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A review by juliaureads
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
"Anger is a funny thing. And it does funny things to us if we keep it inside. I encourage you to consider a question: Who benefits, my dear, when you force yourself to not feel angry?" She tilted her head and looked at me so hard I thought she could see right into my bones. She raised her eyebrows. "Clearly not you.”
We all know I love a story about women getting mysterious powers, so of course, I had to grab this over the summer.
When Women Were Dragons is a historical fiction/magical realism/alternate history where the world reacts to a "mass dragoning" - one day a bunch of women leave their homes and families and turn into dragons, never to be seen again.
We see these events through the eyes of two sisters - one who was old enough to understand what happened, the other too young to remember. They both come of age in a world that doesn't speak of dragons, and certainly not of the ones who left.
The most resonant part of this story for me was not the dragoning itself, but society's reaction to it. Society chooses to sweep the dragoning under the rug. Speaking about family members who left becomes taboo - everyone simply moves on without explanation or finding out why.
The culture of silence and avoidance hit deeply, coming from a conservative Catholic family, I am familiar with these coping mechanisms - seeing them on a global scale in this world threw everything into sharp relief.
I highly recommend this to anyone looking for historical fiction that hits differently. Lightly sapphic (romance is certainly not the main plotline), this is a coming-of-age story that dives into how the questions of our past can shape our future.
"Anger is a funny thing. And it does funny things to us if we keep it inside. I encourage you to consider a question: Who benefits, my dear, when you force yourself to not feel angry?" She tilted her head and looked at me so hard I thought she could see right into my bones. She raised her eyebrows. "Clearly not you.”
We all know I love a story about women getting mysterious powers, so of course, I had to grab this over the summer.
When Women Were Dragons is a historical fiction/magical realism/alternate history where the world reacts to a "mass dragoning" - one day a bunch of women leave their homes and families and turn into dragons, never to be seen again.
We see these events through the eyes of two sisters - one who was old enough to understand what happened, the other too young to remember. They both come of age in a world that doesn't speak of dragons, and certainly not of the ones who left.
The most resonant part of this story for me was not the dragoning itself, but society's reaction to it. Society chooses to sweep the dragoning under the rug. Speaking about family members who left becomes taboo - everyone simply moves on without explanation or finding out why.
The culture of silence and avoidance hit deeply, coming from a conservative Catholic family, I am familiar with these coping mechanisms - seeing them on a global scale in this world threw everything into sharp relief.
I highly recommend this to anyone looking for historical fiction that hits differently. Lightly sapphic (romance is certainly not the main plotline), this is a coming-of-age story that dives into how the questions of our past can shape our future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexism