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WORK TITLE: Everything You Want Me to Be
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://mindymejia.com/
CITY:
STATE: MN
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/authors/mindy_mejia.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2013005393
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2013005393
HEADING: Mejia, Mindy
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100 1_ |a Mejia, Mindy
670 __ |a The dragon keeper, 2012: |b t.p. (Mindy Mejia) about the author page (born and raised in the Twin Cities area ; received BA from Univ. of Minnesota and an MFA from Hamline Univ. ; this is her debut novel)
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PERSONAL
Born in MN.
EDUCATION:University of Minnesota, B.A.; Hamline University, MFA.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to anthologies and periodicals, including rock, paper, scissors; Things Japanese: An Anthology of Short Stories; and THIS Literary Magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
A native of Minnesota, Mindy Mejia is a writer and the contributor of numerous short stories to periodicals and anthologies, including rock, paper, scissors; Things Japanese: An Anthology of Short Stories; and THIS Literary Magazine. Mejia has written two novels: The Dragon Keeper and Everything You Want Me to Be.
The Dragon Keeper
In The Dragon Keeper, published in 2012, Meg Yancy is a zookeeper who is caring for Jata, a Komodo dragon that arrived from a zoo in Indonesia. Meg has become overly attached to Jata and finds that she relates better to reptiles than to other humans. She has an estranged relationship with her father, her relationship with her live-in boyfriend is rocky, and her boss is more interested in furthering his career than caring for animals. When Jata inexplicably lays viable eggs without ever having mated, she knows she must protect the dragon and her hatchlings from the attention that is to come. That attention comes in the form of scientists, the media, and religious groups, all wanting to be in on the “miracle.” As a result, Meg has to do what she hates the most: dealing with people.
Reviews of The Dragon Keeper were positive. Our Hen House website reviewer Piper Hoffman wrote: “Yancy’s tale makes for compelling reading, and her quest to save the dragons she cares for is evocative and moving. While painting a portrait of an imperfect but idealistic and dedicated woman, The Dragon Keeper also raises some difficult questions about the preservation of endangered species and our responsibilities for non-human animals. It falls short of condemning zoos generally, but does illuminate some of the hazards to animals in zoos through the story of four reptiles helpless to escape human custody.” A Book Lover Book Reviews website contributor commented: “The Dragon Keeper is as much about the plight of the animals as it is about the personal journeys of the humans involved. … The Dragon Keeper [is] an entertaining story that will leave you with a broadened mind and a sense of hope.”
Everything You Want Me to Be
In Everything You Want Me to Be, published in 2017, high school senior Hattie Hoffman is found stabbed to death in an abandoned barn in rural Minnesota. The novel is narrated by Peter Lund, a high school teacher who was having an affair with Hattie, Sheriff Del Goodman, and Hattie herself. As the book progresses, Hattie is revealed to be a manipulative individual who appears to those around her exactly as they want to see her, leading to a number of people who might have wanted her dead.
Reviews of Everything You Want Me to Be were mixed. Comparing the novel to the bestselling Gone Girl, Booklist reviewer Christine Tran wrote: “Readers will be pleasantly surprised to discover that Mejia’s confident storytelling pulls … themes into an altogether different exploration of manipulation and identity.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor was less impressed, writing: “There’s an attempt at profundity here that falls flat, leaving instead a story we’ve seen before of a pretty girl who winds up dead and the usual cast of suspects who may have killed her.” Mark Stevens, a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books Online, was impressed with the story and wrote: “Everything You Want Me to Be is a fast read with a bright, clean style. The ending should launch some ferocious debates. Mejia’s approach isn’t too deceive, only to withhold. Some readers may hope for a bolder choice of true antagonists among the smallish cast. In all, this is a gripping thriller and, once again, a cautionary tale about high school teachers getting tangled with their students, particularly ones who know how to act.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2016, Christine Tran, review of Everything You Want Me to Be, p. 31.
Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2016, review of Everything You Want Me to Be.
Publishers Weekly, October 24, 2016, review of Everything You Want Me to Be, p. 57.
ONLINE
Book Lover Book Reviews, http://bookloverbookreviews.com/ (October 22, 2013), review of The Dragon Keeper.
Global Animal, http://www.globalanimal.org/ (August 27, 2013), review of The Dragon Keeper.
Mindy Mejia Website, http://mindymejia.com (July 26, 2017).
New York Journal of Books Online, http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (July 26, 2017), Mark Stevens, review of Everything You Want Me to Be.
Our Hen House, http://www.ourhenhouse.org/ (August 27, 2012), Piper Hoffman, review of The Dragon Keeper.
Princeton Book Review, http://www.princetonbookreview.com/ (July 26, 2017), review of Everything You Want Me to Be.
Shelf Awareness, http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ (July 26, 2017), review of Everything You Want Me to Be.
Switchback, http://www.swback.com/ (July 26, 2017), review of The Dragon Keeper.*
About Mindy Mejia
Mindy Mejia was born and raised in a small-town-turned-suburb in the Twin Cities area. She received a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from Hamline University. Other than brief interludes in Iowa City and Galway, she’s lived and worked in Minnesota her entire life.
