When Women Were Dragons
Kelly Barnhill
Hot Key Books, 2023
Paperback £8.99
ISBN 9781471412226
When Women Were Dragons is a highly interesting book about transformation and feminine rage. It follows a girl named Alex as she grows up in 1950’s Wisconsin. Women turn into dragons, seemingly out of nowhere. The government is suppressing media and research, even though across America women are turning into dragons in a process called dragoning. There was a mass dragoning in 1955. Alex grows up wondering why some women dragon and what the phenomenon means for her family and her future.
Most of the plot involves her struggles to care for her sister and to get to college despite a complete lack of familial support. She also must deal with trauma caused by emotional abuse from her father. The story is filled with loss, struggle, frustration, heartbreak, and rage. This book features a variety of different characters apart from Alex. Her mom, a math genius, a lesbian aunt who is a car mechanic, a badass librarian, and a determined scientist.
This was a book I could not stop reading because of the amazing storytelling and complex characters.
Máire Daly, 16
