A review by thequiltyreader
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-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

3.5

I've flip flopped a lot on how to review this book.

Initially I thought this book had a lot of promise based on the blurb and positive reviews. However I have mixed feelings now I've finished it.

Overall I did enjoy the read, however the first half was very slow and incredibly repetitive.  It touched on the life of women around the 1950's / 1960's and what they were often subjected to / expected of them.
I found there was nothing around the development of women's right but there was around dragons rights
.

I would also have preferred to have learnt a bit more about the dragons, how they felt, more around what they explored and why and
also why a lot chose to return and why at that point in time and why hadn't there been anyone else return from earlier dragonings
.

I also felt there was a lot of
suggestion that the knots somehow played a role in keeping Alex from dragoning but it was never explained if that was the case.
.

So overall I enjoyed it but felt it was lacking in some areas.
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