Mindy generally focuses her fiction writing on the novel, though she also writes short stories, which have appeared in rock, paper, scissors; Things Japanese: An Anthology of Short Stories; and THIS Literary Magazine.
The Dragon Keeper is Mindy’s debut novel. Her second novel, Everything You Want Me to Be, was published by Emily Bestler Books in 2017 and was a People magazine Best New Books Pick and one of the Wall Street Journal's Best New Mysteries.
Click here to visit Mindy's website.
Learn about The Dragon Keeper.
Mindy Mejia is a Minnesota author whose debut novel, The Dragon Keeper, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. Besides the occasional book review or blog entry, Mindy focuses on the novel and she writes what she likes to read: contemporary, plot-driven books that deliver both entertainment and substance. Her latest thriller, Everything You Want Me To Be, is on sale now.
Mindy Mejia
Mindy Mejia is a Minnesota author whose debut novel, THE DRAGON KEEPER, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. Besides the occasional book review or blog entry, Mindy focuses on the novel and she writes what she likes to read: contemporary, plot-driven books that deliver both entertainment and substance. Her upcoming thriller, EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE, will be released by Emily Bestler Books in January 2017.
Interview with Mindy Mejia
Posted on December 1, 2016 by The Suspense Is Thrilling Me
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If you’ve been following my blog or Goodreads account at all this fall then you’ve probably seen me raving about Mindy Mejia’s upcoming mystery Everything You Want Me To Be. If by some miracle you’ve overlooked this one, you can find my review here. Go ahead and add it to your TBR list; this is one you definitely don’t want to miss! I was blown away after reading an early copy, and while I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I think it’s safe to say you should block out a day with nothing else to do as you won’t want to put it down. I had the pleasure of asking the author some questions about her journey on becoming published as well as questions regarding her new book. Don’t worry, this interview is completely spoiler free and safe to read before experiencing the book. Atria has been super generous and is offering 1 copy as a giveaway on my blog; don’t forget to enter HERE!
Interview with Mindy Mejia:
1. Could you tell us a little about your journey to becoming a published author? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
My mom gave me my first journal when I was eleven years old, but I had no concept as a kid that I could ever turn storytelling into a career. I wrote pieces for my high school speech team and literary magazine and took writing electives in college as my “fun classes.” Half-finished novels and story fragments littered my life during the 90’s. I began much more than I ever seemed to finish.
After graduation I got a corporate job and wrote on the side. I didn’t talk about it with most people, because the inevitable follow-up question when you tell someone you write is, “Have you published anything?” A good friend of mine, though, was a classical composer. Andy was one of those rare people you meet in life who will never be equalled. A brilliant, inspired non-conformist, he composed arias and musical ciphers at three in the morning. He picked up trash on public lands and protested the war in Iraq. We had art nights painting maps of imaginary worlds, long before wine and canvas was a thing, because we were pretty sure a writer and a composer would make a couple of great painters. (Spoiler: we didn’t.) One of the most important things Andy taught me was how integral art is to the soul. No matter what else your life brings, keep making art.
Then a few things happened. I got my Master of Fine Arts, my husband and I had our first child, and shortly afterward, for reasons I will never fully understand, Andy signed up for the army and was killed in Afghanistan.
Looking back now, each of those events galvanized me in their own way. The MFA degree gave me the tools to translate all these stories in my head. Becoming a mother challenged me to pursue publication, because how could I teach my kids to chase their dreams if I hadn’t chased mine? I started sending out my thesis project from my MFA and found an amazing small press who published it in 2012, starting my career as an author. With this second book, I got an agent and we’ve sold rights in seventeen countries so far. I’m working on my third book now and no matter where it leads I will always have Andy—who quietly composed music in a notebook on the fields of Kandahar—inspiring me to never stop making art.
2. ”Everything You Want Me To Be” is quite the stand out mystery and some have compared it to “a modern day Lolita”. Were there any real life incidents that contributed to the story? Where did the inspiration for the plot come from?
The initial inspiration was a mashup of images and experiences. I grew up near an abandoned barn that partially flooded every spring, and that became the Erickson barn. When I was young, my grandmother casually mentioned a man stabbed another man to death in a field near her farm, and I could never drive by that field afterward without wondering—where exactly did it happen? And why? With the idea of writing a small town murder, I gravitated toward the idea of a Laura Palmer figure, a high school girl who took on different roles for different people.
As far as other real life incidents, I did know a girl in high school who became involved with a married man. And I dated someone for the wrong reasons once—nothing as duplicitous as the Hattie-Tommy relationship—but it was something I felt guilty about for a long time.
These were all places for the story to start, but once the characters were born they took on lives of their own. Like Ray Bradbury said, “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him.”
3. EYWMTB is told from multiple POVs; how difficult was it to write from ever changing perspectives? The story is mainly told from a middle aged cop, a twenty-something male, and a teenage female; was it challenging to portray a novel from three voices that were completely different from your own?
