Review: Paintball with Dragons by Hope Bollinger

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The next release to drop from Chicken Scratch Books is another by Hope Bollinger. You may remember her as the author of The Cassandra Curse. I just finished the ARC (it comes out next month), and I bawled my eyes out. I cry easily, especially when I find something deeply moving, so the fact I cried means something was moving rather than sad. I really enjoyed it.

The title is Paintball with Dragons. In spite of the fun the title, there is quite a bit of seriousness in this book. A lot of people in the story, especially the main character and his family, are dealing with grief.

Paintball With Dragons

Things I love

I love most of the dragons (although one or two creeped me out a little, but those were on page only for a moment). I especially loved the main dragon. I want one.

The characters were really great, multi-dimensional characters–no bad guys, although there is a school bully but not an over-the-top bully.

It mentions that grief doesn’t happen in convenient stages, which I appreciated.

The characters are Christians and go to a Christian school, but they are real people. They don’t Bible thump, nobody preaches at anybody, nobody quotes Bible verses. Not that those things are necessarily a problem in a book, but it’s really nice to read a book about Christians who are realistic and just living life.

I loved how normal private school and homeschooling were and how the story didn’t make a big deal out of either. (Although the way it sounded like homeschooling is a student doing all their school at a co-op was a little weird.)

Things I didn’t love

The dragons never actually played paintball. 😦 They did have a water balloon fight, though. 😀

Parts of the writing style aren’t my favorite, but I recognize that it’s a style and not an error. I’m just not a fan of some current styles of writing. I still enjoyed the book.

It felt a little weird that dragons were in a book with Christian characters because I always feel a bit weird with mixing fantasy with God. However, it was done really well, so I don’t think it actually bothered me.

Parental Concerns

I really can’t think of anything that would be objectionable, although every family is different. Because the story deals with grief, it might not be for everyone/young kids/sensitive readers.

The main characters are Christians and go to a Christian school, but this book fits with Chicken Scratch’s “no agenda” model. The characters are just real people, and there is no preachiness. It’s just the kind of book I wished I could find when I was a kid, where the characters are Christians but the book isn’t about Christianity.

You can pre-order Paintball with Dragons now!

I received an advance reader copy, but as in all my reviews, this review is my own opinion.