Raptor Red

"Raptor Red would laugh if evolution had given her a way to generate that sound."

This is like an old History channel documentary on dinosaurs, but fictionalized. I read this with a narrator's voiceover going in my head the entire time.

Raptor Red is a Utahraptor (like the raptor from Jurassic Park, not Velociraptor, that's fake news) making her way through prehistoric life. The story is told fictionally; we have actual plot threads, characters (of a sort), a climax and conclusion. I don't think I've read anything similar to compare it to, and I appreciated this unique way to tell a historical story. There's lots of ups and downs in Raptor Red's life, contextualized by the author's vast knowledge of her species and things she might realistically encounter.

The writing is a bit young, maybe a younger-to-mid YA audience would be more appropriate. I also thought the middle parts felt a bit like they dragged; it wasn't until (mid book spoilers here) Raptor Red meets her new mate that things started to progress a bit more cohesively. The ending made me feel things I wasn't expecting for this raptor family I had come to know so well.

Just an overall really enjoyable book.