I had a root for each of these narrators that gave me my way in. For Hattie, I read through all my old high school journals to jump back into a teenage girl’s worldview. Peter and I are both vegetarian runners, if you count sweaty, gaspy jogging as running. (Gaspy is totally a word, btw. It’s the external manifestation of Gatsby’s psyche, revealed during the unnatural attempt to turn one type of body into another.) And Del had my grandfather’s voice, which was probably why he became my favorite character to write. Their personalities grew from those initial connections and once I understood their perspectives and the tension between them, it became relatively easy to navigate through each POV.
4. There is a heavy sense of mortality portrayed in the book; we are constantly reminded of how fleeting life is, even for youth. Was this theme intentional and, if so, how did you ensure it would come across in the most subtle way?
This book is dedicated to my grandparents, who farmed in Iowa and southern Minnesota. For anyone who’s spent time on a farm, mortality becomes a matter-of-fact concept. It’s the decay after the harvest. It’s how the meat gets to your table. There’s a strange dissociation of life and death in more urban areas where people tend to ignore the food chain, but even though farmers are more in touch, it doesn’t mean they’re unaffected. My grandmother would never eat dinner on butchering day. I’ve had the same reaction to death, especially the idea of death as entertainment. I wanted to write a murder mystery that didn’t gloss over the body like it was simply a prop, something to jumpstart a plot. EVERYTHING explores the impact of a murder on a small town and how such an act is absorbed in a community like this. As for writing subtly about a giant theme like mortality, it helps me to turn the subject inside out. Three of my grandparents died right around the time I started working on this book, and I took their spirit and my loss and channeled it into the murder of an eighteen-year-old. Sometimes writing in the opposite direction gets you to the right place in the end.
5. Can you give us any insider info on your next project? Are you currently writing or do you have any ideas for your next book?
I’ve gravitated north for my next project, to Duluth and the Boundary Waters. This one is a speculative thriller set in a near future that’s experiencing more of the effects of climate change. It’s looking like a two book series. I’m loving this story and these characters, but can’t talk too much about it as it’s still evolving.
6. Tell us one awkward/embarrassing/unique fact about yourself!
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t read GONE GIRL until after I sold EVERYTHING and people started comparing/contrasting my book against the novel that basically created the griplit sub-genre. Had to quickly and quietly erase that gap in my education!
My six-year-old just said it’s embarrassing that I wear tank tops when it’s cold outside and my husband said it’s embarrassing that I don’t know how to drive a 5-speed. My four-year-old smiled and hugged me. She’s obviously the favorite.
3dd72ep6
Mindy received a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from Hamline University. Apart from brief stops in Iowa City and Galway, she’s lived in the Twin Cities her entire life and held a succession of jobs from an apple orchard laborer to a global credit manager. She’s currently working on a project set in Duluth and the Boundary Waters that may or may not be a trilogy. Mindy is available for readings, workshops, and book group discussions. Contact her at mindy@mindymejia.com.
THE SKINNY
Mindy SassMindy received a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from Hamline University. Apart from brief stops in Iowa City and Galway, she’s lived in the Twin Cities her entire life and held a succession of jobs from an apple orchard laborer to a global credit manager.
She’s currently working on a project set in Duluth and the Boundary Waters that may or may not be a trilogy.
Mindy is available for readings, workshops, and book group discussions. Contact her at mindy(at)mindymejia.com.
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Print Marked Items
Everything You Want Me to Be
Publishers Weekly.
263.43 (Oct. 24, 2016): p57.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Everything You Want Me to Be
Mindy Mejia. Atria, $26.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-5011-2342-9
The discovery of the body of high school senior Hattie Hoffman, found stabbed in an abandoned barn in rural Pine
Valley, Minn., kicks off this engaging, character-driven crime novel from Mejia (The Dragon Keeper), who examines
the events leading up to the murder through three narrators--Sheriff Del Goodman, a Hoffman family friend; Peter
Lund, a high school teacher who tries to escape his faltering marriage through an affair with Hattie; and Hattie herself.
A natural actor, Hattie consciously plays roles to please other people. When she falls in love, though, she decides to be
honest about her identity and desires--with devastating consequences. The story occasionally drags, and the murder's
resolution seems almost like an afterthought, but Mejia adroitly charts Hattie's development. Peter, initially
sympathetic, becomes cloying, while Del--a Vietnam vet who enjoys fishing and the undemanding company of his
neighbors' cat--emerges as the most compelling and rich of the trio. Readers will look forward to further work from this
talented author. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Company. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Everything You Want Me to Be." Publishers Weekly, 24 Oct. 2016, p. 57. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771796&it=r&asid=72bcc9df0bdba540a930c654dcb02d87.
Accessed 3 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468771796
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Everything You Want Me to Be
Christine Tran
Booklist.
