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emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cancer
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book tells the story of a world where sometimes, unexpectedly and unpredictably, women (and the occasional man) will turn into dragons, sometimes solo, sometimes in groups, and for reasons not understood, sometimes in extremely large numbers across the country on the same day.
Set mostly in Wisconsin in the 1950s/60s, this book is the memoir of a young girl as she grows up in this environment and the US government and culture tries to deny and then ignore the existence of these dragons.
The premise is fascinating and the book is well-written but about 85% of the way through the cultural and political struggles are tied up in a manner that is tidy and feel-good to the point of being unbelievable, both in the context of the United States of the book and in the context of the United States that exists in the world today. If only fear, disgust, and discrimination could be overcome so easily.
Set mostly in Wisconsin in the 1950s/60s, this book is the memoir of a young girl as she grows up in this environment and the US government and culture tries to deny and then ignore the existence of these dragons.
The premise is fascinating and the book is well-written but about 85% of the way through the cultural and political struggles are tied up in a manner that is tidy and feel-good to the point of being unbelievable, both in the context of the United States of the book and in the context of the United States that exists in the world today. If only fear, disgust, and discrimination could be overcome so easily.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent
Minor: Sexual harassment
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Loved the characters, loved the added documentations.
The end felt a bit too rushed.
Loved the characters, loved the added documentations.
The end felt a bit too rushed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Minor: Bullying, Infidelity
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Abandonment
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Abandonment
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
On April 25, 1955, 642,987 American women became dragons. Thus began When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, a satirical feminist fable against McCarthy, Nixon, Reagan, prejudice, and the patriarchy. An optimistic vision of a future where strong women take charge and make a difference. A book for 2025. My most enjoyable read of the year.
The author is from Minnesota.
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cats Press books and book recommendations.
For my extended notes: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2025/03/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly.html
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Abandonment
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Abandonment
This book was slow to start, and felt too wrapped up in trying to make particular points about sad things. But then I found the fabulous gay aunt, and the incredible relationship between the narrator and her younger cousin, and then got invested in the complications of 1950s women legitimately becoming dragons and all the fallout from there on. Definitely not a book for everyone, but I suspect I will be thinking about this book for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Abandonment
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Alex Green is a teenager growing up in Wisconsin in the 1950s. When her beloved aunt Marla disappears during the Mass Dragoning of 1955 (an event in which 60,000+ women turned into dragons and flew away) Alex’s parents pretend as if Marla never existed. In fact, most of society wishes to believe that none of the women existed and consider dragons an embarrassing "women's issue." When Alex's mother gets sick, her father leaves Alex alone to care for her adopted cousin—now considered her sister—Beatrice. Bea develops a dangerous curiosity about dragons, which grows stronger as dragonings start happening more frequently. Alex grapples with whether she prefers to know the truth, or to stay blissfully ignorant, like the government and her family want her to.
I loved this book, in premise. And that’s saying a lot for me, as a skeptical, infrequent fantasy reader. I found it a brilliant allegory of women, the LGBTQIA+ community in general, and Trans folx in particular being fed up with abuse and forging a new world for themselves while the government tries to cover it up and shame people for asking questions. But the execution wasn’t great. It was SO repetitive at times. The plot took forever to advance. The flashback scenes with dragon researcher Dr. Henry Gantz were helpful for context, but I could have used 75% less. There were several plot holes and worldbuilding contradictions. I hate that the dragons still carried purses and wore lipstick, and after escaping their earthly bounds, still had to come back and solve everyone’s problems. Should have been a short story and badly needed an editor.
I loved this book, in premise. And that’s saying a lot for me, as a skeptical, infrequent fantasy reader. I found it a brilliant allegory of women, the LGBTQIA+ community in general, and Trans folx in particular being fed up with abuse and forging a new world for themselves while the government tries to cover it up and shame people for asking questions. But the execution wasn’t great. It was SO repetitive at times. The plot took forever to advance. The flashback scenes with dragon researcher Dr. Henry Gantz were helpful for context, but I could have used 75% less. There were several plot holes and worldbuilding contradictions. I hate that the dragons still carried purses and wore lipstick, and after escaping their earthly bounds, still had to come back and solve everyone’s problems. Should have been a short story and badly needed an editor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Abandonment
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mediocrity and beans.
i really think this premise had such great potential, and almost nothing substantial was done with it.
the main character, alex green, was boring. she had almost no personality to me. no backbone, no interesting plot developments in the middle of the book, nothing. at the start of the book i do think she was a good narrator, and within the last like 10% of this book i think she served her role, but god was the middle a slog! nothing fucking happened! ok well things did happen. but it was super monotonous. im sorry how is ur book boring when youre premise is that WOMEN BECOME DRAGONS. how do you fuck it up that bad. seriously thats such a golden idea and instead i have to read about the 45th time of alex puttering around. like honestly after the apartment is introduced up until the last 20% of the book i cannot recall anything truly meaningful happening. at least nothing meaningful enough to warrant such a large portion of the book dedicated to alex making a stew or telling the reader for the umpteenth time beatrice is wild or her dad's an asshat or the librarian is the only intriguing character to come out of this story. im gonna say it. miss gyzinska shouldve had a bigger role and a lot more time dedicated to her story.
