Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

188 reviews

katvanfos's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcoholism

bb_11's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

"Is it possible for a book to say feminist things yet not be feminist?", was possibly my book clubs best discussion topic after reading this book.  Ultimately, we decided yes it is possible and we have "When Women were Dragons" to thank for it.  This book was all over the place narratively and thematically. Any single issue the author was willing to tackle was burdened by her attempt to tackle 15 other things all at once. This led to a strangely paced, contradictory, and emotionally whiplashing plot. 

 Another sentiment my bookclub shared:  we couldn't wait for the first half of the novel to be over, but then the second half made us miss the first half!  The end of book "climax" completely invalidates the main character's development and obliterates the stakes all at once. 

Would recommend if you want to challenge yourself to critically deconstruct feminish literature and uncover evidence as to why a novel needs more than women>men to say something powerful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Misogyny

Minor: Body horror

vagrantheather's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Cancer, and Grief

Minor: Death and Lesbophobia

beebowbabe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

4.25

Thought provoking and creative 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Homophobia, Cancer, and Transphobia

Minor: War, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

iloponis's review against another edition

3.0

didnt hate it but was expecting more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

rosa_lina96's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I truly don't really know how to feel about this book.

The premise itself is interesting- women spontaneously turning into dragons, sometimes ridding themselves of the awful men in their lives in the process, and then flying away to seek greener pastures- but I felt that the concept of "dragoning" was a bit under-utilized. How can you have an entire book built around this concept and really only make vague mentions to it throughout the narrative? And why is it never truly explained why everybody just agrees to cover it up and go along with their lives when, uh, oh yeah, there's a bunch of women spontaneously turning into dragons, which you would think would be pretty darn noticeable? Why did the author choose to make the dragons out to be mindless beasts at first before doing a complete 180 and saying that they have human intelligence, actually, and can even sometimes wear silly hats and such? There just seemed like far too many holes poked in the narrative for it to be worthwhile to me, way too many dangling loose ends left over at the end.

The narrator also came across as a bit insufferable, in my eyes. I did empathize with her struggles to some degree, but after a certain point it really seemed like she was just choosing to be angry at the world for no real reason, like the author decided "hmm okay what this girl really needs is a healthy dose of teenage angst" and decided to cram it into the narrative at the last second. Okay, yes, I get it, on some level your teenage years are a lot of just being angry at the world in general, but at some point you have to let up on it. 

That being said, I did love the themes of feminism and independence and struggling with suddenly being thrust into adulthood far too early throughout, even if it seemed rather clumsily executed even at the best of times. I second the opinion that this really would have been better off as a collection of short stories or something, instead of the author trying to stretch the narrative out to a novel format in a way that just made it seem rather hollow as a result. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Cancer, and Homophobia

jeleigh16's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.25

The concept for this book is phenomenal. It would have made for a spectacular short story! Unfortunately for me, as a novel, I think it made a promise that it didn't quite keep. It said, "I'm going to tell you about the time thousands of women became dragons (for whatever their individual reasons might be), but then I'm just going to talk around that event for a few hundred pages and never really dig into the thick of it, okay?" I wanted to be alongside a woman who "dragoned". I wanted to see a POV other than the one we are given of a teenage girl whose aunt "dragons" in the 1955 event. The teen's perspective was interesting, yes, but I felt like it would have been even more intriguing if we saw a couple of other perspectives in this novel, mainly one of the women who turns into a dragon. There are so many missed opportunities here. So many. This is billed as a feminist rage novel by many, but I thought it was way too quiet for most of the book. Where was the rage?? It's there, sure, but I really had to search for it. I wanted more. 

I did appreciate the protagonist's story as a girl who is left behind and the narrative of her dealing with essentially raising her cousin after everything falls apart. I also appreciated the choice to include the reports of the events in between the chapters from the protagonist's POV - which helped give background - but I wished I could have seen those events as scenes instead. That's the stuff I wanted to dive into!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Misogyny

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Violence and Blood

savshanae's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If “Labour” by Paris Paloma was a book, this would be it. To be frank, I was enraged for most of it. I don’t even know if I would really recommend this book to someone, unless they were looking to be so full of feminine outrage they wanted to burst into flames. But if that is what you want, this book is it. 
The writing was emotional and painted vivid pictures (it was also wordy). Sometimes repetitive, but I think it adds to the story by the end. 
The self-expression and ideas that it inspired are challenging and thought provoking, and I really enjoyed that it is written to feel like you are being TOLD a story, someone’s thoughts and life experiences. 
This book made me very angry, made me cry (lots), made me want to stop reading it. But it’s definitely worth the read and the rage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

scarlett_f's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Biphobia, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual content, Cursing, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

vatakarnic33's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Bullying and Cancer

Minor: Death of parent and Alcoholism