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

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but we see very little exploration of other cultures and classes. 1950s America is presented as uniform and rather bland.

We see the gradual return, and grudging acceptance and integration of the dragons into American society. When We Were Dragons is the wonderful feminist story of the dragooning, a process where women (and girls) transform into dragons, and I absolutely loved it, honestly I found it so empowering and delightful to read. This story is very much about discrimination and there are times I got so angry with the attitudes of some of the characters, this is all credit to the author. I do love a story that makes me go through various emotions and this one definitely did that. Anger, euphoria, happiness, sadness and a sense of justice are just some of them. The way the author portrayed Alex and other women was just so good, the way they carried themselves with eyes down at the ground while all the time wanting to look up and to the future made it quite a powerful read. The focus is on Alex, a young girl who is confused by events that are happening, not just to family and neighbours who have changed, but also the changes in her own body. As a young girl, there are expectations of her and what she is to do with her future. Alex however has other ideas, she wants to go on with her education and go to university. Others think that a piece of paper to say you are clever isn't much use when you are a mother and wife. I will say that the characters are all likable, even those who try to follow ‘societal norms’ and ignore the Mass Dragoning. I also adored the sapphic relationship within but more importantly I loved that while this is a fiercely feminist tale at it’s core and heart it focuses on family, be it by blood or found, on the idea of striving for answers and keeping your true to your own self and path. I honestly adored this.

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Barnhill relaxes into her characters, and it’s here that “When Women Were Dragons” really sings. The stakes feel more genuine as Alex navigates her first relationship and also grapples with letting Beatrice, whom she has parented for years, find her own path. 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. Also, the commentary on dragoning and its meaning and the inherent transness of it was breathtaking. Because this book is about transformation. Not into something else, necessarily, but into a true self. Alex, while attending university, reluctantly gives her sister Beatrice permission to fully dragon. Her sister goes on to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner while Alex becomes a scientist. Perhaps this is how we learn silence - an absence of words, an absence of context, a hole in the universe where the truth should be.”

I wish I could have rated this book higher. In honesty it barely reaches my default of 3 stars. However, it is a brave attempt to say something important, and it manages to avoid the rigid gender binaries which most fantasy books, or those including magic fall prey to. The timeless political parallels are also worth exploring. But I think it was misguided of Kelly Barnhill to set the overall tone as light, and to depict one of the most terrifying monsters in mythology as she does. Ultimately, these dragons let the message down badly. They show a placid acceptance of their lot, in returning to their humdrum lives, many even taking up their former roles. They may be paragons of the community, but for my next read about dragons, I shall expect far more fire, fury and devastation. Alex’s fire and desire for answers never dies and only intensifies as she grows into a fiercely independent teenager in the era of the Mass Dragoning. Society turning in on itself, a mother more protective than ever; the upsetting and confusing insistence that Marla never even existed and watching her beloved Beatrice becoming dangerously obsessed with the forbidden. The story tells a fictionalized history of America during the 50s and beyond. Told from the point of view of Alex Green, who is initially eight-years-old when hundreds of thousands of ordinary women sprout wings, scales and talons and take to the skies in blaze of fire and fury. We learn how Alex had several burning questions left unanswered until much later in life.Almost straightaway this aspect alerts us to the fact that this book is something other than a fantasy. Why are we following the day to day life of Alex, and ignoring the dragons? The author must be telling us something else. We recognise the feminist slant, seeing that the focus is strongly on females, the few males evident being pompous, ignorant or merely inept. (Fortunately there are two notable exceptions, Dr. Gantz and the assistant librarian and closet theoretical physicist, Mr. Burrows which saves this from becoming a travesty.) The novel is exploring and exploding the idea of a woman’s place in the world, and we can sense the barely suppressed rage of some of these characters. Set in the 1950s, this must then be partly about the tyranny of enforced limitations. This motif is repeated throughout the novel: knots of string and twine and wire forming and unravelling, as women try to stop themselves from dragoning. There is a supernatural element to this, as on occasion Alex views her world as a mirage, changing before: Alex’s Aunt Marla was one of the disappeared women. She was also one of the most influential people in Alex’s life; after all, Marla gave birth to Alex’s cousin and best friend, Beatrice. After Marla’s dragoning, Alex’s parents raised the two girls as sisters, but questions about Marla’s disappearance lingered at the edges of Alex’s consciousness. It is clear that this aspect of the novel is a satire of America. Except for the final chapter, the rest of the world is only ever mentioned once. This, despite the obvious fact that dragons can fly and could easily fly to other land masses—as well as the notion that if this was a result of women feeling oppressed in American society, a similar transformation would be happening all over the developed world—means that there must have been a spark, or defining event in the USA, for Kelly Barnhill to write such a specific novel. Her thoughts here confirm it; it is a political book: When I was a little girl, they told us to keep our eyes on the ground. They told us not to ask about the houses that burned. They told us to forget. And we were good children. We followed the rules.

