape, the elegant Grand Hôtel where the conference takes place, and especially Kira’s delight in being in a foreign city for the first time. Leimbach’s descriptions made me want to visit Stockholm myself!

The story is divided into three sections, and to be honest, these sections feel completely different from each other. I think this was the book’s main weakness, the way the story changes gears so abruptly, which left me with a bit of reader’s whiplash. The first section takes place in Stockholm and follows Kira as she attends the Science of Our Future award banquet and conference. This section goes on for a third of the book, and nothing much happens, except that Kira meets a bunch of other award winners who are all older than her and resent the fact that she’s won such a prestigious award. This section was more of a madcap comedy, as Kira tries desperately to hide her secret. The author does set the stage for the next two sections, when Kira meets a man named Dr. Munn at the conference and ends up working for him when she returns to California. 

Which brings us to the second section. Kira is back in school but now works for the Mellin Institute at the same time, learning how to do lab work and struggling under the tutelage of her nemesis Will, who also works there. It is during this section that Kira finally reanimates a lab rat—this is the hook in the blurb that made me want to read this book—and this section was much more serious and has a bit of a sci-fi/Frankenstein vibe to it. 

Finally in the third section, we find Kira and Will in yet another country, and due to spoilers I won’t be able to go into details. But this section reads almost like a spy thriller and turns very, very dark. It’s this section in particular that felt out of place with the rest of the book, and although I enjoyed it very much—it’s quite fast-paced and exciting!—I had a hard time believing that any of the events in this section could actually happen to a seventeen-year-old girl from the United States.

The other issue I wanted to address is Kira’s age. I’m honestly not sure why the decision was made to make Kira underage. She’s a senior in high school, so the author could have easily made her eighteen, which would have solved a lot of the issues I had. Unfortunately, she’s a minor in the eyes of the law, and yet she jets off to Stockholm on her own (in the middle of the school year), tries to conceal the fact that she’s only seventeen by dressing up in uncomfortable clothes to hide her age, and worst of all, falls for no less than two men in their twenties who don’t realize (at first) that she is only seventeen. The whole thing made me cringe, to be honest. I suppose it could be that the author and publisher felt that a seventeen-year-old character was more marketable as YA. Luckily, the romance is pretty light and definitely isn’t the focus here, but still.

But despite these issues, Dragonfly Girl was one of the most unique YA books I’ve ever read and had some truly thrilling moments. The story ends rather abruptly, but I’m hoping there will be more books in this series.

Big thanks to the author and publisher for supplying a review copy.

Trigger warnings:View Spoiler »Kidnapping, drugs, animal cruelty, murder « Hide Spoiler