DRAGONFLY GIRL

When Kira, a brilliant but misunderstood teenager, wins a prestigious international award for her research paper on dragonfly cognition, she is whisked off to a lavish conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

At the time, Kira’s only concern is claiming the prize money needed to pay off her ailing mother’s debts after her father's death. Instead, her world collides with those of several mysterious and powerful men intent on harnessing her knowledge for their own dubious agendas. Suddenly, she finds herself sucked into the orbit of international scientist-spies working to exploit her accidental discoveries as a means to cure death. As she falls deeper into a winding maze filled with lab rats, a science prodigy, and menacing Russian operatives, Kira discovers that knowledge can be a dangerous business. Her research takes her from Northern California to Stockholm to Siberia to Moscow as she struggles to remain two steps ahead of her many pursuers. She doesn’t just need to perfect a way to raise the dead, she needs to find a way to stay alive. Although Kira struggles financially, readers learn very little else about her. While the fast pace and high stakes are engaging, the book tackles too many storylines without interrogating the identity or interiority of the characters. Most characters default to White, but naming conventions imply some racial or ethnic diversity.

An exciting adventure about a girl in STEM undercut by limited character development.