When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
When Women Were Dragons
by Kelly Barnhill
Fantasy | Historical | Fiction
341 Pages
Released May 2022
Rating: ★★★
Goodreads
Content Warnings
A couple years ago I had the pleasure of reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon so when I heard Ms. Barnhill released a new book, I was excited to check it out.
This book follows Alexandra (or Alex, as she prefers to be called), who witnessed her Aunt dragon during the Great Dragoning of 1955 — during which hundreds of thousands of mother and wives across the United States spontaneously turned into dragons and flew away. Despite the widespread event, it becomes very inappropriate (and almost downright illegal) to speak about.
Her Aunt leaves behind her daughter Bea, Alex’s cousin-now-sister, and the Dragoning leaves Alex with many questions. As Alex grows up, she becomes responsible for Bea, who is much wilder and free-spirited than Alex. Over time the Dragoning becomes talked about more and more, and Alex has to come to terms with her own opinion on the mater.
This book tackles a lot of very interesting topics. Things like feminine rage, abuse, misogyny, and even (loosely) topics like transgenderism (though I am not sure if that was the author’s intent).
It did start off very slow for me - initially it reads more like a history book than a fantasy. As Alex got older I felt more invested in the story and in Alex herself. I really loved the idea of oppressed women stepping transforming into their own power by turning into something beautiful, fierce and strong. I liked that not all the women dragoned and the complexity of that choice - that feminism could take many forms. I loved the contrast between Bea and Alex (one that I could personally relate to, being an older sibling). This book definitely brought out all the emotions. Anger, frustration, but also happiness. It’s hard to go into the details without spoiling too much but I think Ms. Barnhill did a good job of tackling important, complicated topics in a beautiful, imaginative way. It was an encouraging reminder that progress is not impossible, it just takes time.