113.5 (Nov. 1, 2016): p31.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* Everything You Want Me to Be. By Mindy Mejia. Jan. 2017. 352p. Atria/Emily Bestler, $26.99 (9781501123429).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
When missing high-school senior Hattie Hoffman is found stabbed to death, Pine Valley, Minnesota, Sheriff Del
Goodman faces the incomprehensible task of solving the murder of his best friend's daughter. Hattie was a well-liked,
talented actress, and interviews with her inner circle reveal nothing in her closet. Then, Del's team discovers that Hattie
was involved in an online romance with a man calling himself LitGeek whom she met on a New York arts message
board. Shortly before Hattie died, LitGeek broke things off, cryptically referring to the disastrous outing of their true
identities. Hattie's murder bears all the hallmarks of a crime of passion, and Del is certain LitGeek is connected to what
happened. Meanwhile, English teacher Peter Lund is struggling to cope with his disintegrating marriage and missing his
life in Minneapolis after he and his wife move to Pine Valley to care for his ailing mother-in-law. Mejia relays the story
of Hattie's final months through flashbacks, Del's investigation, and Peter Lund's narrative, revealing Hattie as a
calculating, manipulative people-pleaser who donned different skins with everyone in her life. Readers drawn to this
compelling psychological thriller because of its shared elements with Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (2012) will be
pleasantly surprised to discover that Mejia's confident storytelling pulls those themes into an altogether different
exploration of manipulation and identity.--Christine Tran
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Tran, Christine. "Everything You Want Me to Be." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 31. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142822&it=r&asid=34b5e804be00964e7971fe387727cfc6.
Accessed 3 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471142822
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Mejia, Mindy: EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME
TO BE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Nov. 1, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Mejia, Mindy EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE Emily Bestler/Atria (Adult Fiction) $25.99 1, 3 ISBN: 978-1-
5011-2342-9
A teenage girl's murder splits apart a rural Minnesota community, uncovering not only her secrets, but also those of the
town.Like so many teenagers living in small towns, 18-year-old Hattie Hoffman wanted out of Pine Valley. Specifically,
she wanted to go to New York City, where she envisioned acting on Broadway. Instead, she ended up stabbed to death
in a barn weeks before graduation after a rave performance as Lady Macbeth in that Scottish play. Mejia, making her
adult debut after The Dragon Keeper (2012), a book for teens, alternates perspective, building up to the day Hattie dies
in Hattie's own voice and in the days and weeks after, from the points of view of the cookie-cutter town sheriff and the
obvious suspect, Hattie's English teacher, as he stumbles through his predictably crumbling marriage. Hattie is a master
manipulator, so much so that it's often difficult to believe she's only 18; when the flirtation with teacher Peter Lund,
which begins online, blossoms into a full-blown affair, it's frustrating that the adult appears to be the one for whom the
author is trying to elicit more sympathy rather than the high school student with whom he's having sex. Sheriff Del
Goodman functions less as a character and more as a vehicle to move the story along: someone has to solve Hattie's
murder, so it may as well be him. In the year leading up to her death, as Hattie prepares her grand exit, her death seems
inevitable not owing to the way she lived, but because Mejia stays so far within what are safe narrative boundaries.
There's an attempt at profundity here that falls flat, leaving instead a story we've seen before of a pretty girl who winds
up dead and the usual cast of suspects who may have killed her.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Mejia, Mindy: EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2016. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468388929&it=r&asid=4ad9b754c987b81622e88451ee29c159.
Accessed 3 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468388929
BOOK REVIEW: “THE DRAGON KEEPER: A NOVEL” BY MINDY MEJIA
By Piper Hoffman — August 27, 2012
Book Review: The Dragon Keeper by Mindy Mejia
Review by Piper Hoffman
I don’t like zoos. On the rare occasions that I have visited them, I have seen only animals imprisoned against their will, sometimes bored and frustrated to the point of madness. Zoos tend to provide less space, stimulation, and company than the animals would have in the wild. Some zoo animals are stolen violently from their habitats and families so humans can gawk at them. Some species have much shorter life spans, more disease, and higher infant mortality rates in zoos than they do in the wild, as I discussed on a television show debating a lawsuit against the Los Angeles zoo for abusing and neglecting its elephants.
But even many people who are staunchly anti-zoo believe that there are some zookeepers who do indeed care about the animals, have their best interests at heart, and do their best to keep the animals comfortable and healthy. Meg Yancy, the protagonist of Mindy Mejia’s debut novel The Dragon Keeper (Ashland Creek Press, 2012), may even care too much about her charge, the zoo’s captive Komodo dragon. Yancy is a keeper of reptiles at the fictional Bloomington’s Zoo of America, including the zoo’s Komodo dragon, native to the Indian Ocean island of Komodo. Though Yancy has romantic entanglements that occasionally claim her attention, her priority remains the Komodo dragon, Jata, and, once they arrive, her three hatchlings.
Controversy and excitement swirl around Jata and her babies because the dragon mom has no mate. Attempts to explain the hatchlings’ conception include allusions to the Virgin Mary and scientific diagrams illustrating parthenogenesis. The attention and debate lead to pressure on Yancy, and make her fear for the reptiles she considers her responsibility – and, sadly, sometimes even her property.
