When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Fantasy
Suggested Age: Adults, Teens
What is the Book About?: Young Alex is an obedient child growing up in 1950s Wisconsin with a protective mother and a cruelly indifferent father. Societal expectations are well-understood, until the Mass Dragoning of 1955 leaves communities and families without the hundreds of thousands of women who transformed into dragons and flew off into the unknown. Even Alex’s independent Aunt Marla dragoned, leaving behind her baby Beatrice and so many questions, but now no one’s allowed to talk about Marla or the dragons. Through rage, loss, and many other challenges, Alex is forced to seek her own answers, forge her own family, and push the boundaries of who and what she can become.
My Review: I enjoyed this book a lot, although it didn’t quite live up to the thrill of its premise – women responding to oppression with rage that physically transforms and takes up formidable space. It felt like experiencing the story through Alex’s viewpoint was a bit limiting at times. I appreciated the scientific and political interjections from Dr. Gantz, and I’ll always love a story with a ballsy librarian, but I definitely wanted to know more about the dragons (their adventures and why they came back). Some readers might be disappointed with the tone of second- wave feminism, but it feels authentic to the time and Barnhill does include mentions of minorities, the Civil Rights movement, and nonbinary individuals. The story is woven with themes of transformation, feminism, community, LGTBQ romance, memory, female rage, gender identity, patriarchy, familial trauma – maybe there was just too much to explore within each of these to flesh them out fully through the dragon allegory, but it opens the door for further discussion. Overall, it’s a solid and sometimes funny and moving story, and repurposing dragons as a vehicle for modern social commentary makes for an undeniably interesting read.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Clever, Relevant, Fantastical
Give This a Try if You Like… Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Rating: 4/5
