Heart of the Dragon

Supernatural #4

by Keith R.A. DeCandido

A Supernatural novel that reveals a previously unseen adventure for the Winchester brothers, from the hit CW series!When renegade angel Castiel alerts Sam and Dean to a series of particularly brutal killings in San Francisco's Chinatown, they realise the Heart of the Dragon, an ancient evil of unspeakable power, is back! John Winchester faced the terrifying spirit 20 years ago, and the Campbell family fought it 20 years before that - can the boys succeed where their parents and grandparents failed?

Genres: Supernatural, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Mystery

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm still missing my favourite show (well, second favourite after The Wire to be correct), so I've read yet another one of these horrible tie-ins. I got two more waiting for me on my shelf. I've read three of them and disliked them all, so it's probably unwise to keep going. But oh well. One thing: they're all very very easy reads.

I don't understand why tv show tie-ins have to be so horrible. There's amazing fan fictions out there, so it's clear it can be done. All you need to do is actually watch the show and then write an interesting case with a little bit of emotional drama thrown in. What Keith R.A. DeCandido does instead is... weird. And boring. So boring! There's way too many people. I think I can count the pages that have Sam and Dean (the main characters!) appear on one hand. Most of this story takes place within the Chinese Mafia, but also ancient Japan, and then the 70s with Sam's mother and their grandparents trying to solve the case, and then in the 80s with John, their father trying to do the same. It's so convoluted and confusing, the depiction of race is borderline offensive (I've never read the word "Oriental" so often before), and there is no emotion or character development anywhere. Keith R.A. DeCandido appears to have written almost 100 novels so far, most of them tie-ins. Maybe his Star Trek books are better, maybe he's an actual fan and takes care to give those books an interesting story and anything resembling why people love the show, but you can't tell me this guy has watched Supernatural past the first few seasons. No way.

[Matt Spaulding · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read a few of these Supernatural tie-in books now and this is by far the worst. The writing is pretty flat and the story is a jumbled up mess.
The plot focuses on a problem that has been plaguing the Winchester family since Sam and Dean's grandfather was alive and hunting, which is the first problem. This breaks the plot up into three separate storylines and places too much focus on two flashbacks that take up large, ultimately repetitive and useless chunks of the book.
The second major issue with the story is that it relies very heavily on the overarching storyline of the season in which this book takes place, tying it too closely to the show rather than standing mostly on its own as the other books I have read do. If the reader hasn't seen season five lately, a lot of the things they mention in the book are fuzzy memories and this really weakens the story.
I can only hope the rest of the tie in books are like the ones I have read prior to this and not more like this one.

[Linda Bakker-Zwakhals · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didnt really get into the story in the beginning. Maybe because It has been a long couple of days and I was tired. But I think it was mainly because I realised they would kill the demon three times and I was only interested in how Dean and Sam would accomplish the deed. But around half way through it did pick up and it turned out to be a Nice read

[Dawnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This particular author is not my favorite to read from. more than half of his book that are supposed to be a supernatural (aka Dean and Sam focused story so they fit with the show!) are not from the perspective of either Dean or Sam.
He also has a heavy focus on their parents that i don’t understand, especially since he doesn’t write them in character and/or with the knowledge that is given in the show on how they did behave and parent!

but the out of character behavior does fit with his writing style since he just doesn’t manage to write the boys well - at all.
could some please explain to me why this guy didn’t just get one but a more than that book deal for writing published fanfiction for a show he clearly can’t write well for since he can’t get the characters right?! who made that decision?!

I found castiel -first time he came up in the book series- to be as out of character as per usual with the author and even the distant „i don’t understand humans“ Cas didn’t behave as he was written here.

i did like that Bobby had a bit of a larger role here and was honestly the best written out of them all.

the plot itself was okay but wasn’t the most thrilling best plot idea and the whole three different generations of the Winchesters having to fight the thing to finally kill it was a bit much for me.

overall?
not impressed to be honest!

let’s how this series and the authors that also write the books for it do a better job!

if you are an extreme fan of the show and want to read everything you can, do for it.
if you can skip books in a series do that for this one, you won’t miss much!

