Scan barcode
mamaewalk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Creative, unique, and utterly badass story. Reads like a memoir.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Misogyny
Minor: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders
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.
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.
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
percys_panda_pillow_pet's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This book gave me trauma, and I'm only half-joking. Okay, for real though, When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill cracked open a lot of feelings and thoughts I've had all my life and especially now as an adult as I try to explore exactly who I am in this world. This book is about identity, it is about trauma, it is about rage, it is about so much more than you can put into words.
When Kelly Barnhill wants you to believe in something, she puts her whole soul into it. By the end of this book, I was convinced that dragoning was real, and wondering why I couldn't dragon myself away, or even if I could. I know at times her metaphor can fall apart at the seams, but that's honestly what helped ground it for me. These are dragons, these are women. Dragoning can mean everything and it can mean nothing, though the latter would be unusual. Pretty much every time, that meaning made me want to cry. Often, I did cry while reading this book. And after finishing it too. It struck a chord in me so forcefully: the depiction of female generational trauma and the mixing of rage and sadness and hurt and unfairness and love one can have for their mother.
At times, I was a bit frustrated with Barnhill's decisions throughout the book. I needed a bit more about trans people and what dragoning meant for them, and I know I am not alone in feeling like the intersectional aspects of feminism were a bit lacking, though in some ways that seems par for the course of the 50s and 60s. This book filled me with emptiness at the lack of catharsis in some areas. There was a lot of build up and not enough resolution for me at times. Which, in some ways, feels perfect for the messiness of life, that truthfully we don't often get the catharsis we need. But I disliked the hollowness and in the end, I felt dissatisfied and want to scream, "Why?" and "It isn't fair!"
Do not look to this book to heal you, it will wring you dry. I can't wait for the day I will reread this, and pick things apart more. And maybe by then I'll have actually settled on a star rating for this book. For now, I leave that empty. This book is too much for me now.
When Kelly Barnhill wants you to believe in something, she puts her whole soul into it. By the end of this book, I was convinced that dragoning was real, and wondering why I couldn't dragon myself away, or even if I could. I know at times her metaphor can fall apart at the seams, but that's honestly what helped ground it for me. These are dragons, these are women. Dragoning can mean everything and it can mean nothing, though the latter would be unusual. Pretty much every time, that meaning made me want to cry. Often, I did cry while reading this book. And after finishing it too. It struck a chord in me so forcefully: the depiction of female generational trauma and the mixing of rage and sadness and hurt and unfairness and love one can have for their mother.
At times, I was a bit frustrated with Barnhill's decisions throughout the book. I needed a bit more about trans people and what dragoning meant for them, and I know I am not alone in feeling like the intersectional aspects of feminism were a bit lacking, though in some ways that seems par for the course of the 50s and 60s. This book filled me with emptiness at the lack of catharsis in some areas. There was a lot of build up and not enough resolution for me at times. Which, in some ways, feels perfect for the messiness of life, that truthfully we don't often get the catharsis we need. But I disliked the hollowness and in the end, I felt dissatisfied and want to scream, "Why?" and "It isn't fair!"
Do not look to this book to heal you, it will wring you dry. I can't wait for the day I will reread this, and pick things apart more. And maybe by then I'll have actually settled on a star rating for this book. For now, I leave that empty. This book is too much for me now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Cancer, Death of parent, Abandonment, Grief, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Body shaming, Violence, Outing, Sexual harassment, Rape, Child abuse, and Confinement
Minor: Gun violence, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, War, and Drug use
regardsrachel's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.25
Barnhill’s book was enraging, satisfying, and entertaining to read. There’s some magical realism but it certainly is not fantasy. The book is a feminist work and will discuss misogyny so be in a head space to read such incidents. It left me wanting more work in this world as aspects of the world emerged in the last couple of pages that would have been great to explore. Perhaps in another book.
**Italicized sections are quotes from the work**
“...she did feel the urge to change, and powerfully so, and yet chose to stay anyway-she chose that very body, that very life, despite its limitations and despite the fact that it would be cut short far too soon…The choice itself is precious. The smallness and the largeness of an individual life does not change the fundamental honor and value of every manifestation of our personhood.”
