Book Review: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

When Women Were Dragons
Author: Kelly Barnhill
Publication: Anchor (May 3, 2022)

Description: In the first adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Ogress and The Orphans, 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.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.

My Thoughts: WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS was a fascinating story of our recent past with one significant change. On April 25, 1955, there was a mass dragoning when more than 600,000 women spontaneously turned into dragons and the government instituted a massive coverup to hide dragoning.

Alex Green was a young girl when the dragoning took place. She was four when she saw her first dragon who happened to be a neighbor who had been kind to her. Alex's mother had cancer and was away for treatment during that same time period. Alex was cared for by her Aunt Marla, her mother's older sister. She was eight when the mass dragoning happened and her Aunt Marla was one of those women who dragoned. 

It was a repressive time. No one ever talked about dragoning or cancer or women's health issues. But Alex tried to stifle her curiosity but had many questions. She didn't know how to feel when her mother brought Marla's infant daughter home and declared that Bea had always been her sister and that Aunt Marla had never existed. Alex quickly became Bea's greatest protector which didn't change when her mother died of cancer when Alex was in eighth grade and when her father remarried and established Alex and Bea in an apartment and sent financial support but never visited his daughters again. 

Alex was left alone with responsibilities that should never have been placed on a child's shoulders, but she was determined to study and even attend college one day despite her father's refusal to support that dream. She did have a friend and supporter in Mrs. Gyzinska who was the head librarian at the local Carnegie Library. 

The story is told not only in Alex's voice but through newspaper articles and excerpts from the work of Dr. H. N. Gantz who had lost his positions as a university professor and doctor of medicine when he refused to stop researching and writing about dragons. 

This was an intriguing story. I enjoyed the rich language and deep emotions. Alex was a character who wasn't going to let the common values of the day stop her from becoming who she was meant to be. I liked the whole underground rebellion against the repression of facts in which Mrs. Gyzinska and Professor Gantz were deeply involved. 

Favorite Quote:

There cannot be science without the free and unfettered dissemination of truth. When you, as the creators of policy, seek to use your power to curtail understanding and thwart the free exchange of knowledge and ideas, it is not I who will suffer the consequences of this, but rather the whole nation, and, indeed, the entire world. 

I bought this one July 24. You can buy your copy here.