[Clara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do you remember the scene in Shrek 2 when they are on their way to Far Far Away and Donkey is so annoying that Shrek breaks down and shouts "are we there yet?!"
Yeah, that pretty much sums up how reading this made me feel.
What an absolute disaster. There was not a single thing going for this book. The cultural appropriation was horrendous. Just the sheer idiocy of the translation of "Heart of the Dragon" into Doragon Kokoro? DORAGON KORORO?! Downright fucking criminal. Pretty sure my eyes bled a little every time I had to read it.
The writing itself? Terrible. Several times I found repeat words and phrases in sentences right next to each other, making the reading flow rather clunky and frankly just clumsy. Did no one proofread this? (I wouldn't be surprised if not tbh)
Then at least I had my boys, Sam and Dean, the real reason for reading this in the first place, right? Wrong. They were hardly even in it. Instead I had to trudge through not just one but two long, unexciting flashbacks of their parents dealing with this translation disaster before I got a few chapters of them finally handling it.
At that point, I think even the author wanted to shout "are we there yet?!" because the climax, if it can even be called that, was over so quickly and in such a predictable paint-a-Supernatural-filler-episode-by-numbers way that it was obvious no one cared anymore. Not even season 11 felt this mediocre.

I want my time back.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sam and Dean are only in it for 10-15% of the book.WTF!

To be fair this is my first supernatural book and it has really good moments but.... Sam and Dean are only in it for maybe 10-15% of this ENTIRE F××KING book!!! The author tries WAY TOO HARD filling in meaningless background lore.... Some of it is nice don't get me wrong... But when you forcefully dedicate...7-10 characters perspectives ( only 2-4 are entertaining) it just feels forced, feels like fluff to stretch out the story, which sucks because it has such a good setup and the author barely dose anything with it besides (again) POINTLESS characters viewpoints on what's going on.... 75% of this book can be removed and it would of had the same impact... Great intro, Good but rushed ending... The rest is a coin toss mattering on what you like in a story.

Pro:
Great intro/Set up
Some fun family history ( over stays it's welcome)
Johns part is badass!

Con:
Sam and Dean are in it for 10-15% of the book!!
Way too many characters perspectives which end up meaningless.
Feels forcefully stretched out to the point of boredom.
Mary's part was FAR too long.

Happy I read it, but I will be avoiding this authors other books.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Least favorite of the novelization series so far... I liked the into. Found it a bit strange so much took place outside the US as that wasn't common then but I love Japanese lore, culture and history. So I got into it. Then in goes to the brothers in current time. Now I like Dean and Sam to act like the show. It needs to feel legit. In a way this did. But in a bad way. They were copy-cats of the show. So many exact lines used.... I could not go a single page without a line I have already heard. And I am not referring to short expressions that the do use all the time. I am talking of their famous one-liners fans loved. I wanted the essence of the boys, not lines taken from episodes, mashed together, tossed in a mixer and spat back out in book form! I feel the way the explain the demons plot was also lacking. This just felt like badly written fanfic. I expect better from published works.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, mine will likely be an unpopular opinion. I adored everything in this book that had to do with the main villain and with the boys and even with a certain young lady you will recognize when you start reading it. I hated every single chapter that mentioned the grandfather though, O get how he was neccessary, I just hate the character. That being said, definitely a fun read if you enjoy the series!

[taleisha ridgway · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️

Once you’ve read one of these, you’ve kind of read them all. I really wasn’t interested in the story in this one and didn’t reallly care for the flash backs. I’m literally just here for more Sam and Dean content 😂

[MaddieG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in one day could not put it down!

[Paige Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hated reading John’s POV which is how I know they wrote him right

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wondered when a new Supernatural novel was going to be released. I had read all three previous books and then waited and kept waiting for a new book in the series. I figured that the books weren't all that popular, so no more books were going to be published. You can imagine my excitement over the news that three new Supernatural books were going to be released in 2010. I love the television show and have generally liked the books which have ranged from being mediocre to really good.

