Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

14 reviews

chloemakesbooks's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

Although I do think the end of the book could have stood to get a haircut of about 50 pages or so (typical youth fiction author feels the need to play out the entire lives of her characters) the book was an interesting foray into magical realism, with some really difficult hit-too-close-to-home moments and some beautiful passages toward the end. I wish the author had spent more time with the dragons (and clearly, she wanted to, hence the drag toward the end) but what time we did get was lots of fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Cancer, Xenophobia, Grief, Homophobia, Abandonment, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

2busyreading's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment

lynxpardinus's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Abandonment, Cancer, Grief, Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Physical abuse, War, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, and Dysphoria

Further warning for descriptions of menstruation.

enchantressreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

When Women Were Dragons takes place in the 1950s, where women's things were not talked about.  They were forbidden.  When hundreds of thousands of women turn into dragons, everyone tries to sweep it under the rug.  It is a tragedy that they refer to as The Day of Missing Mothers, but they refuse to acknowledge what happened to cause this Mass Dragoning.  Anyone who dares to discuss, or even study, dragons and dragoning, are quickly silenced, or even shunned from the community.  It is just not what we talk about.

We soon learn that the Mass Dragoning of 1956 was not the first time any woman transformed into a dragon.  There are stories dotting history, if you look in the right places, dating all the way back to ancient times.  These transformations were passed down through history as folklore, but as soon as it became a common occurrence, those stories were no longer appropriate.  Even drawing a dragon could get you sent to the principal's office for possible expulsion.

This book is a lot more than simply women turning into dragons, but I prefer to leave that up to the reader to discover.  It was beautifully written, and contained so much more between the lines.  I really recommend this to any woman, any femme, any marginalized person.

To those worried about possible TERF terminology, I assure you it is not a TERF piece.  Trans women and non-binary folks are mentioned with care.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, and Cancer

Minor: Animal death and Sexual harassment