Overall, a brilliant concept that failed to perform. I cannot express how much I desperately wanted to like this book. 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.

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Barnhill transforms that suppressed rage into a wellspring of power, creating an alternate timeline where women told to suffer in silence instead spontaneously transform into dragons, often immolating abusive men in the process. I had a friend once. But my father dragged her away. There was more to that story, but it hovered just out of my reach, insubstantial as smoke.” While it is true that there is a freedom in forgetting - and this country has made great use of that freedom - there is a tremendous power in remembrance. Indeed, it is memory that teaches us, and reminds us, again and again, who we truly are and who we have always been.” Set in the 1950s this is a brilliant book that mixes historical with fantasy. Women through the years have transformed into dragons, they are never seen, mentioned or talked about ever again. In 1955 when 1,000s of women worldwide changed were still covered up. No one is allowed to mention the word dragon or anything to do with this event. The representation of women in the 50s is very flat. I had a difficult time believing the portrayal that women are all kept housewives, completely restricted by their husbands from having any ownership of self. That their lives were utterly depressing and hopeless, that all men are evil, that all members of society happily imprison women to their homes and do not want them to be educated. This is a stereotype, a Hollywood myth, that serves the old-school flavor of feminism that the author favors in this book. There are times that this stank of TERF feminism - there's no outright TERFness but it certainly smelled similar to it. I had a very hard time believing society would cover up thousands of women turning into dragons - that it was censored from the news. Perhaps a strongly religious, cultish town would, but not national news.

The novel shifts from the suffocating conformity of the 1950s to a world where gender identity, and the family structures built around it, turn out to be more fluid than anyone could have imagined. Time, in our experience, is linear, but in truth time is also looped. It is like a piece of yarn, in which each section of the strand twists and winds around every other - a complicated and complex knot, in which one part cannot be viewed out of context from the others. Everything touches everything else. Everything affects everything else. Each loop, each bend, each twist interact with each other. It is all connected, and it is all one. Completely fierce, unmistakably feminist, and subversively funny.”—Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry 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. In all this we can see clear parallels with America’s troubled political and social past, and its continuing legacy.When Women Were Dragons is an attention-grabbing title. It sounds like alternative history, is it? Yes. But is it also a metaphor? Yes. Or is it an allegory? Again, yes. It’s also in part a coming-of-age story. You see, it all depends how you look at it. We learn about the work of the “Wyvern Research Collective”, an underground collective of researchers, scientists, doctors, and librarians, spearheaded by Mrs. Gyzinska’s friend Dr. Gantz—who turns out to be Professor H.M. Gantz M.D. Ph. D, author of the 1948 book “Some Basic Facts about Dragons: A Physician’s Explanation”, of which all copies are supposed to have been destroyed. On March 12th 1960, Dr. Gantz had been tried before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and found guilty. A good scientist must remain curious, open-minded, humble, and above all, obedient to the data, and to the facts.”