I would put this one into the Really Good category. At first, I wasn't entirely thrilled knowing that Sam and Dean only appear in the last third of the book, but I did enjoy getting the backstories on the brothers' grandparents and parents. I ended up liking the book more because of this. The entire Winchester family battles the spirit of a Japanese samurai who was falsely accused of a crime by a demon with far reaching plans. Keith R.A. DeCandido expands the world of the brothers by delving into the histories and including many of the most popular characters from the tv show. He also faithfully sticks with what is currently happening in the 5th season of the television show - the Apocalypse and the battle between angels and demons.

The book can be read as a stand alone novel by a reader with no knowledge of the characters or their interactions. However, many things make more sense and click if the reader is familiar with the world of the Winchester brothers. Because this is Mr. DeCandido's third Supernatural book, I feel he is finally getting a grasp on how to write the characters and the situations they find themselves in. He is able to now write with the voices of Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Misha Collins, and Jim Beaver coming out through the pages. We, as the faithful viewer, know these characters and know how they will act. Any deviation angers us, but DeCandido sticks with what we know and love about the show.

A fast and fun read.

[RealmsQueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered the Supernatural books about a year ago, and fell in love with them. I totally admit that they are not literary masterpieces, nor will they go down in history for their characters, story or prose, but they are still wonderful books.

Basically this book, as will all the others, gives us a side story of the Winchester brothers hunting down things that go bump in the night around the events that happen within the television series. This particular installment deals with them destroying the spirit of a Japanese ronin.

When alive, the ronin was approached by a demon and as usual given an offer he was not supposed to be able to refuse. Surprisingly he did, and this caused the demon to rile up some locals against the ronin, leading him to be burned alive, and the demon subsequently enslaving his soul to eventually be used in the Apocolypse. Every twenty years the spirit is summoned by a blood descendant, and eventually come out in the time of the brothers. They of course chase it down and lay the tormented spirit to rest.

What I love most about these books is that they tend to bring you closer to the characters. Because all you see on the show is their actions and reactions, whereas the books let you into their thought processes and feelings. This makes a greater connection than watching them ever could.

This is a fun, easy read for any and all fans of the Winchester brothers. Looking forward to the rest!

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally made it to the end of the book. The best part of this book? It ended.

[Sarah AF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expectations weren't high after I gave my last Supernatural read 1*, but I wanted something easy to read that didn't demand tons of brain power (if any at all...) and decided to risk it for a Kindle Unlimited free read. It was worth the risk!

I mean, it is *still* a Supernatural book so there was no ground-breaking literary innovation to be found, but the writing for Sam and Dean felt less like clunky stereotypes taken off a Wikipedia character brief! It helped that the narrative for the book was split across three generations for the book so wasn't quite so dependent on the core dynamic between the two brothers which can occasionally revert to gimmicky quips. Instead, seeing the life of their mother as a child and how at odds her own experience as a hunter-child was with the boys' was actually really poignant, especially when juxtaposed with John Winchester's hunt 20 years later and how his need to vengeance had consumed him to the point of neglecting his sons in a way that the reader knew would define and stunt them.

The dragon concept was a lot of fun too, admittedly verging on racially stereotypical at times, something that drew of aspects of existing Supernatural lore but with a completely fresh take. If not for the deeply stereotypically All-Action MEN finale of the book (well, it was never going to be a cerebral approach with Dean, was it?), I'd say this was a really solid and enjoyable read. It incorporated canon relative to where it falls in the series without upsetting the timeline or what we know or come to know about the characters involved.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I considered 2.5 for a moment, but honestly I'm so opinionless on this book that it doesn't deserve it. I didn't necessarily not like it, I just feel... nothing. It was a quick read and the writing in itself is pretty good, but that's all.

I think it doesn't help that this book is essentially three stories, except it isn't really because it's more the same story three times over. And those stories take up about the same amount of time, so it's just kinda... I don't know. Boring in its brevity? Miniature plots taped together? Plus, the first part focuses on Samuel and I really hate that guy, and the second part focuses on John, so that isn't much better. Also didn't help that character depth for anyone but the villain and the spirit is non-existent.

