There is no subtlety to Barnhill's writing in this YA novel: at every turn, she tells you how you, as her reader, should think and feel.

There is no instance here of presenting something to the reader in a dynamic way - be it a slice of dialogue, an observed scene, pathetic fallacy, a piece of figurative language; a robust metaphor or an unexpected simile - in order to arouse in the reader the feeling that the author wishes to convey. No, Kelly Barnhill bashes her reader round the head repeatedly with what they're supposed to think and feel. I grew resentful of feeling so patronised.

I acknowledge that an author can appeal to many various readerships, so if readers who don't mind this type of lazy writing want to be led by the nose, then let them.

This ARC is prefaced with a letter to Barnhill's readers explicating her reasons for writing the book and what she wishes readers to see and to feel. The reader is then bombarded with three inscriptions, a frontispiece, and not one but two imaginary textual artefacts (where their attribution is almost longer than the excerpt itself) before the novel proper. Chapters are then punctuated by further fabricated textual 'sources', the tone and style of which are indistinguishable from the authorial voice used in the narrative, and suffer from a similarly overbearing condescension.

What's worse is that it seems the only emotion Barnhill wants to arouse in her reader is anger. My attention, I found, was focussed upon not WHAT was being said, but HOW it was being said, effectively proscribing any emotional engagement with the novel or its incitement to righteous anger. I found no rhetorical engagement in 'When Women Were Dragons'.

Overall, the tone of the novel falls flat - if anything, pessimistic sarcasm dominates. And not in any focussed, witty manner; more like sloppy petulence. What actually angers me is that sensitive and urgent fundamental feminist messages are blighted or debased by slack discourse like this.

This is a DNF for me. I couldn't wait to put this book down and move onto something more challenging and less belaboured.

However, my thanks are due to Hot Key Books for access to this uncorrected proof via Netgalley.

DNF
I sadly did not finish reading this book as I found it really slow and pretty dull. I didn't click with the characters and in general thought the set up was pretty boring when I was expecting lots of exciting dragon moments. I have read in other reviews that it does get better but I sadly don't have the inclination to continue.

I wasn't sure at first. The idea sounded great. I liked the story when it was about the main characters, but, I found the scientific papers and newspaper reports distracted from the story. They eased off as the book progressed and the narrative picked up.
By the end I was racing through. There were some lovely scenes toward the end. It made me think about love and family.

When Women Were Dragons was a delightfully feminist read. Set in an alternative 1950s America where (mostly) women throughout the world can undergo a transformation called the dragoning. This transformation is more taboo to talk about than menstruation.

Alex is a young girl whose life changed after the Mass Dragoning of 1955, an event that the world is determined to forget but which changed her life forever.

This novel took me a little while to get into, but once I did I was captivated. It is so delightfully feminist, and unapologetically so.

Alex really develops throughout this novel, her navigation of the world while her father is just horrendous really, and having a cousin, who becomes a sister and then a daughter and yet she still manages to pursue an education at a time when those around her would rather she didn't.

Her developing understanding of her relationship with Sonja as well was so wonderfully written. I would really recommend this book.

Thank you to Hot Key books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

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.

Set in an alternate 1950s America, where in a single day thousands of women and girls spontaneously transform into Dragons—so shocking an event that it’s literally forbidden to talk about.

Alex was a child when the day known only as The Mass Dragoning took place and her aunt sprouted wings and took to the skies, but her mother is determined to forget. Forced into silence Alex now must live with the consequences; a mother more protective than ever, a father growing increasingly distant, a dragon obsessed cousin she must now call sister and an aunt she must forget ever existed…

This was absolutely phenomenal! I was completely captivated by the lush and atmospheric prose and exquisitely detailed world building. I loved the originality in using dragons as a metaphor for women expressing themselves, freeing themselves from having to conform to limiting or stereotypical gender roles. The choice to also use them as a euphemism for anything “feminine” that makes people (mostly men) uncomfortable, was also really well crafted and perfectly captures the stigma that still surrounds certain “womens issues” in society today.