Yancy would disagree with the idea that zoos are always bad places for animals. She believes those zoos “that acted as conservationist sanctuaries for threatened species … put the animals first[:] they tried to understand and mitigate the stress of captivity, they created partnerships with organizations that protected indigenous animal populations, and they participated in breeding and reintroduction programs with local Department of Natural Resources offices.” Another character posits that zoos can make children care about unpopular animals, like reptiles. But this point of view is hardly borne out by the narrative, which goes on to relate that “sometimes the zoo had as many as five thousand visitors a day, and Meg still felt as if she were the only person who ever saw her animals.” If the children aren’t paying attention, their feelings and opinions about non-human animals will not change.
Yancy makes one arguable point in favor of keeping certain animals in some kind of captivity: “There’s no place left for some of these animals. It’s better for them to be here than in a circus or starving in the wild or being killed by poachers.” But those are rarely the only options – effective anti-poaching measures, habitat preservation, and even good wildlife sanctuaries are all preferable to zoos.
Yancy is far too forgiving of zoos. She considers Jata’s relatively small enclosure to be “exactly the kind of environment that a Komodo dragon should live in, if it had to live in a zoo.” Jata is more than six feet long and 180 pounds, and her zoo habitat is five hundred square feet, “bigger than Meg’s first college apartment.” If I were that size and couldn’t leave my first college apartment, I would go stir-crazy in a hurry – and, in fact, some of the animals do. A cheetah who lives in a “fifty-yard box” must take antidepressants after one year at the zoo.
No matter how big the cage, animals pay a price when they are prisoners to humans, and, ultimately, The Dragon Keeper makes that point loud and clear. One female lion in The Dragon Keeper punctures her paw pad on a shard of glass from a bottle thrown by a zoo visitor, and must spend at least a week in isolation to ensure that she does not have an infection. Birds housed in a specially designed building with beautiful views kill themselves by flying into the windows over and over, trying to escape into the river valley they can see so clearly below. If the children really aren’t paying attention when they visit the zoo, as Yancy suggests, one must wonder what purpose is served by taking animals from potential hazards in the wild, and forcing upon them conditions they cannot survive emotionally – or even physically – intact. There is little argument that Jata’s hatchlings would do best growing up in the wild rather than a crowded, artificial enclosure.
Yancy reacts poorly when the zoo veterinarian and executives make decisions that affect the dragons without her input, exhibiting an immaturity and self-centeredness that make her a believable character, if not always likable. Yancy’s flaws distinguish this novel from many run-of-the-mill books that invite ceaseless empathy for the protagonist – Mejia’s is a more layered, complicated, and challenging story.
One window into Yancy’s weaknesses is her relationships with other humans. She seems almost contemptuous of the man she lives with off and on, and is comically hostile to the zoo’s veterinarian, apparently because she considers him to be too ambitious, and a womanizer. Yancy is estranged from her father and still resents her late mother, whose primary crime was taking Yancy as a child to dog shows in which her pets competed.
Still, Yancy is sympathetic in many ways. She is loyal, brave, principled, and so quick-witted that her barbs sometimes get her in trouble. She stands up for the dragon hatchlings in front of a crowd of colleagues and executives with the power to fire her, and insults those people freely when they don’t live up to her standards for animal care. Though I oppose caging wild animals in zoos, it is hard not to admire Yancy’s drive to do her best for the dragons, given their sad circumstances.
Yancy’s tale makes for compelling reading, and her quest to save the dragons she cares for is evocative and moving. While painting a portrait of an imperfect but idealistic and dedicated woman, The Dragon Keeper also raises some difficult questions about the preservation of endangered species and our responsibilities for non-human animals. It falls short of condemning zoos generally, but does illuminate some of the hazards to animals in zoos through the story of four reptiles helpless to escape human custody.
Book Review – THE DRAGON KEEPER by Mindy Mejia
October 22, 2013 by Joanne P Leave a Comment
The Dragon Keeper by Mindy Mejia
The Dragon Keeper Synopsis:
A zookeeper fights to save the animal she loves, even as her own life crumbles around her…
Meg Yancy knows she may be overly attached to Jata, the Komodo dragon that has been in her care since it arrived at the zoo from Indonesia. Jata brings the exotic to Meg’s Minnesotan life: an ancient, predatory history and stories of escaping to freedom. A species that became endangered soon after being discovered, Komodos have a legacy of independence, something that Meg understands all too well. Meg has always been better able to relate to reptiles than to people, from her estranged father to her live-in boyfriend to the veterinarian who is more concerned with his career than with the animals’ lives.
Then one day, Meg makes an amazing discovery. Jata has produced viable eggs—without ever having had a mate. Faced with this rare phenomenon, Meg must now defend Jata’s hatchlings from the scientific, religious, and media forces that converge on the zoo to claim the miracle as their own.
Finally forced to deal with the very people she has avoided for so long, Meg discovers that opening herself up comes with its own complications. And as she fights to save the animal she loves from the consequences of its own miracle, she must learn to accept that in nature, as in life, not everything can be controlled.