Actually, I just realized something: DeCandido can't write a proper single-case story. It either is multiple stories combined or has a bunch of stuff that should have just been left out.

And finally, Dean never calls Cas by his full name. Not even to others. I don't care it only happened once, it's just that easy, okay?

[Ju · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good Supernatural story, pretty unique the way the samurai’s story was intertwined with the Campbell and John Winchester. The family business indeed. We got to see a little of Dean and Sam being kids and their dynamic, so that’s a plus. But I must say that I missed reading more about the boys at present day. The case was vague and I feel that it wasn’t much thought through. (Spoilers ahead!!) How does a demon traps a soul? How the samurai’s spirit was able to kill demons and angels? The spells and the whole concept was… Off. Interesting but not so much developed properly. Also, got tired of how many chapters started with the story of a secondary character that would be kill off by the second, it gets tiring. Nonetheless, it was enjoyable.

[Rissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young Mary (Sam and Deans mother) tried to catch this monster
Bobby and John tried to kill the same monster
Sam and Dean are their last hope to kill this beast once and for all.
These are cute and easy reads. I loved seeing young Sam and Dean it was something we dont see much in the show.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though it's a nice idea to get 3 generations of Winchesters/Campbells working on the same case over the decades I was a bit disappointed to get such a short coverage of Sam and Dean. Also the parts of the side characters were a bit too long for me and didn't really catch my interest.

[Lijne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tried starting this book a year ago and only got to chapter 2 before I got distracted by different books. This time around, I started it for my vacation and actually followed through. I adored this book, the story was amazing and I loved that it jumped through different timelines and seeing the winchester bloodline fight the same enemy.

[Naty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toto nebolo také super, ako tie predchádzajúce knižky.

[Alison Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, to many characters there is no character development, pretty much the whole story repeated 3 times. And some of the racist comments..So far least fave.

[Brian McCullar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pushing on with the Supernatural tie-in novels, Heart of the Dragon was an interesting one. Taking place shortly after the events of the episode "Changing Channels", and it FINALLY breaks away from being just another ghost story like the first three books were. Don't get me wrong, I love ghosts, but 3 books in a row all focusing on the same kind of supernatural threat was getting stale. Sure Bone Key had a minor demon subplot and this book does still focus primarily on a very powerful ghost, but it also featured vampires, demons and angels, and new stakes for the apocalyptic war between angels and demons.

The book jumps between 4 timelines. First set in feudal Japan following the events of Yoshio Nakadai, a Ronin who failed to save his master. In 1969 we follow the events of Sam and Dean's grandparents, the Campbells. In 1989 we follow the events of their father John Winchester. And finally, in 2009 we follow Sam and Dean themselves. This perspective jump was honestly a lot of fun as it broke up the formula a bit that the first 3 books used, which I am SO grateful for.

The "Monster of the Week" this go around is the spirit known as the Heart of the Dragon, a powerful and unique ghost who can only be summoned by his descendants, and posed a great threat, so much so that the angels feared him falling into the hands of their enemies, the demons. While I get very tired of ghosts in this series, mostly because they're all basically the same, find the body, salt and burn it, blah blah blah, the Heart of the Dragon possessed very unique qualities. He had no remains to burn since he himself was burned alive, it was his descendants who tethered him to the mortal world by means of ancient and powerful magic, and as long as he was tied to the world, his descendant who controlled him was also protected by a level of invulnerability. Meaning there was no traditional or conventional way of dealing with him, which made him so much more fun to read.

The book also provided a bit more insight as to how demons were managing to kill angels, since at this point, only one angel blade had ever been seen in the series, which was great to see and it helped make the conflict feel a bit more fleshed out than the TV show had left it.

