Hilarious, cute (at least to me) adventure in finding love with the young Gork. The authors take on dragons is wholly original. These aren't your typical dragons, either as destructive creatures hording treasure and demanding maidens and being slain by knights or as respected creatures of magic and wisdom. Gork and his dragons are a very interesting alien species that have the characteristics of typical dragons with their wings and tails and scales and claws and breathing fire and just plain fierceness but with an intelligence similar to humans, a more militarized society, and a huge love of poetry. Have I mentioned it's hilarious? yes? well that's cause it is lol. My only problem, and it's not much of one, was the repetition of things like "scaly green ass," the first few times it added to the humor but after that it got a little annoying. Gabe Hudson has clearly shown his talent and I'm interested to see what he does in his (hopefully very long) career.
**Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to review the ARC!**

Okay, so this is definitely not by kind of book. I've always wanted to be one of those people who loves Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett but I'm not. That's the kind of book this is. It's really cute and funny, if you're into space dragon juvenile yet nerdy smart humor, It's well written, the pace is just right yet I just didn't connect with it at all. I found myself at times really enjoying it but overall I simply wanted to read something else. This is a really cute and sweet book, just not for me.

I really wanted to like this book; I had some high hopes going in the synopsis sounded amazing and I LOVE dragons. However I guess my own high hopes were to blame since I could just not get into this story.
While there was some excellent world building, and the stories pace was good. It is a coming of age story and has some good messages about friendship, bullies, and self-acceptance. Overall I just could not get into the narrative voice of this tale.

Gork, the Teenage Dragon: A novel by Gabe Hudson had my "scaly green ass" laughing throughout the hilarious antics and witty dialogue in this book. Gork, our teen dragon, is called Weak Sauce because he is different than the other dragons. Only 2" horns, faints, afraid of heights, and has an oversized heart, literally and figuratively. He is suppose to find a Queen before he graduates the academy for dragons or he has to be a slave. If he finds a Queen that will except him, he gets to go with his Queen to a planet and start a new life. He has deal with bullies, nerds, mutants, and robot dragons. It is a comical, witty, tender, coming of age of age story with magical and delightful fantasy and just a hint of romance. Humor sprinkled generously!!! I giggled so much reading this book. There are so many scenes and phrases that caught me off guard that had me laughing and snorting. What a gem of a book! Thanks NetGalley, I haven't enjoyed a book like this in such a long time!

To summarize this book, I'd say it's about a society of technologically advanced dragons seeking world domination, but the main focus of the book is on this one dragon finding a mate.

What I didn't like was the focus of the story - which was Gork trying to ask his "queen" to mate with him - (kinda like asking a girl out to prom) all the while revving himself up, since he's such a loser for a dragon. If this is supposed to be YA, it's a very disturbing focus. Because Gork is a dragon instead of human teen, it does read better than a human teen looking to mate, but still - the idea is just wrong. I didn't like the writing style either. It felt like I was watching an annoying superhero movie with lots of screaming and hyper people. But that's just the feeling I got, and everyone has their own preferences.

On the other hand, I was really impressed with the way the author developed the world setting and other plot lines hidden behind Gork's search for a queen. It's really well written with great ideas, but the way it was all conveyed ruined it for me. I hope others appreciate it though. It's definitely a unique work. I think if you like graphic novels, you'll enjoy reading this. There are no graphics, but the style reads at a similar pace.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

(If rating only the second half of the book 4 stars, whole book: 3.5)

Gork, The Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson is a story of love versus power with dragons in space as the main characters.

Honestly, this novel took me a bit to get into. Well-written, comedic, and filled with description and innovation within familiar settings, the first half of the novel felt repetitive and somewhat random as Gork tried to find his Queen or risk becoming a slave. This made it a bit slow to start for me, but once it got to the second half of the book it become a much more interesting story and more focused.

Gabe Hudson has created a complex, sprawling universe that is constantly being introduced as Gork navigates it with the liberal use of flashbacks to fill in gaps as Gork goes about attempting to propose to his future Queen, Runcita. This creates a kind of constant forward progress, with the occasional explanatory side-story. It takes him quite a while just to find Runcita as WarWings Academy is filled with a myriad of pitfalls, enemies and complications which spans teleport pads, difficult spacecraft parking, battles to near death, and a trip to the underworld with a surprisingly helpful dead Professor Nog.

Gork is endearing as a character who is trying hard to fit into a world that is defined by dangerous brutality, while he has a big heart. His grandfather, Dr. Terrible epitomizes the world Gork is trying to fit into and works to get Gork to fit that mold by any means necessary. During the course of Gork's day we learn a lot about him, his world and Dr. Terrible.

The character I liked most was Fribby, Gork's best friend, a sentient organic, robot dragon. She is willing to help him in his quest for the popular girl "Queen" he wants, although he is at the other end of popular spectrum (there are actual rankings that Gork checks throughout), but I find myself hoping that he will end up with Fribby. Fribby is fearless, quirky, death obsessed and there for Gork, not just in spite of his flaws, but because of them.

Overall, Gork, The Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson is a good novel that got better as the story progressed. I'd recommend, especially for the second half of the book.

(I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book I received for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my open and honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)

Wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful, I've never read anything like it!