The pacing was a little slow but I felt it worked well with the atmospheric and detailed storytelling—particularly the historical accounts, newspaper clippings, diary entries and other “classified” dragon related items that are scattered throughout the narrative which added a depth and richness to the world building.

I really liked Alex, our protagonist/main POV character and loved that the plot acts as a sort of memoir to Alex who tells us her story—from her childhood, her experience of the mass dragoning and how such an event affected the lives of those left behind.

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.

There were several other characters that I absolutely loved as well ; Marla (Alex’s aunt), Dr. Gantz (a scientist trying to research and help the women who’ve ‘dragoned’), Mrs. Gyzinska (the local librarian and a fierce supporter of Alex) and of course Beatrice, my absolute favourite-her personality and fearlessness literally bursts of the page.

I also loved the inclusion of LGBTQ+ rep with both Marla and Alex being lesbian and a mention (during a study) of trans women transforming into dragons, though I would’ve liked to have explored more of their stories alongside Marla and Alex’s.

Overall, this was a powerfully moving, feminist and wonderfully queer coming of age story that I absolutely LOVED!

Also, a huge thank you to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for the e-arc.

I really enjoyed this book! I read it very quickly. I didn’t realise it was YA but it certainly was great , even for me , who is more an adult fiction reader . It a magical realism setting where women spontaneously turn in to dragons (we have all had that feeling but this is literal!). I loved this idea and it was so unique and easy to read . I think this is going to be massive!

I had mixed feelings going into this book, on the one hand reading the author's note it's clear *why* this book was written, the situation the world was (and is) in and the anger that derived from that. However on the other hand I think I am just someone who is never going to get on with 'all the people of x gender did this thing' because it just doesn't work with my understanding of gender and intersectionality. I will say that this book does have a small element of trans inclusion with a mention of the ballroom scene in New York but it felt a little tacked on at least to me and the book is really about cis characters for the most part - which is fine but also not particularly novel.
I ended up DNFing this book after around 100 pages as I found that for me it was a little too depressing with very few triumphant moments. I am willing to believe that those moments do come into play later in the book but by that point I was so exhausted by the tone and the general sense that everything was universally awful in the same ways for women everywhere with no exceptions, nuances or (many) intersections explored. I think that this concept is interesting and perhaps were I in a different mood I might have got more out of this story and taken elements less as negatives but overall I couldn't get past the sense that this book was not something for me.
I do think there was some lovely prose in this book that makes me think Kelly Barnhill is an author I would read again, my issue was with the concept and the tone more than with the writing.
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley - all opinions are my own.

I guess the best way to describe <I>When Women Were Dragons</i> for me is that it was an unexpected pleasure - I loved the cover and liked the idea behind it (a historical event that verges on magical, causing a mass social change and the impact it had on society).

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.

This is also, however, something nobody is prepared to talk about later, something warned against in schools, even when one of those taking part is Alex's aunt. Suddenly, Alex no longer has a niece but a younger sister even as her mother's health deteriorates and eventually Alex is left to become an adult way too soon. Then the dragons come back and they're not prepared to play along any more.

I'm not massively fond of coming of age books and often find a teenage point of view a little annoying at best, but <I>When Women Were Dragons</I> managed to side-step this, taking me along for the ride. It's a truth universally acknowledged that many books could be seriously improved by the addition of dragons and here that proposal works out, giving power to those previously left powerless by the society in which they were living. I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with, after this, as hers will be a name I'll definitely check out.

<I>I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.</i>

This was a really clever reimagining of 1950s America where women spontaneously turn into dragons and smite those who wronged them i.e. the patriarchy. While the dragons play a pivotal role in the story, they are employed more so as an allegory for the oppression felt by women and girls at that time in a hyper misogynistic and sexist society.

I feel that this could have veered very easily into pure fantasy where the dragons go on adventures and burn sh*t down but, it was really neatly written as a piece of feminist fiction that just happened to have dragons in it. I did feel that the pace was slower than it needed to be and the book felt very long despite my being entirely engaged in it but, the subject matter is quite heavy so, no doubt this plays a role in pacing.

”The downtrodden becomes the bearer of a heavenly, righteous flame. It burns me, even now. I find myself unbound by earth, unbound by man, unbound by wifely duty and womanly pain.”


