REVIEW: When Women Were Dragons (Kelly Barnhill)

Book: When Women Were Dragons

Author: Kelly Barnhill

Premise: 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 and took to the skies. Forced into silence, Alex must face the consequences of this astonishing event.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. The story follows Alex Green from childhood to being a young woman. Throughout, various women turn into dragons and we see how Alex and society react. The dragoning is more magical realism than fantasy, given the book is set in 1950s USA. Dragoning has a taboo quality in the same way that periods and other female issues are avoided. So there were strong themes of womanhood and the repression of women. But it took a while to get used to literal dragons turning up!