Mindy Mejia’s gripping debut novel highlights the perils of captivity and the astonishing ways in which animals evolve. (Ashland Creek Press)
BOOK REVIEW
If you have been avoiding the burgeoning ‘eco-lit’ scene, fiction that tackles serious issues regarding man’s impact on the environment, thinking such important messages will encroach on an author’s scope to entertain, then you should think again. In her debut novel The Dragon Keeper, Mindy Mejia strikes just the right balance between interrogation of societal behaviour and compelling entertainment.
Mejia’s protagonist, Meg Yancy is an endearingly flawed character. She is passionate, she over-reacts and she self-sabotages – she understands the behaviour of animals more than she does people. People make promises they don’t keep – animals don’t make promises.
In less skilled hands the story elements could have combined to form something pedestrian. I was impressed by the way Mejia structured this novel to aid character development, enhance suspense and imbue gravitas. The hatching of the Komodo dragon eggs is the anchor point around which the entire story is framed. Each chapter is signposted as either before or after ‘Hatching’ by x hours, days or months, and the narrative moves back and forwards over time slowly uncovering pieces of the puzzle.
Mejia’s writing style is refreshingly down-to-earth and accessible while still conveying dignity and a sense of grandeur in passages, such as this observation by Meg at the hatching.
There was a hypnotic glaze over his black eyes, that cloudiness born from the inner war between determination and exhaustion. She knew that look. He was gathering his strength. He was getting ready to change everything.
The Dragon Keeper is as much about the plight of the animals as it is about the personal journeys of the humans involved. Some of them serious, others a little more entertaining… Enter stage left, the love interest…
Antonio was the head veterinarian, a tall, dark, handsome pain in the ass. When he wasn’t working his Latin heart-throb angle on some hapless intern, he was using the zoo as his personal laboratory to grab as much industry attention as his endless studies could get.
Meg sees Antonio as the embodiment of everything that she despises about the commercialization of animals… but you know what they say about making assumptions, and those that protest too much…
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What makes The Dragon Keeper so successful in conveying its eco message is that it does not preach. Mejia has respectfully presented alternate viewpoints through a cast of characters that a broad audience can relate to.
The Dragon Keeper – an entertaining story that will leave you with a broadened mind and a sense of hope.
BOOK RATING: The Story 4.5 / 5 ; The Writing 4 / 5
“THE DRAGON KEEPER” DEBATES ZOO ETHICS
by Elana Pisani on August 27, 2013
68 0 2 145
Photo Credit: Ashland Creek Press
Photo Credit: Ashland Creek Press
Elana Pisani, exclusive to Global Animal
Mindy Mejia’s debut novel The Dragon Keeper tells the tale of a young zookeeper and her relationship with the Komodo dragon under her care. When the dragon, Jata, produces viable eggs without a mate, a process known as parthenogenesis, attention turns to the zoo and the zookeeper. As a consequence to the “miracle,” Meg must manage to deal with her bosses, reporters, and her love life while remaining an advocate for Jata.
Mejia beautifully tackles the subjects of animal captivity, endangered animals, human-animal connections, and even evolution. She manages to eloquently bring these subjects together in a realistic fashion while also unfolding a dramatic story. The amount of research that went into the novel is impressive and keeps the story grounded in science.
The connection that Meg and Jata share is an intriguing aspect of the story. Meg is unable to connect with people, but feels close to Jata. Komodo dragons are thought of as dangerous and they can be, but Jata is familiar with Meg and recognizes her.
One of the more powerful themes of the book is animal captivity in zoos. The novel suggests there are gray areas involved in the question of zoo-keeping. Should humans keep animals caged for entertainment? What obligation do we have to endangered animals who need our help?
The story centers around Jata, a Komodo dragon like the one pictured above. Photo Credit: dragon-komodo.com
To start asking these questions is key to an understanding of the necessity for zoos in the future and it is thoughtful writing like Mejia’s that encourages debate on the issue.
The Dragon Keeper contains adult language and situations, and may not be suitable for young readers.
Publisher: Ashland Creek Press
Minnesotan Dragons in Mindy Mejia’s The Dragon Keeper
Inge Lamboo
Dragon KeeperMindy Mejia’s The Dragon Keeper is a layered and complex story about Meg Yancy, a Minnesotan zookeeper who is the primary caregiver of a Komodo dragon called Jata. Meg is a dedicated and loyal keeper, throwing herself into her work partly because she understands animals better than the people in her life–amongst them are her estranged father, her boyfriend, and the zoo's veterinarian. Even still, Meg is forced to deal with people and more once she discovers Jata has produced viable eggs without ever having a mate. She fights to protect her beloved dragon from the consequences of its own miracle, protecting its hatchlings from religious, scientific, and media forces once the dragon and zoo are bombarded with people claiming the miracle as their own.
In the early stages of this novel, I feared it was heading in the direction of predictability and perhaps even cliché. Some of the novel’s subplots – such as Meg’s interactions with the zoo’s overly ambitious and womanizing veterinarian–seemed to be heading in obvious directions. However, Mejia continued to add layer upon layer to the story, complicating the characters and storylines endlessly–without becoming too confusing–and consequently I was kept on my toes throughout the novel.
