I wish there was a sequel.

Review Temporarily Removed.

Alys is framed for witchcraft and sentenced to dragon. The dragon, however, offers vengeance, not death.

This is the second or third book by Vivian Vande Velde which I've read. All have been (very short) competent fantasies which haven't worked for me.

In this particular outing, we have a typical story about revenge - which is basically (view spoiler)[a little morality lesson about how vengeance is a bad bad thing and you shouldn't do it. This is not necessarily wrong, if predictable, but when you set up a story (hide spoiler)] More...

Looking back at this, it seems that Twilight has been an exceptionally bad influence on teenage fantasy. Dragon's Bait fits many of the parameters of paranormal romance, which is notoriously bad, but it's also a coming-of-age story. And that's much better than any gorgeous, powerful piece of arm candy making up most of the plot.

Though there is Selendrile. He's a dragon who can change into human form - and an exceptionally good-looking human form - and is given plot-related reasons to travel with More...

I've read a few short YA books lately, most of which have been good. This one is the shortest of any of them, and it is also good, but lacks the depth that the other books have. The dragon character doesn't have much of a personality at all, and the girl accused of being a witch is driven only by revenge. I was waiting for the part where the girl realized that revenge doesn't make you feel any better, but I don't think she really got to that point, not truly. I still don't understand why the dra More...

This was a choice little find in my school library back in tenth grade, and it's been a favorite ever since! I love, love, love Selendrile, and I wish I could meet someone like him! The story is compelling, but not too long, and luckily it doesn't have a sequel. It's nice to have a stand-alone book sometimes!
I was also pleased that it had a good lesson. Fifteen or sixteen year old Alys is falsely accused of being a witch by neighbors and sentenced to death by dragon. They tie her to a big pole More...

Fun re-read of a book I read years ago when I was actually a young adult. I remembered enjoying it then and wanting more, and that's generally the same feeling I have now, even now that I am a more critical reader. I also still totally love Selendrile, but I have a fondness for non-humans masquerading as humans.

This is a short and engaging fantasy. The plot drops in the first few pages, necessary given the small page count, and we immediately find our MC Alys in trouble. What unfolds is a mostly More...

This has got to be one of my favorite books from the YA period in my life. Alys is offered up as a sacrifice. To the dragon in the mountains by her town people, people who turned their back on her and her father. Betrayed by her father’s friend she is offered up as dinner to the dragon which makes her furious, so she challenges the dragon, which makes him curious enough not to eat her.

And this leads to an amazing book, considering it’s small Vivan packed a lot of action into the book, and lesso More...

hmm Dragon's Bait was cute, i'll give it that. But it didn't wow me, didn't make me want to keep readingg!
The main character, Alys, is accused of being a witch and bound to a stake on the side of a mountain as... (dramatic flaree) Dragon's bait. Don't you love it when you get to say the title of the book in context?
Anywayy... then, of course, she escapes her bindings and decides she is mad at this dragon (displaced anger ;) ) and throws rocks at him.
I kid you not, that was the best scene in the More...

While probably not despicable, I hated it. Maybe my expectations were too high, because it was VVV or I just haven't read a book in a long time (like, a couple of days?). Either way, I got through chapter two, then read the last chapter to see how it ended (which I never do). She started out by getting strapped to a post to be eaten by the local dragon, who instead talks to her and eventually they decide to get revenge on her hometown together. Stop right there! I mean, maybe this is a logical t More...

Dragon's Bait follows the story of Alys, a girl wrongly accused to be a witch, as she tries to get revenge on the family that accused her. Helping her is the dragon Selendrile, who helps her not because he likes to help, but because he "likes revenge." Their relationship is a question of trust that Velde keeps ambiguous throughout the novel. Selendrile's mysterious personality and Alys's captive attachment to him is an interesting powerplay that keeps the reader guessing until the end. I like ho More...

Meh. I wanted to like it, but I never felt like it quite settled into a purposeful story. Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense, I know, but I'm at a loss to try and describe why this particular story didn't float my boat. The premise is OK: greedy wheelwright wants his neighbor's land and accuses the teenage daughter of witchcraft when they refuse to sell. She's condemned and staked out to be eaten by a dragon who instead helps her get revenge.

Maybe I just didn't feel like Vande Velde was cer More...

From the beginning of this very predictable and convenience-packed book, it was too obvious that the dragon, Selendrile, was never going to eat Alys and she was never in any real danger. This meant any mistrust or conflict the author tried so hard to create in Alys with regard to Selendrile came off as contrived and forced.

This contrived feeling was then exacerbated by the fact that the author overexplained everything, giving no credit to the reader for figuring things out on their own. I get th More...

Published in 1992, this book suffers from the "this book is for young adults so it must be short" mentality that existed back then. And therefore, the characters are not as well developed as I would have liked. In her review for School Library Journal, Margaret Chang observed "While the writing is smooth and the story moves quickly, the girl's emotions are not convincingly portrayed. The story's tone wobbles, sometimes keeping a comic distance from tragic events. The abrupt ending may leave read More...

Oh book, why you make me so torn?

I first heard about Dragon’s Bait through this piece on Entertainment Weekly about unmissable teen reads. And because it was an older title and because the Publishers Weekly review (which I sought after I read the EW article) said it is a “thoughtful mainstream fantasy with a gently feminist slant”, I decided I needed to read it soon.

Basically, the story follows a young girl, fifteen-year-old Alys, as she is accused of being a witch by her neighbours and summaril More...

