A Natural History of Dragons

Clunky and childish. Not so much fantasy as a 19th century travelogue with a thin coat of paint over some real-world cultures and, allegedly, dragons. I wouldn't mind if it were at least a good travelogue, but it's not. The narrator's voice is strong (if a little twee for my taste) and the main character, while hard to like at times, is well developed. But Brennan can't compose an actual scene to save her life. She's too far in her head, or her character's head, or whatever. I wouldn't mind it if this were a case of involved worldbuilding that turns into a dry but earnest infodump, but it's the opposite - the world barely feels like fantasy at all. Our 19th century #girlboss talks a big game about her scientitic passion for dragons, and you'd expect to hear a lot about them, but instead we plod around Romania saying racist things about the locals and occasionally get a few paragraphs of dragon that are somehow even duller than the rest of it. Pass.