Mejia’s main character, Meg Yancy, is a well-rounded and interesting character. Mejia avoids the traps of having a zookeeper who is “not a people-person” by making Meg wonderfully complicated. She is antisocial, grouchy at times, and sometimes gets herself into trouble by snapping at people; but she is also loyal, brave, extremely principled, and her quick wit is good for a few laughs. Meg is not entirely likeable, which is great, because the goal shouldn’t be likeability. I didn’t always agree with Meg or the choices she made throughout the story. However, because Meg is complex, engrossing, and a believable character, she earns readers' support.
The Dragon Keeper raises good questions concerning zoos, without ever presuming to know–or preach–the answers. No matter how big the cage or fancy the enclosure, the zoo animals clearly pay the price of captivity. A powerful lioness is injured by broken glass when a bottle is thrown by a zoo visitor. Housed in a specially designed building with captivating views of the river valley below, the birds kill themselves trying to reach it by flying at the windows. While that last metaphor was perhaps too crafted and overdone, The Dragon Keeper speaks to the themes of freedom, independence, wildness versus captivity, and "taming" the wild:
The men baited [the dragons] with bleeding goats, trapped them, made the local villagers bind their jaws and legs, and measured them to make sure they were the longest, most impressive specimens to send back to the Western zoos. They loaded the dragons in wooden cages onto their ships, then kicked back in their cabins, sipping whiskey, polishing their guns – totally oblivious to what happened next.
The dragons broke free.
They smashed their cages to boards and splinters, ran past the shocked crew up the stairs to the main deck, and jumped, leaping overboard with a splash that must have sounded like “No fucking thank you,” and dove through the dark waters to swim home.
Meg is oftentimes too forgiving of the zoo's treatment of wild animals; however, Mejia eloquently addresses a zoo's struggles between protecting and its desires to entertain.
What I liked most about The Dragon Keeper was its ambition. In this wonderful debut novel, Mejia captivates her readers with a story in which the fates of an exotic Indonesian dragon and a Minnesotan zookeeper are intertwined. She addresses themes of freedom, independence, wildness versus captivity, and the (im)possibility of any living thing ever being tame. The novel also delicately touches on the issues of “miracles” and nature versus religion. Meg deals with her principles, while also figuring out her complicated romantic entanglements, her relationship with her parents, and her role as a parental figure in Jata's life. A highly ambitious and complicated debut novel, Mindy Mejia pulls off The Dragon Keeper with grace and sophistication.
The Dragon Keeper
By Mindy Mejia
Ashland Creek Press (September 1, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-1618220134
Book Review
Review: Everything You Want Me to Be
Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia (Emily Bestler/Atria, $26.99 hardcover, 352p., 9781501123429, January 3, 2017)
This sophomore novel from Mindy Mejia (The Dragon Keeper) delves deeper than the average thriller, exploring themes of identity and the different faces people show to those who think they know them best.
Del Goodman, Vietnam War veteran and sheriff of tiny Pine Valley in rural Minnesota, has seen plenty of tragedy in his lifetime, but little compares to the devastation of finding Hattie Hoffman murdered in a barn. Del knew Hattie all 17 years of her too-short life--he liked to tease her by calling her Henrietta (her despised full name)--and thinks highly of her parents, Bud and Mona. Like everyone in Pine Valley, Del cannot imagine who would want to harm a much-loved high school senior, and his job is to find out before the justice-hungry citizens choose their own suspect. His investigations yield few surprises aside from the screen name "LitGeek," a friend Hattie met online and a clue that will lead Del into her darkest secrets.
In alternating chapters, Mejia reveals the story of Hattie's senior year. Hattie has an incredible gift for acting, fully inhabiting any character she plays. However, all the world is Hattie's stage. "Sometimes I think acting is a disease, but I can't say for sure because I don't know what it's like to be healthy," she muses. She analyzes family, friends and teachers to understand how to play the perfect daughter, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect student, living as a series of fictional constructs to hide the truth of the vacant landscape of her emotions. When handsome, literature-loving Peter Lund moves to town, Hattie feels real passion for the first time. Peter is drawn to her as well, but unfortunately, he's older than Hattie, married and her English teacher. As he struggles with a failing marriage, his connection with beautiful, brilliant, determined Hattie explodes into forbidden love, setting them on a collision course that somehow ends in her death.
Mejia's small-town setting makes Hattie's ability to dissemble especially powerful. Despite the claustrophobic closeness of the same friends, neighbors and teachers her entire life, Hattie manages to convince each of them that her roles are her true self. The list of murder suspects is short but filled with enough motives to keep early guessers changing their minds. Still, the mystery of the killer's identity sometimes feels secondary to the fascinating layers of Hattie's identity, pluralistic and unknowable even to herself. Steady, practical Del provides a dependable foil for the many shades of Hattie and conducts an occasionally judgmental postmortem on her choices. Readers will surely find this unsettling, character-driven descent into secret desires and hidden faces everything they wanted to see from a talented writer and then some. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: In this character-driven mystery, a small-town sheriff investigates the death of a talented teen actress who had an affair with her married teacher.
