This is Your Brain on Books: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

Published: December 26, 2008 by Viking Juvenile

Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he'll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the change to become a Dragoneye, the human link to an energy dragon's power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon's affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido. Tension builds and Eon's desperate lie comes to light.

The idea and plot of this book are amazing. Sometimes the book was a bit dulled down by all the political nonsense going on that Eona was being dragged into. There was a lot of thinking and dwelling on things instead of acting on them on Eona's part.

Things I love about this book:

mystery of the Mirror Dragon - I really loved how the entire mystery surrounding the Mirror Dragon's absence came together, as well as how everything was discovered. Everything related to it came together to make perfect sense.
dragon lore - The 12 dragons based on the animals of the Chinese zodiac, and the whole system of the Dragon Masters was genius, and contributed so much to the book making sense.
Eona's power - This is vague to avoid spoilers! After all Eona goes through in this book, it's very satisfying when she finally gets it all under control and I really want to see her powers unleashed in the sequel, especially after all the political drama. I'd love some more action!
characters - Chart is the sweetest and Lady Dela is such a strong character. Even though we don't see much of them, the secondary characters are all so believable and great in their own right.

Huh, what?:

connecting with the Dragon - It felt like this whole book was about Eona not being able to connect with the dragon, searching for the dragon's true name, and doing the exact opposite of what the reader knows she should be doing. It got old pretty quickly.
disguise - The entire time I was reading, I just couldn't get it out of the back of my mind that someone was going to find out Eona's secret. I think if there had been a sense that it was a question of if rather than when someone discovered that Eon was not a boy, it would have been much more interesting.
certain plot points - Eona's friends and mentors were seemingly always being removed from her reach in order to force her to stand and act on her own, but it never really felt like she made any of her own decisions.

Favorite quotes:

There was something behind the question that I did not understand. Some kind of test. What did the emperor want? There was no clue in his politician's face; he'd had a lifetime of hiding his thoughts. The full-hour bell rang through the courtyard, silencing the ensemble music. It was as though the whole palace waited for my answer. - pg. 201
I found myself backed up against the edge of the bath, the tiled wall a solid mooring in the churn of my thoughts. I had to take the chance. So far, all I had offered the prince was lies. But if I wanted to survive, I had to take the new emperor the truth. - pg. 413