I enjoyed this book, it was relatively short-196 pages- and the only reason I gave it only three stars was that it wasn't a complex plot and the character development was fairly shallow. I really liked the premise of the story about a girl set out for dragon bait only to make a tenuous agreement with the shape-shifting fae to get revenge on those who condemned her as a witch. The lessons she learns (I won't add any spoilers) don't seem to really get learned- or at least the author doesn't do a g More...

Short, sweet and wonderful, Dragon's Bait is perfect for people with short attention spans or those who aren't into swallowing high fantasy -- and for everyone else, too. Vivian Vande Velde takes the classic theme of revenge and turns it into an enjoyable fantasy tale for all ages.

Alys. The whole novel is about her personal growth, and watching her develop is the real treat of the story, especially as so much of it happens when she's butting heads with Selendrile (hot name alert!), the dragon. T More...

Alys is the daughter of the village tinsmith and has lived in her village her entire life. When a dragon starts harrassing the area, Alys is surprised when the villagers, people who have known her her whole life, turn on her, accusing her of being a witch. Alys is condemned in a trial held in a barn by a priest named Atherton. As the villagers carry her out to the hillside to strap her to the stake, he father dies of the shock of seeing his daughter being sacrificed. Alys is left alone on the hi More...

Reading this felt like I was watching a Disney movie. And I definitely don't mean that in a bad way. This was a short read, but it didn't change the fact that this was wonderful.

I liked the fact that this book explores the question, "Is it wrong to yearn for revenge?" "Will you truly be satisfied when you have done the deed?"

Also, you can actually see that the girl changes for the better at the end of the book. Which is always a whooping plus point for me. :)

There is absolutely no insta-love her More...

I thought the beginning was really irritating and heartbreaking, because I can imagine that being me, not being listened to just condemned to die for being a witch and everyone lying about things I did, and then my father dieing I would want vengeance.

WARNING: talks about witch craft and gives a brief glimpse what it was like, so if you have nightmares about your child running off to be a wicken this is the book to avoid, however, near the end it tells a truth about the women that they were not More...

To this day, Dragon's Bait is one of my absolute favorite books. I don't even know how many times I've read it, delighted by it each time.
Basically a young girl, Alys, is accused of being a witch and as her punishment, she is "sacrificed" to the dragon. The dragon, Selendrile, has no interest in eating her; he's actually amused by her overwhelming desire for revenge. He then agrees to help her plan out her revenge on the town that falsely declared her to be a witch.
While reading Dragon's Bait, More...

This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Alys is accused of witchcraft and therefor left, tied up, on a mountain by the people of her village, to be eaten by the small dragon roaming nearby. She gets free before she sees the dragon and wonders what to do. Then she see's the dragon. She kind of wants to get this over with so she starts throwing rocks at it to get it's attention. The dragon soars over andturns into a 17-year-old man, Selendrile. Instead of eating her, he offe More...

This book was a fun, quick read--I'd definitely recommend it. I especially liked how the author took Puritanical witch trials and set it in a world that was 98% 17th century New England and 2% fantasy (that 2% being mostly on account of the dragon). I liked how original and fresh the plot felt and the humorous parts. What held it back for me, though, was I wasn't feeling what the character was feeling. It mentioned her feeling angry and bitter a few times, but I couldn't feel it. So her actions More...

Oh, I liked this one! I wasn't expecting to enjoy it given how underwhelming I found Vande Velde's A Hidden Magic and A Well-Timed Enchantment, but oh, it is pretty great, you guys! The thing is, Dragon's Bait suffers from the same problems that plague most of Vande Velde's work - the supporting cast is hugely underdeveloped, the plot allows for little digression and proceeds at a near-breakneck speed, and the romantic relationship is rather weak - but either the flaws aren't quite as grand in t More...

I thought this was somewhat a dissapointment in some respects. Like the title made it seem like the main character was going to battle the dragon when the character befrinded the dragon. Okay that was just a mild dissapointment. The dragon could turn into human form. But at the end the dragon suddenly gets shackled with iron which supposibly kills him. I mean it's going good then bam you suddenly figure out the weakness. I just don't like that. Well at least it was intresting in some of the part More...

This is one of my favorite books I read as a young girl. Now that I am 25 I find myself returning to it at least once a year. You could sit down and read it in only a few hours. Alys is a strong young character. She fights to survive and has real emotions. Selendrile is mysterious, evasive, but yet draws you in. At first glance this seems just to be an adventure story but actually it's also a love story. A love story that sneaks up on you. You don't expect it but yet you are glad it happens. It' More...

Read it in little less than an hour, but it's a wonderful story.

I enjoy stories like this one. Not necessarily stories where the maiden is rescued by a handsome, mysterious hero, but those where help comes from an unexpected quarter - where someone who's supposed to be an enemy turns out to be a friend. I also like a turn-about, where the weaker party is called upon to do some rescuing of the stronger.

So theme-wise, I'm fine with this book. There's simply not enough to it. I don't read a lot of YA novels, but I did recently enjoy the only other Velde book I' More...

I absolutely love this book. Vivian writes a concise, beautifully written story about a girl who is accused of witchcraft. She is condemned to be dragon's bait by the townspeople and when the dragon comes, he offers her revenge on those who condemned her. The escalation and progression of events is believable and the characters react to what is happening. Vivian writes not to get to a desired ending, but evolves the relationship between the dragon and Alys. This is a really great book--short, bu More...

I enjoyed the book Dragon's Bait because it has all the the kind of genres I like. I has a classic tale and it is mixed with a fantsy. There is a dragon inovled. Another example is they talk about how they thought women were witches.

You would like this book if you like classic tales mixed in witthe fiction. I say this because it has dragons and things they did in the times witches.

One characteter Selienxer is brave and kind hearted because he helps out Alys when they were about to stake her and More...