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A review by thequeengeek
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I have spent a large amount of time debating in my mind and with other people about whether this book is magical realism or urban fantasy. And I think that is part of the strength of the book. It's a tale of a world where mainly women have a secret power that no one may speak of or study because the innate womanlyness of it makes it dirty and unseemly. The political and historical mystery helps keep the plot moving, but it is far from the soul of the book. The magic is both in plain sight and never spoken of. It's everywhere, but no one is permitted to admit they have seen it. And that layer of silence and shame is the background for a moving family story between a girl and the women in her life.
I think what makes this book so engrossing and moving is exploring the implications and impacts of the allegory/fantasy element on a single family. The POV character is telling the story of her childhood and young adulthood from later in her life. So she both has the the ability to tip off the reader on the outcomes, but also give the proper emotional weight to each event as she describes it. The world-building is told through the main character and so it sometimes is a little unclear and it sometimes is a little fantastical, but the world is so well made and tangible that you believe her description of it, even when you know she's retelling her impressions as a young child from well in the future.
I don't want to give too much of the book away, but it totally undid me. I deeply cared for the POV character Alex, and her little family. I felt her loss and her yearning acutely. By the time I got to the end of the book I was sobbing both for what she looses but also what she gains.
The weaknesses of this book are similar of those you get in many "gender plague" books, they aren't the same. While Barnhill does a better job than 99% of other authors taking on the weird particularities of something being tied to gender in a world where there is a lot of gender variance but society ignores it, it could leave you with questions of "what about people like me?" Though it's said that not all people who dragon are women and that there are accounts of LGBTQ+ people (as they appeared in 1950-60s Wisconsin) dragonning, it's more set dressing than plot point. The one thing that saved this for me and made me love the book and not be overwhelmed by this line of critique in other similar themed books (like The Power) is that choice is involved. The idea that choice comes into play means that there's a lot more room to exist and exhale in the worldbuilding.
The other weakness for me is in the back half of the book where the plot takes us into the less magical realist and more fantastical realm. It's a really emotional and exciting time in the narrative and the world we are in, but somehow the physical descriptions can border on ridiculous or humerous. Maybe a little too much.
That said, I finished this book and IMMEDIATELY wanted to find people to talk to about it. The more I think about it, the more allegory, meaning, and humanity I see in it. And the way it can both be a complicated and touching book about mothers and daughters and a powerful story of agency in the face of oppression is uniquely moving.
I think what makes this book so engrossing and moving is exploring the implications and impacts of the allegory/fantasy element on a single family. The POV character is telling the story of her childhood and young adulthood from later in her life. So she both has the the ability to tip off the reader on the outcomes, but also give the proper emotional weight to each event as she describes it. The world-building is told through the main character and so it sometimes is a little unclear and it sometimes is a little fantastical, but the world is so well made and tangible that you believe her description of it, even when you know she's retelling her impressions as a young child from well in the future.
I don't want to give too much of the book away, but it totally undid me. I deeply cared for the POV character Alex, and her little family. I felt her loss and her yearning acutely. By the time I got to the end of the book I was sobbing both for what she looses but also what she gains.
The weaknesses of this book are similar of those you get in many "gender plague" books, they aren't the same. While Barnhill does a better job than 99% of other authors taking on the weird particularities of something being tied to gender in a world where there is a lot of gender variance but society ignores it, it could leave you with questions of "what about people like me?" Though it's said that not all people who dragon are women and that there are accounts of LGBTQ+ people (as they appeared in 1950-60s Wisconsin) dragonning, it's more set dressing than plot point. The one thing that saved this for me and made me love the book and not be overwhelmed by this line of critique in other similar themed books (like The Power) is that choice is involved. The idea that choice comes into play means that there's a lot more room to exist and exhale in the worldbuilding.
The other weakness for me is in the back half of the book where the plot takes us into the less magical realist and more fantastical realm. It's a really emotional and exciting time in the narrative and the world we are in, but somehow the physical descriptions can border on ridiculous or humerous. Maybe a little too much.
That said, I finished this book and IMMEDIATELY wanted to find people to talk to about it. The more I think about it, the more allegory, meaning, and humanity I see in it. And the way it can both be a complicated and touching book about mothers and daughters and a powerful story of agency in the face of oppression is uniquely moving.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Sexism, and Abandonment