i was interested in this book for two overarching reasons - it has the LGBT+ tag and seeing the in-universe explanations and mechanics of dragoning. and guess what. guess. fucking. what. i was let down on both ends. now little bit of spoiler territory here but im not tagging it so live with it 🤷
how dare you tag this book LGBT+ and have like 4 pages with gay people. HOW DARE YOU. (/j) im sorry in my mind to tag a book LGBT+ you need a lot more than this book gave. are you serious in telling me a side character is gay for like. 4 pages. fucks off for 90% of the book. comes back and gets a passing mention of their gayness. REALLY. and then the only other gay character literally kisses someone of the same sex ONCE, and is gay for TWO CHAPTERS IN THE END, and then in the epilogue theyre married to someone of the same sex. no. dont you dare. this is not a lgbt+ book. its a book with lgbt+ characters sure! but saying "characters" is really pushing it considering every body has the personality of a thumbtack. and dont try me with the "dragoning is an allegory for being gay" or sm. no. shut up.
and the science.... damn. i got nothing there. the little excerpts were interesting sure, but after a while everything surrounding dragoning became repetitive, stale, and amounted to "uhhh nobody knows why this happens". AND THAT NEVER GETS RESOLVED. and ur main character is a fucking scientist. and half of the cast are also scientists. are you for real. ARE YOU FOR REAL.
now you know how i love me some tension. and even though i love to bitch that a book is boring because there's no stakes, sometimes character writing can keep the book going without a strong plot. but honestly this book wasnt good on either aspect. the plot was predictable and flat, and the characters were all nothingburgers. honestly even the librarian wasnt that great. just comparing to everyone else she kinda ate. but if i compared her to literally any other book with decent character writing she would flounder. although i do have to bring mention to beatrice - yet again for this book she sucked. but her sucking was unique. where everyone else sucked because they were as interesting as watching paint dry, beatrice was interesting because she annoyed me in the end. throughout the novel she was fine, but following prom, she kind of reminded me of when someone writes self-insert fanfiction in a fantasy world and they so clearly overpower their mc. beatrice kind of reminds me of the god-made sue trope. if youve read this book, go look that up lmao.
what else can i say. i dont know why im giving this 3-stars. maybe because i thought the character development of alex & beatrice was nice? maybe because i liked seeing the change in society from the start and the end of the story? i dont know. all i do know is i feel cheated out of my promised gay book. three queer kisses is not nearly enough for the LGBT+ tag.
i really think this premise had such great potential, and almost nothing substantial was done with it.
the main character, alex green, was boring. she had almost no personality to me. no backbone, no interesting plot developments in the middle of the book, nothing. at the start of the book i do think she was a good narrator, and within the last like 10% of this book i think she served her role, but god was the middle a slog! nothing fucking happened! ok well things did happen. but it was super monotonous. im sorry how is ur book boring when youre premise is that WOMEN BECOME DRAGONS. how do you fuck it up that bad. seriously thats such a golden idea and instead i have to read about the 45th time of alex puttering around. like honestly after the apartment is introduced up until the last 20% of the book i cannot recall anything truly meaningful happening. at least nothing meaningful enough to warrant such a large portion of the book dedicated to alex making a stew or telling the reader for the umpteenth time beatrice is wild or her dad's an asshat or the librarian is the only intriguing character to come out of this story. im gonna say it. miss gyzinska shouldve had a bigger role and a lot more time dedicated to her story.
i was interested in this book for two overarching reasons - it has the LGBT+ tag and seeing the in-universe explanations and mechanics of dragoning. and guess what. guess. fucking. what. i was let down on both ends. now little bit of spoiler territory here but im not tagging it so live with it 🤷
how dare you tag this book LGBT+ and have like 4 pages with gay people. HOW DARE YOU. (/j) im sorry in my mind to tag a book LGBT+ you need a lot more than this book gave. are you serious in telling me a side character is gay for like. 4 pages. fucks off for 90% of the book. comes back and gets a passing mention of their gayness. REALLY. and then the only other gay character literally kisses someone of the same sex ONCE, and is gay for TWO CHAPTERS IN THE END, and then in the epilogue theyre married to someone of the same sex. no. dont you dare. this is not a lgbt+ book. its a book with lgbt+ characters sure! but saying "characters" is really pushing it considering every body has the personality of a thumbtack. and dont try me with the "dragoning is an allegory for being gay" or sm. no. shut up.
and the science.... damn. i got nothing there. the little excerpts were interesting sure, but after a while everything surrounding dragoning became repetitive, stale, and amounted to "uhhh nobody knows why this happens". AND THAT NEVER GETS RESOLVED. and ur main character is a fucking scientist. and half of the cast are also scientists. are you for real. ARE YOU FOR REAL.
now you know how i love me some tension. and even though i love to bitch that a book is boring because there's no stakes, sometimes character writing can keep the book going without a strong plot. but honestly this book wasnt good on either aspect. the plot was predictable and flat, and the characters were all nothingburgers. honestly even the librarian wasnt that great. just comparing to everyone else she kinda ate. but if i compared her to literally any other book with decent character writing she would flounder. although i do have to bring mention to beatrice - yet again for this book she sucked. but her sucking was unique. where everyone else sucked because they were as interesting as watching paint dry, beatrice was interesting because she annoyed me in the end. throughout the novel she was fine, but following prom, she kind of reminded me of when someone writes self-insert fanfiction in a fantasy world and they so clearly overpower their mc. beatrice kind of reminds me of the god-made sue trope. if youve read this book, go look that up lmao.
what else can i say. i dont know why im giving this 3-stars. maybe because i thought the character development of alex & beatrice was nice? maybe because i liked seeing the change in society from the start and the end of the story? i dont know. all i do know is i feel cheated out of my promised gay book. three queer kisses is not nearly enough for the LGBT+ tag.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent, Lesbophobia