When Women Were Dragons

this book, in premise and in many scenes regarding the relationships between women and the idea of womanhood, is very good.

but it is also INCREDIBLY whitewashed; it takes inspirations from civil rights movements actually happening during the time period of the setting and co-opts them to be about dragons while barely, if at all, recognizing the actual struggles against racism that Black and Indigenous people were fighting.

also, it's fatphobic, just a heads up

spoilers ahead



so i did like a lot about it. there was recognition given to how teenagers can be very unreasonable and that's okay, the lesbian dragon aunts were basically a polycule, there was recognition of trans women and women of all sorts. i really liked those bits, and the complex nature of the relationships and how they played out.

that said - I'm white. and even i knew that the whole “recognition of dragons” as well as their ostracization and oppression were completely ripped off of anti-racist movements at the time. it's so very clearly based on the civil rights movement but with a majority of white women i was honestly almost shocked nothing was said during editing or proofreading (almost. this is common in publishing of works by white authors). the marches, the HUMANS ONLY signs, the “in 1971 we got personhood and (reconstruction) dragon achievements started happening!” is so very obviously appropriated from Black history. Black movements are half mentioned or very vaguely alluded to in ways that could just be more dragoning instances: there is ONE allusion to a Black womens' movement resulting in dragoning, and when Alex's dad mentions a list of protests the scenarios are similar to the civil rights movement. However, again, these references can all come back to the general dragoning of ALL women, esp white women. the premise is sound, but the way it is handled is so incredibly White that it really just seems to be another fantasy novel that invokes oppression/racism themes without ever actually acknowledging those who were, and are, actively treated as second hand citizens.

also, considering the time period, nothing is mentioned at all of the AIM movement happening parallel to the civil rights movement. one Mexican girl is mentioned as having a quinceañera and that's it for other references to poc. none of the main or secondary characters are non-white. i don't care if it's wisconsin.

there is also a section at the back concerning “progressive dragoning news” that comes across as white saviorism. not only are almost all of the dragons we see with lines/screentime white Americans or white europeans, despite mentions of other countries having dragons, this “peaceful dragon initiative” is run by white american women (dragons) interfering in other countries with “seething warlords” etc. the implication is very clear that they are saving “impoverished” nations overseas from their “evil” militaries etc, which is the exact rhetoric used by america especially to invade and occupy foreign peoples in the middle east, latin/south america, asia, and africa. again, it was another instance that slapped me so hard in the face i really feel like nobody who isn't white was shown anything about this manuscript at all.

and on top of all this. on top! of all this! we are given a jk rowling-esque description of alex's father's secretary/second wife. i felt sick reading alex's account of this woman's cheek rippling with fat where her fist rested against it in alex's first interaction with this woman. honestly, i don't think she's ever given a name, only painted with a broad “evil stepmother” brush on top of the fatphobic descriptions, to the point where she's even shown as being evil to alex's absent father.

there was a lot i liked about this book. but the whitewashing, white saviorism, and fatphobia really ruined it for me.

Pretty slow. Not interesting enough to stay with it.

I picked this up thinking it would be funny and it was. I wasn't expecting it to be one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time.

Incredibly beautiful and unique way to tell a story about belonging, chosen family and being comfortable in your own skin.

In April 25th, 1955, 642,987 women shed their skins and became dragons. Alex was only a child, and her aunt was one of these women. That event had a big impact on Alex and her little family. It raised a lot of questions her young brain could not answer. And she now has a little sister, who up until recently was just her cousin. But Alex did not have an aunt! Because there were no dragons. And no one was able to talk about them. Until they came back, and they could no longer be ignored!
I listened to the audiobook last year, and I read it again this year. It is one of the books that raise a lot of feelings in me. I love to see a world where women don't put up with being put down and limited due to their gender. Becoming dragons is the perfect metaphor for letting the fire inside them flare up.  And seeing how their transformation did not have the same results everywhere. Some dragons were so angry that they burned everything and everyone that hurt them. Others stayed back and continued to live with their families. And others just decided to leave and go away to find their own destiny. 
With the dragons' return, we can see a society that is trying to slowly adapt to make room for these giant creatures. Just like society had to adapt to allow for women to take part in education and the workforce. However, it didn't seem that the change was enough. One of the things that don't sit too well with me is that a big chunk of society did not change. They continued to be the close-minded little people they had always been. Alex's dad is the biggest example of that. As hurt as he was by his wife's death, he turned around, abandoned his daughters, got married, and started a new family as if nothing happened.
But I guess that is a reflection of the real world we live in. Misogyny did not subside just because women were given equal rights to men.  Up until this day, even among the most educated, well-intentioned, and self-proclaimed “progressive” men, you will find hints of them thinking that women are less than.  When women were told that they belonged in the workplace, no one told the men that they belonged at home. This ended up with women being expected to work inside and outside of the home, while the expectations of men did not change. And I think this story reflects that but in a more positive way.

It hurts my soul to have to rate this one two stars. I LOVE The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, so I had high hopes for this one. But unfortunately, I didn't love it.

When Women Were Dragons has some beautifully written scenes.. extremely so, but there are so many themes and allegories and points jam packed in, and they really detract from the story amd come across as preachy (where you can tell the author is trying to “say something” but mostly forcing it and interrupting the story flow).

Someone at my book club said it's like Kelly Barnhill knew she was only going to ever write one adult novel and tried to put everything she wanted to say in it. And that about sums it up..

4.5 rounded up to a 5 for Goodreads

This was a beautifully emotional tale that I know I'll find myself returning to in the future.