However, the book isn't without its flaws. I know some would point to how in the 1969 story, everyone kept using the word "oriental" to describe Asian people, but I don't consider this a flaw, because that's how the layman typically referred to Asians at that time, and I spoke with my Vietnam war veteran father to confirm this, if they had continued to use "oriental" instead of "Asian" in the later timelines, then a racial argument against the author would be warranted, but since they hadn't, then the point is moot.

The actual cons of this book come mostly from some mischaracterization, particularly with John Winchester. We know from the show that John was never there for the boys, never smiled for them, bought them anything or really acted like a father. He was their trainer more than anything, and was especially absent from Sammy in his upbringing, yet in this book, they had John smiling and laughing with his kids, telling Sam he was proud of him, and bought his boys gifts, which, while a sweet moment, is COMPLETELY out of character for John and it took me out of the story for a little bit.

Additionally, the book has Mary Campbell think about John Winchester while the two were in high school, this is COMPLETELY wrong, as John and Mary didn't even meet until after John arrived home from Vietnam, so the idea that Mary had a crush on him in school because he was nice to her and treated her like a person, just doesn't work.

These aren't big issues for most I'm sure, but as a super fan, I hated seeing characters be mishandled this way, so I did deduct points for it.

Overall, I still enjoyed the book and would recommend it to fans of the show, but it's not my favorite book in the series, so far, that title is still held by Nevermore. But it's a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars!

Wanna check out my other Supernatural book reviews? Check em out below!

Nevermore: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Witch's Canyon: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Bone Key: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nacho Gamboa · Rating 1 out of 5]

La cuarta fue la vencida... Después de 4 novelas (3 de ellas de DeCandido, terriblemente malas todas), pues decidí que si voy a malgastar mi tiempo no será con esta porquería... Ni si quiera sabría por donde empezar... Tal vez por la insistencia de el autor de mezclar cultura japonesa y china como si fueran la misma cosa, con una gran cantidad de palabras en japonés que probablemente ni el mismo DeCandido sabían que significan (y en otras partes pone la pronunciación japonesa del inglés, no DeCandido dragón en japonés no es "doragon", es Ryū, una simple búsqueda en el traductor de Google habría bastando)... DeCandido es terrible, pésimo, aburrido... No hay suficientes adjetivos para describir lo mucho que detesto la forma en que escribe, las excesivas descripciones (calles, casa, música, muebles, ropas y NADA SIRVE PARA LA TRAMA)...
Poniendo de parámetro este señor cualquier analfabeta puede ser escritor.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A media tie-in book based on the show Supernatural. If you are looking for thought provoking literature, you should look somewhere else. This book is about a demon that three generations of Winchesters have fought. And that is the problem with this book. Like other reviewers have said, there is not enough Sam and Dean in this book. The 1st part was about their grandparents facing the demon. The secoond part was about their father and the reader doesn't get Sam and Dean until the final third of the book. When I read a media tie-in book, I expect it to be about the main characters and not secondary minor ones. It was a good storyline and I understand what the author was trying to accomplish. I just wish there was a better way.

[Samantha Ege · Rating 4 out of 5]

In order to read this book, you'll need to be familiar with the television show, or else nothing will make sense. For starters, DeCandido does a fabulous job of connecting the 3 generations of hunters; going into the Campbell's family hunting technique was flawless and his depiction of John hunting and neglecting his children was on point. The dialogue fit the characters perfectly, you could imagine the actors saying it from the show. Not to mention the relatable villain and tremendous demon/angel dispute. It has a fan fiction feel, but it was an incredible add-on, not to mention the overall writing style flows flawlessly.

[May B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish that this could have been written as just a campbell story or just a john story instead of trying to put the boys in. It just... it was hard to read it because it was too much going on. But hey thats the curse of this type of story right, you have to do what you're told :)

All and all ok, just felt rather like watching the shows, too much crammed into too short a time.

[Iben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Not horrible, but not very good either. Dean and Sam are barely in it, with most of it taking place in 1969 and 1989

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[the 2009 portions of this novel take place shortly after the 5th season episode "Changing Channels"]

"Knowledge was power."

