A review by sydcopus
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

When Women Were Dragons was a beautiful and thought-provoking book. I loved the way that Kelly Barnhill weaved in scientific/medical documents and history documentation with the story. This book made me feel so many things and I wanted to live in it and examine them for, forever. The way in which a womxn's role in the family/home, workplace, military, society was examined was so interesting. I also loved the examination of the internal conflict of the "duty" to their families and to themselves that the womxn who dragoned versus didn't dragon. I thought the taboo surrounding dragoning and it's parallels to feminity and to things society deems inherently feminine was very interesting. I could go on forever about this book but I will leave it at this for the sake of not spoiling anything for other readers. Just know, that if you love feminist theory/thought and enjoy a good historical/speculative fiction, When Women Were Dragons is 100% for you!
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