SUMMARY
Spread your wings and join Alex on this journey of feminist magical realism where she navigates childhood, heartbreak, oppression, motherhood, and yes, dragons, each discovery shaping her as the woman she is today.

OPINION
There is literally so much to unpack in When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. So many issues are mentioned: oppression, homophobia, grief, to name a few. It’s such an emotionally wrought novel that I’m really unsure where to begin, but it makes sense to begin with the author’s note to the reader at the beginning of the novel.

The thing that struck me the most about the authors note was the sheer sincere sorrow of it. How many of us women have faced sexism and misogyny in our lives? Because I’m willing to bet my money on all of us. But, there are a few injustices against women that stick with us no matter how far removed we are from the situation, and the authors note mentions a couple.

”I wanted a dragon to eat Brett Kavanaugh. And the bloviating, red-faced Senators. And the boys who laughed while Christine Blasey Ford was assaulted. I wanted a dragon to eat any man who touched where he was not invited and who took what was not his.”


Doesn’t this small section simply get your blood boiling? Now imagine a whole novel’s worth of words making you feel this way.

But, with this burning anger there is soothing beauty too. The author seems to effortlessly tangle the reader in a web of emotions, some parts made me happy, angry, and some parts made me sad. Some emotions felt more taut than others. The author writes contemporarily, favouring feminism, and with unapologetic candour.

”And maybe this is the same with all of us—our best selves and our worst selves and our myriad iterations of mediocre selves are all extant simultaneously within a soul containing multitudes.”


RECOMMENDATION
I recommend to those who believe in the feminist cause, and enjoy magical realism in their stories.

It was strange to be reading a Kelly Barnhill book without the children but it does prove that this author is equally adept at writing books for young children or older folks. Very much enjoyed this book set in an alternate 1950's USA.

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.

WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS is a book about identity and struggling to be you in a world that has rigid definitions. Set in 1950s and 1960s America, when the world becomes too limiting for women, they transform. Some just leave, form communes, or explore the stars. Some kill abusers. And society "forgets" and buries it every time.

I loved the way it explored that pressure and the burden it put on people, Alex's journey through protective denial and how it all spiralled into messy emotions at the end. It was such a good exploration of pent up emotions and the consequences of not talking. Plus her dad was a right piece of work, though done with a much subtler brush than could have been used (which was nice.)

It was also told with multi-media, which is a narrative tool I love. I'm academia minded (applying for PhDs right now!) so anything with that slant feels so fun and nerdy. It's majority chapters, but there are outtakes from an academic paper, plus newspaper articles and transcripts of interviews. The mix was very good, and added extra background (on top of the "segues" in the chapters that provided explanations.)

The one thing I would say is that this book is being marketed as YA but, personally, it read as adult. Everything about it, from the tone to the themes to the way it followed through so much of Alex's life, felt like adult to me.

It's written as someone looking back on their life once they're past retirement, which gives it that much older, more mature tone. The academic multi-media and example segues just add to that non-YA "in the moment" feel. It's probably closest to <a href="https://sifaelizabethreads.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/book-review-a-natural-history-of-dragons-by-marie-brennan/" data-type="post" data-id="13159">A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS</a> in tone because of all of that.

I think I loved it even more for that, as I have very much been shifting from preferring YA to adult over the past few years. I guess that's something to bear in mind when reading it, for expectations if nothing else.

Such a divine book. Had me hooked from the author's introduction, incredible to have such a moving inspiration following the story the whole way through! Barnhill has such a way with words, Alex was such a clear and easy character to read and Beatrice was incredibly vibrant, too! Literally couldn't give higher praise.

I really enjoyed the plot, and how it has a unique twist . This is a historical re-imagining with fancy like elements that deals with issues such as sexism and oppression that women had to face in 1950s. I do not know how I would have survived the time period where women aren’t allowed to speak as much as their real opinion.
I did find the main character repeating herself and becoming annoying after a while as the same things where being repeated too many times. We get it everyone ‘disappears’ *eye roll*.
I found it to be slow at times and did not realise this was a gay/ LGBTQ book however we are all just people so everyone should have their own rights despite whatever gender you are and all that.
3/5 Stars

This novel tells the narrative of sweeping magnetic feminist tale set in 1950s America which exposes a world that wants to keep girls and women small – and examines what happens when they rise up.