This spirit is giving Takezo Kensei from Heroes.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel I should preface this review by saying that I do believe if you are a huge fan of the show Supernatural, on which the book was based, you will most likely enjoy this book much more than I did. I enjoy the show, I've seen all the episodes, and I am going to keep watching it until the final season. It's a fun show with solid storytelling and the monsters and magic in the show are pretty creative. With that said, however, I don't love the show, and there are some issues that keep me from singing too many of its praises. I wouldn't name my first born Sam or Dean, and I wouldn't shell out the cost of airfare and a hotel room to go to the Supernatural Convention. If you're one of those people who seriously love the show, and I have several friends in this category so it’s a love I understand, I think you'll enjoy this book. But if you're in the middle ground like me, I wouldn't recommend it. And here's why.

But first, let me mention some of its good points. DeCandido seems to have the ability to be a pretty decent storyteller, as evidenced by his character Yoshio Nakadai, our sympathetic “monster” of the tale. Nakadai is an honorable samurai from 1800s Japan whose soul is bound by a demon to do its evil bidding. This character is very interesting. He's new (not from the show) and is given a believable backstory. We don't get too much of the book from his perspective, but what's there is enough to make a connection between him and the reader. Or at least it was for me. I wanted to know more about him, I wanted Dean and Sam to save him from this demonic curse, and I was invested in finding out about his fate. And this is really the only reason I finished the book.

Albert Chao, another a new character and one of the villains of the story, is also well-written. He summons and controls Nakadai throughout the story as a tool for vengeance. If the demon who trapped Nakadai originally is the main villain, then Chao is in second place. He's a selfish and cruel man, but is portrayed in a slightly sympathetic light, which makes him more interesting. Is he a little cookie-cutter? Yes. But I understand what got him to this point and why he makes the choices he does. Even though he is in the wrong, it's interesting enough to read as his petty vendettas lead him down the criminal path in the life he's chosen. We even get some character development from him by the end of the story. We follow Chao and Nakadai through all their years together, even before Sam and Dean face them, which is pretty cool.

But that's where the good points stop. I pretty much enjoyed all of the “new” aspects of the book and found the characters and stories from the show tedious at best and downright boring at worst. The whole book feels trapped by the original Supernatural story, which I understand that DeCandido must follow and present in order to make this a Supernatural book. Heck, it's why we're even reading it in the first place, right? But it's just not executed very well, in my opinion. Whenever we got to characters from the show, it felt like one really slow and painful review. Now if you seriously love the characters, you may enjoy reading about them in this context, despite the same old information we've already rehashed to death on the show. But as for me, I certainly did not.

Spoilers start here, so if you aren't caught up with the show and care about such things, then I wouldn't read any further.

Yoshio Nakadai, aka the Heart of the Dragon, and Albert Chao, are not very good at going about their evil business unnoticed. Their first rash of killings is found by Sam and Dean's maternal grandparents, who are also hunters. Samuel, Deanna, and their daughter Mary (Sam and Dean's mom) take on the hunt to stop the Heart of the Dragon in 1969. This is the part that was the most tedious for me to get through. These three are so cookie-cutter it's ridiculous. And I think it's mostly because the show doesn't spend too much time on these characters, particularly Mary and Deanna. They just don't get much screen time, so it's understandable that DeCandido didn't have much to go on. Samuel is the tough guy with trust issues. Mary is a teenager, who loves her secret action-packed hunter lifestyle but part of her wants to just be a normal girl. She likes popular music and butts heads with her parents sometimes. She's doe-eyed over the attractive young hunter, Jack, who helps a little on the case, but that dead-ends real fast because, of course, we all know she's going to marry Sam and Dean's dad, so why bother? Deanna is the understanding mom who tries to keep the peace between her headstrong daughter and husband. Sure, they kill vampires and other creepy-crawlies sometimes, but I knew that already. I've seen 9 seasons of Winchesters (and family) killing things. There's nothing new here, just typical family dynamics in the setting of a fast-paced career choice. They eventually figure out what we already know about Chao and Nakadai and temporarily put a stop to their rampage.

