To Shape a Dragon's Breath

Love love love love love this book. I CANNOT wait to see what Blackgoose writes next.

Really liked this initially but was a struggle to finish. Bit too black-and-white and YA for me, this is a Babel-type book where the social justice aspect (which I usually adore in books, when done right) feels so shoehorned in that it ruins the actual story. At no point does the protagonist actually struggle, she just points out what's wrong with the blatantly evil colonialist society and she's applauded for it. Coming from A WOMAN OF THE IRON PEOPLE which I finished recently, a tremendous exploration of indigenous-based SFF, this was a big miss. Enjoyed it for its cozyness but wish it had been more.

Objectively, this was a very good book, and I enjoyed listening to it the whole way through. The trouble for me is that it follows a few trends in YA SFF that I'm not super fond of: minimal conflict and discomfort, and a young protagonist with a super-mature emotional intelligence. I'd highly recommend this to young people looking for a fun and interesting fantasy that looks at history through an indigenous lens, because it executes that perfectly, but as someone who likes a bit of grit, and a bit more turmoil in the protagonist's personality, I was let down a bit.

But first, the good stuff: this story does an excellent job of putting a critical eye on the Settler narrative of how Europeans came to North America. It plays out the nuance of how assumptions of supremacy among the Europeans resulted in demeaning interactions at best, and genocidal interactions at the worst. Also, by framing it from the perspective of a young woman from a relatively isolated group, it has excellent commentaries on how indigenous people did not really agree that European culture was superior, and that in a lot of cases, their social structure was more healthy. At the same time, it is honest about differences in technology and bureaucracy, and how there are things the cultures could learn from each other if only they cooperated.

On the whole, I thought the lens through which this story examines Indigenous-European relations in a historical context is brilliant.

I also think the "magic system" is pretty brilliant and unique, and the number of stories within stories bely a depth in the world that hints that as far as magic and backstory, this first book is only scratching the surface of what the world has to offer.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm willing to find out what's to come. The story felt a little too safe for my taste, and there was no sense of urgency at any point really. It has a classic boarding school structure (think Harry Potter) where it starts in the summer and ends when the school year is over, but there is no overriding story arc (think threat of Voldemort) to keep me engaged. Instead, it's 500 pages of "This happens, then this happens, then this happens." In fact, the chapters are even written in that way: They are parts of a sentence, that come together so that if you read each chapter title, you basically get a non-spoilery summary of the book, which is neat, but literally reads as "this happens then that happens...."

While that isn't a flaw in itself, and in fact might be preferable to people who don't like anxiety-inducing narratives, it makes it easy for me to forget about. I would honestly forget about the book entirely if I didn't pick it up for a few days.

I also feel like the main character falls into a trope that I've noticed in YA lately. SFF (mostly Sci-fi) used to have a problem with protagonists always being the "competent, intelligent man," and now that narrative seems to have been replaced by the "bold, emotionally intelligent woman", which is obviously an improvement, and makes for much better role models in fiction. But IMO it also sets unrealistic standards for how girls should act in situations where they are confronting big problems, and puts the onus of correcting others' flaws and, more broadly, the world's problems on them. It also is just unrealistic to expect teenage girls in stressful situations to always remain calm, be aware of others' feelings, and make mindful and well-thought out responses to all situations. The protagonist seems to always say just the right thing, and while it's nice that conflict isn't created simply from people saying the wrong thing, it's also just unrealistic that a 14 year old in a novel and hostile environment will always be in control enough to say the perfect thing.

An example of a more realistic version of this character was from Premee Mohamed in The Annual Migration of Clouds. She was also bold and emotionally intelligent, but often felt overwhelmed and unwilling to be a hero, unsure of what to say or do next, and that flet much more real.

An important topic in a nice package
Overall, it reminded me of somewhat of Babel, questioning the legitimacy of white superiority and alienation or rather cultural bulldozing - just with a less bleak outlook. Magic is approached in a very scholarly scientific manner. And then there's dragons and a school to learn dragoneer stuff! (So basically a cooler and nicer version of Basgiath) we readers now experience a lovely blend of learning about dragons as well as cultures, both Native American and quirks of the “English” cultures while not seeing either one as superior and saviour of the other.
Note on the world: it's fairly easy to draw the parallels between fictional and true worlds but my highlight was reading the English version with random German borrowings.
Regarding the main characters, I kept forgetting that most of them are around 15/16, there was rarely childish behaviour but a lot of grown up reactions and still plenty of character development.
I am pretty excited to continue on this journey!

I enjoy dragon and school stories, I enjoy “let's point out how silly and limiting the respectable manners are” stories, I enjoy heavy topics that are handled well. The alt history felt realistic. I really hope the second book is going well and is announced soon! 

I am wondering where the sequel can go, other than dating issues and maybe a second year - or more about the dragons themselves? This was so much more about colonialism and the assumption of “we're improving the savage” when you're really not, and the dominant society doesn't realize its own issues. Anequs is super mature and outspoken for 15 and she doesn't seem to change or develop, she knows who she is and what she wants, she never has to wonder if she's doing the right thing. Theod got a little more development but not much, since he's always had to be very conscious about acting appropriately.

I really did enjoy this. Dragged a little at the start and I'm not sure why, then it picked up when Anequs decides she has to go to the school. 

What to say about this book. It's beloved but didn't hit for me.

I loved the start (though I wished it would hurry along a tad. Took too many pages to get to the school) and I ADORE the neurodivergent rep in this. The characters leapt from the page but that's where my enjoyed of this ended.

There is a tension that is missing throughout the narrative if this book. A threat of the MC loosing her dragon if she fails and yet it's mentioned once with no tension after or fear. Things happened in this book but they failed to connect in a cohesive plot. Little to no character development. It was boring.


I wanted more from the book. More exploration on the school and frankly more dragons. For a dragon book there is very little dragons in it.

Seeing the life native Americans lived through the lense of the MC was a lovely insight. I enjoyed the culture and their ways immensely.

It's a shame this book failed for me I started off loving it.

Most of this book felt like I was following a class at school. There was so much to learn about the world and its magic system and I much more preferred the scenes where they where away from the school.

Not sure if I'll read the other comming books of this series because I felt like it had an alright ending for me to stop at.

I'm not going to rate this one because I'm absolutely not the right audience for it (I would no longer consider myself a fantasy reader, I don't particularly care for long books and YA is most often not my thing).

The main character got on my nerves because she was a teenager acting like one, I felt like nothing much happened except the dynamics between the characters which evolved a little and the dragons that grew. If I had read this one as a younger reader, I would have probably adored it though.

TWs: Discrimination

“What's wrong with living the way our ancestors have always lived?

3.5 rounded down.. or is it a 4?? I don't know!! I really enjoyed the aspects and the topics of indigenous people, their traditions/cultures, and being placed into a colonized, modern world. A topic and question still important to our current modern world as many cultures shift into modernization and integration of technology.

The con for me was also the pacing, repetition, and the odd romance (I say odd because I personally did not expect it lol). Much of the action happens at the very end of the book, so the pacing confused me quite a bit throughout the book. The writing was not my cup of tea, perhaps it is because it's a YA book.

Love love loved this book.