My only complaint is that sometimes I was frustrated without obtuse the main character was in certain situations despite being very intelligent. That's not to say, I don't think it wasn't warranted. Alex lives in a world where everything down to her very thoughts of dragons are repressed and shamed, and so dragoning wouldn't be her natural conclusion in the same way it is to the reader. It just happened a few too many times and my annoyance took me out of the story the last few times it happened.

Beyond this, I loved everything else. The characters (especially Alex and her internal monologue), the memoir style, the scientific writings interwoven with the story, the consistent knot/weaving theme, and especially the ending! I wish this wasn't a stand alone novel, because the potential this concept has is a well deep and wide!

4.5 stars

This book was so full of feelings. Anger, resignation, joy, love. Loved the contrast of the story starting out as an angry tale of subjugated women to ending with love and acceptance and the beauty of the people you meet in your life.

Bonus points for lesbian dragons!

Women are magic

This was an interesting one. It's about women having the ability to turn into dragons en masse and leaving behind the patriarchy of the 1960s. Where it gets weird is it's not really straight fantasy (which would have been fun to read!) but more so some sort of menstruation allegory (almost? Or something similar anyway) in that the fact that women are capable of turning into dragons is considered embarrassing to talk about and people turn a complete blind eye to. Which it's dragons! Hello! Can you really ignore that?

2.5 stars. It's a bit heavy handed, innit. Also, it was impossible to gauge the size of the dragons, like they were so big they destroyed buildings, but could also apply lipstick?

I was intrigued by this book, a feminist rage piece with women turning into dragons and also written by an author I've come to like? Sign me up! We've felt burned up by society, We've been called greedy/selfish for prioritizing our needs, We've been called a bitch..why not call us a dragon instead! I was dying for this author to give us a rage and justice peace....but that just did not happen.
It was not great for me; the pacing, the tone & the TERF vibes, and then the dragons just becoming complacent and becoming a “model minority” figures. Just meh.

Usually this author's writing is a slow burn. It continues at a steady pace and usually leads to a nicely packaged and satisfying ending. I thought this was exhausting, long, and unsatisfying. I think I would have liked much better if it was a short story. Also, this book was dedicated to Christine Blasey Ford (Christine Margaret Blasey Ford is an American professor of psychology and famously stood up to Brett Kavanaugh. She is courageous and is a hero, imo) setting the tone for maybe inner strength, justice finally fulfilled, by righteous fury, being set free, truth and kindness that should be owed to us. Instead, it's about nothing. Sure, there are feminist things here (some of them I feel are interpreted poorly) and there but at the end of the day the dragons return to do nothing. Everything becomes better when they acknowledge the dragons, but the dragons did nothing to address the conflict of the hatred of women and unfair treatment to women? They sit there like sentinels and only watch... they watch as nothing happens!!! What is worse is that the dragons come back and try to integrate back into society by being the “model minority” stereotype. This book is a re-imagined history of the 1950s, so I can only imagine this was a weird commentary on the civil rights? I'm not sure. The dragons do nothing, they don't even get mad, they don't change society really in any meaningful way to address ANY of the plethora of problems in the 1950s. IF you are going to re-imagine history just do it! I know that the author specializes in kindness, but I feel like this does a severe dis-kindness to Christine B. Ford. Like, what message are you trying to send her?
The TERF VIBES in this book. Essentially they link women's parts as being the reason they turn into dragons. Not a Bio. born woman, no dragon for you. They link these two together consistently in the book, and the characters first dragon manual link puberty, uterus, and dragonness to overlap each other on the cover and theme. (I tried to look into this a little more because it looked like there was some discussion on twitter to Kelly Barnhill and it looked like maybe she was active in this discussion? Twitter is currently in chaos due to Elon buying it. So, the profile and tweets have been removed. If they were removed before or just recently because she no longer has an account? I'm not sure! So, I found nothing to her response/ideas towards this.) I'm not sure if she did this intentionally, or if it was just a one sided view. There is an LGBT+ relationship, but that doesn't really make up for the TERF insinuation of the story.


HONESTLY, her books are pretty well liked because they feature kindness (Which is what I liked about them)...but it feels like a facade after reading this book.

This book feels very one sided white feminism.

Spoiler-Free Review:

This book was the August/September pick for the Up All Night book club. I enjoyed reading it and found it thought provoking and deep— maybe a bit over my head. I enjoyed the writing style and how the story read like a memoir. This book follows the story of Alex Green. Alex is a young girl when she sees her first dragon— too young to really understand. The story is about how some women began spontaneously “dragoning” and how society changed and adapted with these events. This is a story of the harmful impacts of prejudice, societal change, the importance of talking about the past, and longing for more out of life. The pacing of this book started off a little slow for my taste, but it picked up around half way. The author talks about true events that inspired bits of the story in the acknowledgements, and it definitely sparked my curiosity to do some research. This is adult contemporary fiction, 16+ for themes and topics.

Definitely more of a 3.5.

This is one more in a recent trend of feminist themed fantasy novels where the women have had enough of being oppressed in a sexist and patriarchal society which doesn't ever let them reach their full potential. It used to be very rare to find a true expression for female rage and even now, it's not something that's well accepted in real life, but I am glad we are getting some narratives which explore this anger. I liked how the author combines a coming of age story with these feminist themes and some fantasy/scifi elements sprinkled throughout.

I am just getting out of a bad reading slump, so I'm glad I found something which made me feel better but I'm upset that I am not really in the right headspace to do a full review. But I hope anyone who likes these kind of stories will give this a try.