Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

34 reviews

booking_along's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

i went into this book expecting a bit of a strange read and while that certainly is part of this book, it was also an extremely honest an real look at women and their life’s and while it had this magical realism fantasy aspect of women turning into dragons- the actual overall topic was very much about women in general - at least for me.


it was almost a commentary about what women went through and how that could have gone if women would have been more physical powerfully - how men couldn’t have kept pushing women down as much and wouldn’t have gotten away with as much so easily as they did and still do.


now you don’t have to read too much into this book. 
you can also just read it as a story of a girl growing into a women and more or less sharing her life story and how the world was that she grew and old in with the ability of women to become dragons. 

it’s written in a bit of a slower sometimes almost meandering tone, so don’t go into this expecting a fast paced or action packed story. 


each book by this author -i read at least 3 of hers now- were completely different and had nothing to do with the other. they differentiated from tone to topic to amount of fantastic elements and plot completely. 
this author isn’t one that just because you liked one book means you enjoy an other or the other way around - or you can love them all because they are all so different and in ways uniquely done.

i really enjoyed this and while k did thing that the middle part dragged a little bit and i would have absolutely loved this if it would have verbs little bit shorter it was a fantastic read and such a different book that i know i want to come back and experience it all over again at some point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Sexism, Alcohol, and Grief

kerrygetsliterary's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Terminal illness

heartmarierose's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Alcoholism and Infidelity

cheye13's review

mysterious 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? No

5.0

This reads very much like a false history or a fictional memoir, which is my absolute favorite genre. The articles and papers inter-spliced were very cool, but I wish there'd been more of them, or that they tied in with Alex's story more. It did feel like it had about ten endings, but I did enjoy seeing where everyone ended up. 

Everything up until the final part (which was primarily that series of endings) was perfect to me. The tangibility of the time periods, the snippets of everyday magic, the characters reaching out to each other. The whole book really embodies a very specific feeling I have reading about being a woman in those times.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Cancer, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

grubrednuf's review

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

This book utterly destroyed me. When I saw the book dedication to Christine Blassey Ford I anticipated a hard read. The first page was intriguing and hooked me but the story was slow to 'get to the point' already, once it did I could not put it down- I had to know how it ended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Infidelity, Homophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: War

tostita's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, Death of parent, Cancer, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, Terminal illness, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual harassment and Physical abuse

mandi_lea's review

hopeful reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Misogyny, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity

miniingrid's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Esperaba otro tipo de historia, y sigo pensando que tiene mucho potencial desperdiciado. Pero me alegro de no haberlo abandonado porque en realidad no es una mala historia, simplemente no es la que me habría gustado leer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism

fairytalefootnotes's review

emotional inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Cancer

Minor: Infidelity

dealingwithdragons's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. I especially appreciated that the moment I wondered "where are the trans dragons" was the moment the trans dragons showed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Cancer, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Gun violence

The mentions of guns are mainly in the context of "dragons are bulletproof". Body horror is entirely women turning into dragons.