I wanted to love this book so badly that part of me feels like I built up an expectation that it was nigh on impossible to meet. The premise is brilliant, from the moment I read it I knew that I just HAD to read this book.

In practice however, for me it fell flat. I will fully admit this is most likely because of my own expectations, and it is not at all the fault of the book!

In 1955 there is a mass transformation of hundreds of thousands of women into dragons, the cause? For some it is clear as day, for others? Not so much.

The dragoning existed before 1955 and it exists long after, providing a poignant insight into the systematic oppression of women and their determination to break free from a misogynistic society.

I adored the fact that this book featured such a wide range; not only delving into the sexuality of several characters (set in a time where this was taboo!) but also how it delved into gender identity as a whole!

I truly did enjoy this book and it’s themes, particularly the second half of this book. However I found the interspersed articles to be a bit jarring, though again this was a completely personal struggle as many of the articles were vital for building the background of dragoning.

I 100% believe this book deserves a read!

There is very little I don’t love about this book. The prose is luscious, the setting - 1950/60s USA - is atmospheric in it’s stiflingly wilful silence, and the arc of Alex, the main character, is heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure.
I particularly enjoyed the combination of dragons (ordinarily a feature of dramatic, action-packed second-world fantasy) and the upsettingly normal life of a girl who just wants to study mathematics in world that thinks she should become a secretary until she ‘lands a good husband.’
More than anything, this book is angry, in a deeply relatable, quietly suppressed way. The allegory of dragons as ‘women’s problems’ is sharply and skilfully woven, from the taboo against even the most euphemistic discussion, to the ingrained expectation that girls “keep their eyes on the ground” so they don’t get any lofty ideas about flying, to the plea that daughters be protected from dragon influences at school (“They asked for America to please think of the children.”) The way Alex herself plays into this dragon-related sexism is an apt example of how women replicate their own experiences to enforce patriarchal expectations: she doesn’t let her younger sister Beatrice play make-believe about dragons or talk about flying with wings, using her mother’s script. “Inappropriate.”
And my inner nerd relished in the excepts of an academic text - A Brief History of Dragons by Dr Gantz - that intersperses the chapters. That, and transcripts from a hearing by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, allows the book to play with the balance between the narrow lens on Alex, which is the emotional heart of the story, and the broader worldbuilding, which is rich and horrifying and empathetic.

"Learn about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons...and change the world."
Amazing book and writing style

I loved the inspiration behind this book almost as much as the book itself.
Reminiscent in some ways of The Power, this is a world where women can and do become dragons - and how the same world deals with this (don’t look; don’t think; don’t remember)

This book is coming from a good place, and I tried really hard to like it, but it just wasn't for me.

The main thrust is that a large cohort of women in the 1950s become so enraged by the patriarchy and the way that they are treated by men that they all spontaneously turn into powerful, fire breathing dragons. This so called 'dragoning' is basically an extended metaphor for women expanding their horizons and taking on roles in society that previously wouldn't have been available to them, rather than living small lives to suit menfolk. It's a nice idea, but it really isn't subtle, and the metaphor is rammed home again, and again, and again, with endless lengthy descriptions of women throughout history turning dragon and imposing a fiery revenge on whatever unfortunate man happens to be standing in their way.

As a result, the main - quite touching - storyline, about a young girl working out who she is as she explores why the other important women in her life have or have not decided to dragon, gets completely bogged down in boring detail. And one thing a book about dragons really shouldn't be is boring.

Ultimately, I'm all for books that allow women to be powerful and angry, and which explore themes of living the life you want vs what society expects of you, and the degree to which a mother should sublimate their own needs for the sake of their child. But I feel like this one is a bit of a one-concept wonder which would probably have made for an excellent short story, but has ended up been eked out into a slightly too long and too dull novel.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in return for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4642573315