Jude is the only survivor when a dragon attacks his village. Wandering and devastated, he gets a job with a travelling troupe who have a captive Chinese girl, Jing-wei. Jude is charged with her care, and the two strike up a friendship. But Jude is plagued with nightmares about the dragon, and he feels paralyzed with fear. Jing-wei encourages him to make a plan to hunt the dragon, but Jude is a coward... until he has no choice but to face the dragon.

In this world, dragons are not sentient beings who can talk, but simply animals with an instinct to hunt and burn. I read a lot of dragon stories where dragons can talk, but very few where dragons are just another animal like any beast. They don't have any magical properties or special abilities. They are just average predators who happen to breathe fire. By the time of this story, all the dragons have been hunted to extinction and their eggs destroyed. But apparently one egg survived and hatched, and a young dragon is burning villages and wreaking havoc.

I stayed up past midnight reading this book, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The main focus of the story is Jude's internal journey grieving for his family and overcoming his fears. The story is told from Jude's POV, so we hear his inmost thoughts and struggles. His relationship with Jing-wei is central to his character development. I really enjoyed how their friendship develops and how Jing-wei inspires him to be a better man.

The adventure of the dragon takes up comparatively little time in the plot, so plot-driven readers might be a little disappointed. But character-driven readers like myself will appreciate the character arcs for both the main characters. The dragon hunt is mainly a vehicle to throw together the characters and force them to confront their fears and grow. The plot is a little bit predictable, but clever and interesting too!

Some trigger warnings include Jing-wei being kept in a cage as a slave, and a man who tries to sexually assault her, but she is rescued. She also has bound feet that are misshapen and very painful. Jing-wei meets these horrors in her life with courage and grace. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with her character, but it's upsetting to read about all these awful things.