When Women Were Dragons: an enduring, feminist novel from New York Times bestselling author, Kelly Barnhill

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Barnhill’s sharp and lyrical prose showcases the joys and agonies of female power in this coming-of-age/alternate history.” My aunt was big and loud and shiny. Sometimes she laughed louder than any man I knew. I found her thrilling, but terrifying too. She had a way of occupying a room that felt dangerous,” Alex reflects. I, along with the rest of America listened with horror and incandescent fury to the brave, stalwart testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, as she begged the Senate to reconsider their Supreme Court Justice nominee and make a different choice, and I decided to write a story about rage. And dragons. But mostly about rage.”

Her story, as a bright and academically inclined woman, with no plans to marry or have kids-in a time where society expected all women to exactly that-is far from easy. But, her resilience pays off despite the rampant sexism she faces, though I have to admit several scenes had me literally wanting to go full dragon whilst reading, as the injustice all the female characters faced made me really angry.

Why did Alex’s aunt Marla transform when Alex’s mother didn’t? Why are the family insistent that her cousin Beatrice is now her sister? Alex never gets answers to her questions. Such things are too embarrassing and feminine and should not be discussed. Easier to pretend it didn’t happen and forget entirely but Alex won’t forget and she doesn’t want to. And now I realize, there is a freedom in forgetting. Or at least it is something that feels like freedom. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review. There was a sign, written in what appeared to be ashes on a piece of discarded desktop. It said SMART DRESSES FOR SMART GALS. WEAR UNTIL THIS LIFE NO LONGER FITS YOU. No one knew what it meant.” Just thinking about this book makes me smile, I love the message to it, I love how this book makes me feel, how clever it is, this book is a celebration of and a love letter to women. The pains and struggles of women are not glided over in this book but women are not made victims either. The writing style is easy to get your teeth into (no dragon pun), the characters likeable and good (mostly) but not perfect which makes them feel like someone you know.

In all this we can see clear parallels with America’s troubled political and social past, and its continuing legacy. The only way we challenge poor thinking and bad ideas is through the careful examination of the facts and the publication of data.” Set in 1950's small town America for the most part, our protagonist is Alex who (like her mother before her) loves mathematics and can't see why that's an issue for a girl. In a society where options for women are severely limited, another way forward emerges - a mass Dragoning, women and girls literally shedding their skins and becoming something Other, often with disastrous effect for those who had provoked or caused that change by their behaviour.Writing the review for WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS is going to be one of the hard ones to write. This book is one of those that is just so incredible I'm lost for words. We can probably guess the unmentionable topic in the 1950s concerning Alex’s mother she had cancer, but it seems extraordinary for there to be silence about such a momentous event as the Mass Dragoning. With the disappearance of so many women—and even a tiny number of men—society had changed overnight. Most families had someone in their circle, or knew of someone who had dragoned, leaving a hole in their lives. When Women Were Dragons is a beautiful and powerful read. Starting in Wisconsin 1955 in a world where girls and women are taught to be quiet, the dragons inside them are about to be set free and nothing will ever by the same again. The novel ends with Alex having achieved her academic promise, and Bea having now dragoned, becoming an ambassador for peace worldwide. How other countries responded to the dragons is not mentioned, nor what happened when they travelled or emigrated. There is a huge discrepancy here, since the existence of dragoning has only ever been mentioned as happening in America. Unfortunately this is another flaw in the book, which I feel may not have been so evident if it had been a short story or novella. We see the gradual return, and grudging acceptance and integration of the dragons into American society.

The premise is original and both meaningful and fun; the historical setting works very well for the kind of story this book is trying to tell; the in-universe excerpts and quotations add to the story and expand the worldbuilding. Alex's story starts out engaging and powerful, with a whimsical tone that really suits the magical realism premise, and there are some great passages and beautiful quotes... and all in all, finishing this book felt like a chore. Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.So, this book is about women turning into dragons as an answer to patriarchy, set in the American Midwest in the 1950s. Which despite the fact that in this version of the world, all women are able to turn into giant fire-breathing dragons if sufficiently pissed off, looks exactly like the real world in the 1950s. In fact, if there’s any deviation it’s that it’s a caricature of itself (my family was there; I don’t see them in this book at all). In a world where a woman even starting to get upset means her eyes glow a warning gold and the men in the room shut up, patriarchy nevertheless exists in exactly the same form as in the real world? I am very tired of the endless round of books insisting, essentially, that power is not power—that there is some essential state of victimhood unaffected by the massive, tangible power that a group in fact holds, as if the holding of power is some irrelevant sidenote in human power relations. Aunt Marla is a breath of fresh air in this stifling environment. She’s a mechanic who works in a body shop — a large woman who takes up space and stares down men who cross her. A complex, heartfelt story about following your heart and opening your mind to new possibilities.This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.” As the narrator is young and confused, for at least 3/4 of the book, we unfortunately don't get to experience dragoning in a way that is satisfying. Every potentially powerful moment is shown to us so passively that this book loses any hope of igniting the spark this concept promised.

When Women Were Dragons is a fabulously fierce, utterly original and unapologetically feminist novel that explores centuries of female rage, due to subjugation, violence and misogyny—leading women to spontaneously transform into DRAGONS. A relevant and timeless coming of age story that’s heartfelt, complex and thoroughly addictive. No one will tell her why her mother disappears for months, and her unmarried Aunt Marla moves in to take care of the family. Or why her father disappears into his work, sometimes not returning home at night.There are other truly wonderful characters that I adored, in particular the local librarian, Mrs. Gyzinska, who was Alex’s biggest supporter and whose own story I would love to read as a companion novel. Marla's daughter Beatrice is absorbed into the family and becomes Alex's sister with Alex's family, and the rest of the country, determined to pretend the dragoning never happened despite individual dragonings continuing to occur with regularity. Tribune, Trisha Collopy Star. "Review: 'When Women Were Dragons,' by Kelly Barnhill". Star Tribune . Retrieved 2022-12-16. If much of the novel feels like a full-throated howl, an indictment of a system of gender apartheid, an alchemy occurs in the final chapters . . . Kelly Barnhill reimagines a world where women face 1950s-style constraints, and find a path out.” Our culture has had a minor fascination with the notion of dragons, whether they existed in our history, or as creatures of fantasy. This novel imagines a global historical event, the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of women worldwide transformed into dragons, and flew away, leaving behind fractured families and bewildered friends. Why did this happen? What impact would this have on the loved ones left behind? What of the biological process that caused this to happen? And could this continue to happen? How would society react to this event?