Everything You Want Me To Be
by Mindy Mejia
PBR Book Review:This is an excellent psychological thriller and so much more. Hattie is a girl with a magnetic personality who knows what she wants and how to get it; she’s manipulative, focused and undeterred when she wants something. Her voice is pure and believable, haunting even, it keeps you anting more. You may think this is a police procedural because a murder takes place- but it’s not – this is Hattie’s story and the story of the lives that intercept hers during the last year leading up to her death. The author gets the reader right into her head. She is an aspiring actress on stage and in her day to day life – constantly changing to meet the different needs of her parents, classmates, boyfriend and teachers. The people you meet through Hattie are complex and some, suspects in her murder. The story takes place in a small Minnesota town and this complicates things. Everyone knows everyone else, including Del, the local sheriff, heading up the investigation. He’s best friends with Hattie’s father, and has known her since the day she was born. Looking for a good mystery/thriller? Give this one a try – it’s great. Highly recommend.
Book Club Talking Points: The pressures of high school and the need to be everything to everybody plays a huge role in this book. It may be interesting to discuss who the real Hattie was. There is much said about the choices people make and living with the consequences. Lots of discussion about relationships too – parent-child, student –teacher, friendships and love both new and seasoned love– and impulsive, forbidden love that causes regret in hindsight.
Everything You Want Me to Be: A Novel
Image of Everything You Want Me to Be: A Novel
Author(s):
Mindy Mejia
Release Date:
January 2, 2017
Publisher/Imprint:
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Pages:
352
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Mark Stevens
Everything You Want Me to Be starts in March 2008 with young runaway Hattie studying the departures board at the Minneapolis airport. For a variety of reasons, Hattie changes plans and ends up getting stranded in the “middle of nowhere” back near Pine Valley.
“I was so happy—so free and above it all—when I started senior year last fall,” she thinks. “That Hattie was ready to take on the world and she would have, damn it, she could have done anything. And now I was a pathetic, sobbing mess. I had become the girl I’d always hated.”
And then Hattie, a.k.a. Henrietta Sue Hoffman, comes up with a plan. She wants to leave a mark.
A few weeks later, Sheriff Del Goodman finds a body of a dead girl in an abandoned barn. The body is “half floating in the lake water that flooded the lowest part of the sinking floor.” Del knows he’s got problems, particularly when he worries that the body might be that of a teenager who has been reported missing by her father, a family friend. “Girls didn’t murdered for nothing,” he thinks, “not in Wabash County.”
Next we flip back to August 2007 and meet a 26-year-old Peter Lund, who is in the middle of an uncomfortable evening with his wife, Mary. Stress and strains abound in Peter’s life, including the time-consuming attention that Mary gives to her mother, whose health is failing. There are chickens involved with the mother-in-law and Peter wants nothing to do with chickens. He’s a Minneapolis guy.
The couple had moved to Pine Valley to be closer to Mary’s mother when Mary spotted a teaching job for Peter. Now Peter feels trapped. Peter is worried about the “too generic” nature of his wedding vows. And Peter meets a young clerk at the drug store and instantly recognizes her confidence. She’s someone who sees the world as “giant cupcake” for her consumption.
Then we stay in August 2007 and see how Hattie’s senior year started and, right off the bat, we get a chilling glimpse into Hattie’s true character. She’s an actress—and a good one. She thinks: “Sometimes I think acting is a disease, but I can’t say for sure because I don’t know what it’s like to be healthy.” (What a great line.)
Peter is directing the spring play, Macbeth. And Hattie, naturally, lands a major role. And Hattie starts exchanging private messages in an online forum with someone named “LitGeek” and you won’t have any trouble guessing who “LitGeek” is and what kind of train Peter is riding—and how hard it is going to crash.
There are shades of the Alexander Payne flick Election and the plots from hundreds of novels involving teacher-student romances. Mindy Mejia treads where many have ventured before.
But Mindy Mejia knows how to build an exquisite sense of tension, and she puts complex characters in palpable jeopardy. The inter-spliced then and now plot requires a delicate intricacy, and Mejia works with a surgeon’s touch. Much of the plot turf is recognizable, but Peter and Hattie are both fully realized characters that lift this thriller into a darker, richer place. Del, too, is likable and full-blown, if a bit slow with his efforts. The small-town police work, with its glacial pace, is at times too convenient as a means of stretching things out. A minor matter.
Peter’s growing horror at the true chameleon quality of his pupil/lover is spinetingling, even as he continues to take what he wants. Hattie keeps “shedding masks like a matryoshka doll, each one more audacious than the last.”
Everything You Want Me to Be is a fast read with a bright, clean style. The ending should launch some ferocious debates. Mejia’s approach isn’t too deceive, only to withhold. Some readers may hope for a bolder choice of true antagonists among the smallish cast. In all, this is a gripping thriller and, once again, a cautionary tale about high school teachers getting tangled with their students, particularly ones who know how to act.
Mark Stevens' most recent mystery is Lake of Fire (An Allison Coil Mystery). He has also been a journalist for several large newspapers and a producer for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.