Tackling My TBR

When Women were Dragons

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(Spoiler free: everything mentioned is in the book description)

This book is the reason I started this blog, honestly. I picked it up while I was on a book-buying ban, because of course I did. It was my fault though because I decided to get a drink from Barnes and Nobles, so I was putting myself in a dangerous situation knowingly.

The title caught my attention as I was walking through the book racks. When Women were Dragons… what a captivating title. When I read the blurb, I knew I had to have it.

The world is described as a place where women are kept small and unimportant, but they won’t be treated that way for long. Honestly, I liked it because it sounded so much like The Power by Naomi Alderman. I had to read that book for a “women in literature” class in college that introduced me to a whole new way to read. I was excited to relive that experience with Kelly Barnhill’s book.

I finished it in a day…

I just couldn’t stop reading it. It was so much more than a book about women turning into dragons (not that that was what I assumed).

This book is about female rage and female joy. It’s about the inexplicable right to be who you are even when the whole world is denying you a place. It’s about carving your own place in that world surrounded by those who see you as you are meant to be.

Sometimes I finish a book and there is nothing I can do except sit in silence and absorb what I just read. It leaves me in a daze that is hard to shake.

Alex Green as a main character is immensely relatable as a character considering this book is set in the 1950s. She spends the book tackling her relationship with her mother and her father. The weight she has to carry as the plot thickens is something that no one should have to go through and yet so many do.

And then of course there’s the added detail of women turning into dragons.

The main catalyst for Alex’s life turning upside down is her Aunt Marla turning into a dragon and the fact that society dictates they never talk about it. How do you lose such a beloved family member and pretend it never happened?

Unfortunately, this question has to be answered even in the real world as families pretend relatives don’t exist all the time. Whether it be a difference in religion or sexuality or something else. Being forcibly removed from your family is a heartbreaking experience that Kelly Barnhill masterfully tackled.

I believe this to be an incredibly important book to read that is devastatingly relevant to today’s world. I encourage everyone to pick this up as soon as possible.