Then we proceed to the '80s, where John Winchester, Sam and Dean's dad, take a crack at it. We get a good, hard look at his motivations, since this part is from his perspective. We don't get too much of him in the show either, but we hear a lot about him from various parties, giving enough content to make a pretty strong case for his storyline. So, this part was more interesting to me than the first. However, we spend a lot of time rehashing what someone who has seen the show already knows. Mary is killed by a demon, setting John and sons on a long mission to kill it. John's mind is pretty much on a single track - find the demon by doing as many hunts as possible to search for evidence. Even to the point where he leaves his sons for long periods of time, barely being in their lives. It's pretty painful how little he cares about them. He's consumed by thoughts of revenge, and it made me not like him very much. He's a much more mysterious character in the show, so I didn't feel quite the same dislike. In season one, the boys are trying to find John Winchester; he's a goal, a prize. Sure, we hear all about how his hunts kept him away from his family. But when you read things like “He and Mary had saved plenty of money – okay, so it was originally earmarked for Dean and Sammy's college funds, but that was less of a priority now – so after she died, he'd been able to finance his hunt for vengeance.” it really hits home. He's a horrible parent! Horrible! So while John is more fleshed out than his wife and in-laws, I found myself really disliking his character.

How much the reader likes a character isn't a problem with the book, though. I'd actually say this is a good point. It made me feel something for this character, so that's great. The problem, like I mentioned above, is how much recap we get. Every single piece of Supernatural backstory that is even slightly relevant to the characters is explained in detail. Nothing is taken for granted. The author assumes we know nothing about the story and the characters. This is #4 of the Supernatural books, by the way, taking place in season 5. If you've never seen the show, I'll bet you've read the other 3 books. Otherwise, you really deserve to be confused by just jumping in the middle. Same goes for reading this without having watched through season 5.

Either way, I think it's safe to say the reader is going in with a good knowledge base. Why are the Winchesters hunters? Because a demon killed their mom. What was the result of this? Their lives are thrown upside down as John uproots his family to hunt monsters across the country in an attempt to find her killer. Who is Bobby Singer? The guy closest to being Sam and Dean's father figure, at least in practice. We know. We really, really know. We don't need to start from the beginning. This information isn't what I care about. I care about this new adventure, the Heart of the Dragon, and the story of Nakadai and Chao and how the Winchesters interact in this situation. And while that's present in the book, you have to push through a whole bunch of fluff to get to it. And I call it fluff because in the story of the hunt for Nakadai and Chao, that's what it is. It isn't relevant. I could cut out whole pages of this book and still get the same effect.

The chapters with Sam and Dean as adult hunters searching for the Heart of the Dragon are better than the backstory. It references relevant information without going into too much detail. It mentions Castiel and Rudy and the apocalypse without giving us a play-by-play of season 4 and the parts of season 5 before the book is supposed to take place. Which makes me wonder, why couldn't the rest of the book have been written the same way? But putting that aside, with these chapters not being devoted to backstory overkill, we're left with Sam and Dean being Sam and Dean. Which is fine. Their interactions are believable and true to the show. But that's where things take another turn for me. Like I said, I enjoy the show but there are a few issues I have with it that keep me from loving it. Like how it's kind of emo (you know it's true). Sam and Dean fight and get back together more than the characters on an episode of Vampire Diaries. They speak solely in pop culture references and smart-ass remarks. Well, Dean, Bobby and apparently this demon character who first enslaves Nakadai, if not Sam, I cannot express how annoying I find this. It was funny the first couple seasons. Then it was kind of cute for a few more. Now it's just obnoxious. And reading it, rather than watching the words come out of Dean's handsome face, makes it way worse. But this is a book for the show. So truth be told, the book does well to emulate it. That's what it's supposed to do – be a new adventure of Sam and Dean, being Sam and Dean. So while these things made me, personally, like the book less, that doesn't mean that true fans who don't have the same complaints I do will find it as a negative aspect. This is why I say those fans will probably like this more than I did. People who like the show just okay might not be thrilled and may be better off picking up a different book.