Review: Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee is a fabulous addition to the Rick Riordan Presents line; also, I am now very excited to go read his adult books. This book follows Min, a 13-year-old girl who also happens to be a gumiho, a fox spirit with shapeshifting magic. She lives with most of her family, who are all fox spirits, though it is kept secret due to the suspicion gumiho are treated with. When her brother, Jun, is reported as having gone AWOL from the Space Forces, Min begins on her own journey off her homeworld to try to clear Jun's name.

This book was jam-packed full of so many events. I could have totally seen this book as a duology or as a longer YA novel, but it does completely work as a stand-alone middle-grade novel. I wish it had sequels, but that seems very unlikely. You will constantly be reeling, processing what sticky situation Min had just exited and what her new peril is! I think this would be an exceptionally fun read for a younger person; the high energy action-packed nature of the book is really well done, and I think would be appreciated.

This book had fabulous non-binary representation and talked about gender in a really smart way; that totally makes sense; the author is queer and trans, but should completely be mentioned. Min is a girl, but she spends periods of the book in a 'boy' body through her shapeshifting magic. It isn't a big deal in the book, but you can tell that Lee thought about how to implement this plot choice. The book has multiple characters who use they/them pronouns. It is a very normal part of this society and is seamlessly presented in the narrative.

This book is a blend of science fiction and fantasy in a delightful way. Every time I read something that blends the two genres, it really highlights how much overlap actually exists between the two and how much I want to always be reading a book with magic on a spaceship. Magic has hung out in castles for such a long time; I demand more overt magic on a spaceship.

The worldbuilding is really what stands out most in this book. The world is very fleshed out; there are complicated power structures at play from multiple factions. The world is sprawling and full of places to explore; this totally could house a series (or a series of series) very comfortably, though that does not seem to be in the cards. I loved this world so much.

My only real criticism of the book is at times, what I thought was about to happen ended up going in a less cool direction. That is completely a matter of personal preference, as is all reading experience, obviously, but a particular choice towards the end seemed teed up to go in one direction and goes in a totally different direction that sort of didn't make a lot of sense for me. I also felt at times that the fast pace was hindering the resolution for each part of Min's story. The story totally felt complete at the end, but some of the threads from earlier in the book would have been nice to have a bit more wrapping them up before we moved on.

I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I would completely recommend this book to anyone! It is a fabulous middle grade, had excellent gender dynamics (a completely gender-equal society, woop), has wonderful Korean culture and myth woven into a science fiction setting, and really does have top-notch world-building. If you are over like 8 and like middle grade, I would probably try to convince you to read this book if we were in-person friends.