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Summary
Summary
High school senior Miguel's life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog--a real Australian dingo--she's unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There's no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her--but what price will each of them have to pay?
Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford--a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-De Lint ingeniously incorporates Aboriginal mythology into an intriguing story. Miguel, 17, is minding his dad's funky comics and record store in a small resort community when a girl dashes in with her dog to escape the town bully. Miguel feels an immediate connection to her, but there is something strange about her dog. Gradually, he discovers that Lainey is a shape-changer, a magical creature from Australia's Aboriginal past, and the dog-really a dingo-is actually her twin sister. The girls are hiding from their father, who wants to sacrifice Lainey to the powerful Aboriginal spirit Warrigal, the original clan leader, who is trapped in a tree. Suddenly Miguel is catapulted into a rain forest fantasy world complete with a talking cautionary turkey, haunted ancestral bones, and mysterious spirits. Fantasy lovers will enjoy this tale of an initially clueless protagonist thrust into a dangerous situation where he's expected to become an instant hero. A somewhat unnecessary subplot involves the town bully, who actually has a heart of gold and a tender artistic side, and is drawn into the adventure when he falls for Lainey's twin. Still, the juxtaposition of contemporary teen life with fantasy is well done. Readers might be interested enough to investigate more about the complicated Aboriginal Dreamtime of Australia and its early clan spirits and creation myths.-Quinby Frank, Green Acres School, Rockville, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
World Fantasy Award winner de Lint (The Blue Girl), known for sophisticated urban fantasies that incorporate Celtic and Native American myths, branches out to include Australian folklore with this tale of Miguel Schreiber, a teenager who discovers that his new Aussie girlfriend, Lainey, is something other than human. As it turns out, she and her grouchy twin sister, Em, are shape-changers-half human, half dingo. Stranger still, their birth father, Tallyman, also a shape-changer, has been sent to capture them by Warrigal, the first Dingo, who has been trapped in a fig tree in the Australian dreamtime for centuries and needs their blood to free himself. Miguel, the twins and Johnny Ward, the local bully (Em likes him), must find some way to defeat these two powerful enemies if the girls are ever to live free from fear. Featuring simplified versions of its author's signature story elements-likable, if flawed protagonists, well-developed contemporary locales and the introduction of potent mythic characters directly into our world-this novella succeeds in its own right and, like Little (Grrl) Lost, will help attract readers to de Lint's more powerful work for older teens and adults. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Miguel has a boring life until he meets the new girl in town who just happens to be a shape-shifting dingo. Suddenly he's traveling to Australia in his dreams and battling for both of their lives. Though the story can be a little slow, bogged down with exposition, it is nonetheless original and generally enthralling. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Miguel Schreiber and his dad, a former biker who buys and sells comics and vinyl, live in the Point near the ocean. Australian Lainey and her twin sister Em have just moved to town; it seems they're being stalked by an ancient dingo spirit, and their stepfather tries to keep them safe by moving constantly and homeschooling the girls--who, to complicate things a bit further, are both shapechangers. A rich vein of Australian lore wraps around this story, as Miguel seeks to free Lainey, with the help of the town bully, who has fallen for Em. What's wonderful here is trademark de Lint: The Dreamtime and the spirits of those long dead take their places in a contemporary American world of high school, iPods and cell phones. Miguel tells this tale in a slightly stilted, self-conscious voice, understandable for a motherless teen who falls in love with a girl who spends part of her time as a dingo. Miguel is a nifty character, and his dad even more so, and the satisfying ending is romantic as heck. (Fantasy. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Seventeen-year-old Miguel is drawn to beautiful Lainey from the moment she and her dog appear outside his dad's comics and music store. He soon learns that this Australian teenager and her identical twin are shape-shifters, sometimes appearing as young women and sometimes as dingoes (the ancestors of all dog breeds), but that doesn't change his sudden, deep affection for her. Meanwhile, Miguel's nemesis, Johnny, troubled and a troublemaker, has fallen in love with Lainey's sister, Em. Together, the four venture into the dreamworld to challenge the power threatening the twins. Canadian fantasy writer de Lint draws from Australian lore to create otherworldly elements in the novel, making smooth transitions from everyday settings to altered realities within Miguel's accessible first-person narrative. The occasional use of coarse (though appropriate to the characters) language may keep the book out of some middle-school libraries, but with its appealing jacket art, this tautly written, imaginative fantasy will find its audience.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2008 Booklist