I'm in love with the characters. The story is fairly simple, and simply told, the sort of story I've heard from him before. It has a young man as a protagonist, which is fairly rare for De Lint. Altogether I found it engaging and good, but I can't help missing the more fleshed out complications of his stories for adults. ( )

The story is charming, but I kept wondering - why are these girls from an ancient Australian lineage white redheads? The shadow of cultural appropriation has often muffled my enjoyment of de Lint and it irritated me a little more than usual this time. ( )

I'm glad I slipped this in before the end of the month because I was in a bit of a slump and de Lint's work always makes me happy. This isn't his most profound book, but I enjoyed it none-the-less.

Dingo follows Miguel as he meets Lainey and her large, strange looking dog, Em. Miguel and Lainey bond quickly, but Lainey explains that they can't see each other often because her step-father keeps her homeschooled and won't let her have friends over. After their second meeting, Miguel gets the cold shoulder from Lainey and she almost seems to act like a different person. He gives her another chance though, and she explains that she has an identical twin, but one of them must always stay in their dingo form in order to avoid their father, Tallyman, who is trying to kidnap them and hand them over to an ancient dingo who needs their blood to free himself from his mystic prison.

Miguel is a good narrator and I enjoyed his skepticism at the magic he encountered - I can't stand when magical things happen to protagonists who don't know magic is real and they just go "oh, ok." As usual, I enjoyed the way de Lint weaves Native American lore and culture into modern-day, urban settings. Many of his stories feel connected, so even when you're reading about new characters, the world feels familiar.

The romance was a little cheesy, however, Miguel is aware of the insta-love nature of his relationship with Lainey, so I was more forgiving in this case. Though their relationship is key to the story, it doesn't feel like it, because I was more interested in the magical happenings.

This is one of those YA books that doesn't feel YA (to me) and if you're looking for a quick urban fantasy read, or you're already a fan of de Lint's, I'd recommend it. ( )

Miguel is working in his dad's comic book/record store one afternoon when a girl he doesn't know wonders in. Lainey is beautiful, with a sense of humor, intelligence, an Australian accent, red-gold hair, and a matching dog--excuse me, dingo. The two hit it off immediately, but weird things start to happen--and it all seems to center around the dingo.

I love, love, love Charles de Lint's books. I'm just starting to wish that he would get away from writing young adult books. They're probably a good introduction to this wonderful author for young fantasy fans, but I know de Lint can write stuff that is so much better. There's not really anything technically wrong with this. If I were a 14-year-old girl, I would probably adore it. But I'm not 14 anymore (thank goodness!) and I'm really missing the Charles de Lint characters I fell in love with a long time ago.

If you're a fan of Charles de Lint, go ahead and read this. You might even want to buy it for any young fans of fantasy you know. But please don't start with this one if you're an adult wanting to see what Charles de Lint is all about. Start with Someplace to be Flying or The Onion Girl instead. ( )

This was a YA title, so it was shorter and less complex than most of the other books of de Lint's that I've read. But it was a nice quick read. Just because of the length, I think, the characters mostly felt a bit flat. ( )