A review by justinlife
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

3.5

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I liked it. It was inventive and interesting. It had pros and cons and it was well written.

What worked for me:
  • The setting: I appreciated that Barnhill created this world set in post ww2/McCarthy era America. It gave the book an oppressive feel through most of it. Having this set during that time gave me an understanding of what's spoken and what's not spoken.  
  • It had dragons. I think Barnhill mostly succeeds with the magical realism elements to this book. when breaking up sections with news reports, scientific studies, and historical documents, she creates a world with history that is both real and fantastical. 
  • Recognizing that memory isn't always accurate or complete. Told in first person narrative, almost as an autobiography, the main character recounts her history and her experiences with dragons. Some memories are fresh and clear while others get muddled and combined. It was refreshing to see a narrator show this. 
  • Queerness- It's always nice to read stories with well developed queer characters. Barnhill also treats trans characters with such respect and dignity in the simplest of language one has to ask why it's so hard. 
  • I don't know if this is a spoiler, but her approach to handling the information of dragons and dragoning felt on brand for cultural standards. What don't we talk about? What can we get away with? Using these questions to brush everything under the rug was a solid technique. 

What I didn't work for me
  • Sadly, the dragons themselves. I couldn't figure out the proportion and size of the dragons. I couldn't place it in my mind and it made it hard to tell. Were they giant like Smaug or tiny like MooShu? It felt like the size varied depending on the need. 
  • While I appreciated the setting and how that made the characters feel suffocated, that feeling carried on too long in the book. It's stuffy for about 75% of it. 
  • There were a couple of plot points and I guess red herrings that felt, at the start of the book, to be rather important. By the end of the book, they weren't talked about or defined. 

That's about it. Overall it's a good read and I think people will enjoy it.