Book Review: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

In a time when 1950s housewives are suddenly turning into dragons and taking to the skies, young Alex Green is left to pick up the pieces of her shattered family and figure out if her place lies in the society left behind.

3.5/5

The premise of this book greatly intrigued me. I am a sucker for a good historical reimagining, especially when you throw some fantasy elements into the mix. With so much going for it, I was a little disappointed by Barnhill's novel, but not for the reasons you would think.

Alex Green finds herself born to a time when women were expected to be small. When the Mass Dragoning of 1955 rocks her world, she is left with more questions than just the usual coming-of-age tales dictate. Why did her Aunt Marla transform while her mother didn't? Why is her young cousin, Bea, so obsessed with such taboo topics like dragons? And what information is society at large keeping deliberately secret so as to force so many women into the outskirts?

The worldbuilding for this book was absolutely fantastic. I am obsessed with a magical world where no one really knows for sure what is going on- not the readers, and certainly not the characters- but we journey together to figure out the rules of this new reality, both physically and socially. In that respect, everything about the process of dragoning was a 10/10. I also liked the side characters, the idea of libraries as sanctuaries, and the catharsis of descriptions of dragons eating bad dudes. All of this was a big thumbs up.

What I didn't love was how heavy-handed the morals of the world were. There were some instances where nuance was attempted, with looks at addressing the internalized misogyny of fellow women and how lesbians were treated in early feminist movements, but otherwise, the general rule of thumb seemed to be just "angry women are dangerous- in this case, literally." My opinions may just be a result of me not loving the 1950s era as a setting in general, but couple this with the Victorian-orphan-eqsue journey of Alex, and this book just didn't quite hit as hard for me as I expected.

Overall, this book was a solid 3.5/5 stars. If you like dragon books, you should definitely give it a read. Like I said, the magic rules of this dragon world are very, very unique. If you are trying to convert someone to the genres of historical retelling or historical fantasy, however, there are other gems out there.