A review by caprivoyant
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I didn't fall in love with this book; I didn't have the emotional capacity for that after my most recent beauuuuutiful read (She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore). I'm not committed to reading the rest of the books in its series; that's wasn't the point of this read for me. It was more of a rebound read to get me over the emotional slump ending my relationship with She Would Be King put me in. 

I enjoyed this story, though. It was a nice, fantastical read about a girl who dreams outside of gender roles and figures out how to work the system of sexism to be seen in all her intelligent and scrappy glory. It also had a bit of a mystery element in it! And dragons! 

As far as rebound books go, this was a great one. 5 dragons, for sure: 🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉  But in the overall scale of bookish awesomeness, I'd give it probably 3.5 stars. 🤷🏻‍♀️⁠


⚠ CW: mentions of miscarriage and grief, themes of misogyny/sexism, some classism, and animal cruelty in the name of science.⁠


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