One of the best aspects of this story, this feminist story, is the honoring of the multiple paths chosen by the women. Some women dragoned some didn’t by choice. Some became homemakers while others worked out of the home. The complexity of the choices that manifested the female characters’ lives is nuanced. One choice over another is not characterized as the “right” or the “wrong” choice. Alex’s choices to support her family are shown as less than her academic pursuits. All of those choices are worthy of honor and it is the choice that should be protected. Barnhill’s book allowed for the answer to the feminist experience to be open to all kinds of women. She doesn’t have to bring up every intersection point but provides for the opportunity to exist of other experiences not just her main character’s.
“I encourage you to consider a question: who benefits, my dear when you force yourself to not feel angry?”
All of Alex’s dialogue can feel like restrained, simmering, almost choked emotion. Anger at her selfish father, her school’s administrators, her aunt, and her mom. Anger, especially expressed by women is seen as a negative experience, an illogical experience. To be an angry woman is to be a woman “not thinking straight” or “needing to calm down.” And yet, such disregard for feeling doesn’t benefit the woman. The comfort of the boys and men is put ahead of all else by most of the adults around Alex.
“There is a freedom in forgetting. Or at least it is something that feels like freedom. There is freedom in not asking questions. There is freedom in being unburdened by unpleasant information. And sometimes, a person has to hang on to whatever freedoms she can get.”
I appreciate that the main character in this story is not immediately a rabble-rouser once she learns about inequality in her community. Alex has other responsibilities and is a child. These moments show the effort it takes to remember and acknowledge hard things. By silencing or forgetting parts of history their significance diminishes and that can be beneficial in the short term. Not talking about something doesn’t make the reality of the phenomenon go away, especially when it's obvious, like the existence of dragons. But the cost can be the chance for a better future.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Sexual assault
breadwitchery's review
emotional
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Sexism, Death of parent, and Death
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Infidelity
mkhertzenberg's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Good story with great meaning but did not live up to expectations, much more sad and dark than I had anticipated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Homophobia
kaitisbooknook's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Alex is a young girl growing up in the 1960s in a world much like our own, except for one key difference: in 1955 thousands of women simultaneously became dragons and flew from society to never be seen again. Her aunt was one of these women, but her family refuses to acknowledge her existence, much in the same way the government and the rest of the world refuse to discuss the event at all, or that women are still dragoning, and no one seems to know why.
This was one of my personally most anticipated releases of the summer, but I’m ultimately disappointed in the result. For me, one of the biggest failings of the novel was choosing to market this as adult fantasy, when the narrator is under the age of 18 for the vast majority of the story. Her age and limited world view gives the reader and incredibly narrow scope of the events of the time period, and a childlike outlook on all topics broached in the tale, including things like menstruation, spousal abuse, workers’ rights, sexual assault, gender identity and segregation — the final of these being the biggest failing of all.
Barnhill sets up the fight for “dragons’ rights” seemingly as a metaphor for the feminist movement (dragoning itself as a product of both feminine joy and female rage,) but events in this protest mimic exact occurrence of the civil rights movement, specifically segregation in the workplace and in school. This is hardly fleshed out at all, and race is only briefly mentioned, which would suggest that Barnhill is saying all women have faced an equal amount of oppression throughout history. This isn’t even a matter of opinion, it’s just factually incorrect. This is set in a fantastical world, but the mythology behind dragons is also never fully realized, so we have no choice but to treat this as if we are looking at American history, and ultimately it just does not work. I do believe Barnhill had good intentions, but it reads like someone who was only recently introduced to intersectional feminism and is not in a position to be educating others.
If you are looking for a sapphic fantasy romance as this novel seemed to be marketed across the internet, this is not the book for you. However, if you have little experience reading about female rage and feminist concepts as a whole, I do believe this is a good introduction to the topic, especially in a young adult framing.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexism
More...