Book Review: The Dragon Garden

Reviewed by Elena Bellaart

 A spunky young girl and her grumpy guardian must learn to trust their instincts and identify a demon in disguise.

Eleven-year-old Pingzi Po is no ordinary little girl. She is a demon queller, responsible for identifying demons at work throughout the kingdom of the Far East and helping those they may be possessing. Her friend and guardian, a Northlander named Benzel, is one such case. Readers quickly learn that, in a previous installment of the series, Pingzi quelled the demon that had been possessing Benzel, freeing him and beginning their friendship. The relationship between small, curious Pingzi and looming, serious Benzel is one of The Dragon Garden’s most enjoyable elements; this unlikely pair makes a fun and often sweet team. 

A member of the royal Po family, Pingzi’s work has alienated her from her mother and sisters, who see demon quelling as an inappropriate vocation for a woman. In fact, Pingzi is the first female demon queller in history, and as such is protected from the fate most girls in the kingdom fear—being captured by a man and forced into marriage. 

But her role and the privileges it affords her are threatened when a man from a distant province writes the emperor to report the behaviors of a demon in his village, claiming to be a demon queller himself. The journey to investigate these claims and quell the demon leads Pingzi and Benzel to distant reaches of the kingdom, where they encounter a new cast of characters including the Dragon Men and a healer named Tong Shenzong. While the search for the demon does not go as planned, Tong Shenzong and the Dragon Men teach Pingzi valuable lessons about mindfulness, healing, and the power of using one’s own breath. 

Pingzi is a strong protagonist, and the novel uses her as a tool for exploring the power of young girls despite social expectations. Some of the most compelling portions of the novel see Pingzi thinking seriously about what it means to wield privilege in society and how to handle that privilege responsibly. Pingzi is able to navigate most problems she encounters with ease by invoking her royal bloodline. 

In the second half of the novel, however, when a common family denies her access to their home despite her claims to nobility, things become more interesting. Pingzi’s anger flares and she experiences a momentary desire to see the family punished, a thought which quickly makes her “feel as if she were turning into a demon herself.” This moment smartly conveys the complexity of making moral judgments, especially in the context of unequal political and social power. 

While the novel’s conceptual and moral explorations are intriguing, the plot and character development sometimes flag. Much of Pingzi’s search for the demon is conveyed through summary, and conversations between characters can take place at a highly formal register, missing some opportunities for conveying deeper connections or more complex characterization. The novel’s setting in the fictional kingdom of the “Far East” seems to be inspired by historical China, and some characters and the political dynamics may be portrayed somewhat one-dimensionally.

The novel’s exploration of mindfulness and breath work is both surprising and welcome. The emphasis on Pingzi’s use of these tools in her search for the demon is a helpful theme for young readers who may suffer from anxiety and lack the resources to manage it alone. 

Overall, this is a creative and unexpected exploration of both the struggles and the possibilities girls experience as they learn to navigate the world and trust themselves. 

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Thank you for reading Elena Bellaart’s book review of The Dragon Brothers by Resa Nelson! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.