I loved this blend of softness and rage all tied into one book about feminism and the power of anger. Kelly Barnhill is so good at succinctly putting words to really big universal ideas, thoughts, and feelings and making them feel wholly personal. 5 stars!

I was so excited to read this book and unfortunately it just did not land with me. I loved the idea and the attempt at melding this magical realism with such a deep and meaningful social commentary but none of it worked. Which is very sad because I really appreciate where the author was trying to go with it but the execution was just very poor in my opinion.

I adored When Women Were Dragons. There were whole paragraphs I copied down because they resonated and I think that's the mark of a successful work of speculative fiction: when the world you're writing about reflects things about the world we live in. I loved the metaphor of dragoning and found myself also wishing for that kind of release. I'll be picking up a physical copy of this book for myself because it's definitely a title that I want to return to.

How do you encapsulate female and female-identifying rage from years of oppression, inequity, dismissal, and abuse? Dragons. I felt my own female rage boiling over at certain parts of the book, but I suppose that was the point. This was slow-moving at first but became very enjoyable as the main character/narrator grew and had a better understanding of the world around her. I would recommend this timely book to any fans of magical realism and women's studies.

Okay, maybe this was a bit on the nose and the ending was very idealistic, but I still really enjoyed the writing, the characters and their relationships, and their struggles with the roles society had placed upon them, and how women push back in big and small ways against what the world expects of them.

I wanted so much to like this book. The premise is really neat. Women are tired of being oppressed, and start turning into dragons. Because men can't stand not having control, they try to bury the information and pretend nothing happen. Of course, right?

The book is Fiction, but it reads partially like a biography and partially like a research paper. I just couldn't get past the format. It didn't catch hold of me like most books. I saw another review where they said it should have been short stories, and I agree with that.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What an amazing book. The story was so original, the characters were so relatable, and it felt like a special time in history to be reading this book. I loved, loved it.

Kelly Barnhill is one of my favorite writers. Every woman should read this book, if only to adopt the new verb "dragoning" - we should all be doing it! This book inspired my "uterus dragon" drawing that I made available on items in Redbubble, and a protest umbrella when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Truly, if we all had "dragoning" as part of our arsenal, our world would look very different... and who's to say we don't? Caution should be advised.

Kelly Barnhill imagines a world where women who are independent turn into dragons and fly away from the constraints of a patriarchal society. This idea is described by using the journey of a young girl who watched her mother, aunt, and neighbor, amongst others, make choices that set them on their dragon paths. She, herself, ponders their choices and lives in a world where escape for some means extra burdens for others. And choices, if magical, reflect a reality many women must face.

I'm so glad that I finally had time to pick this book up because GOD was it good. While slow at times, I loved the format of switching between Alex's POV and short academic clippings/trial hearings. At times I found myself thinking "I don't remember a mass dragoning being a real thing taught in school" just because it felt so real in how it was portrayed. The only criticisms I have are how some parts dragged on and then how some words were repeated over and over, but you quickly get over that. This book is going to be one that I recommend to all women in my life.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill.
Kelly Barnhill's first adult fiction novel was greatly anticipated. Combining history with magical realism, Barnhill sets a stage for showcasing feminism. Using dragons as a metaphor for the power of women was brilliant! Barnhill stays true to the fantasy element that is prominent in her middle-grade novels, but takes it to the next level.

This book has a very interesting concept but I found the execution a bit disappointing. It could be that I am not the biggest fam of the historical memoir style. It took me a while to get through it as I had a harder time picking it up to finish. I really wanted to like this more and I know there is an audience who will probably enjoy this more than I did.

I have recommended this to a few customers and a co-worker, my coworker said they enjoyed it.

Very cool concept! Normally, alternate histories drag on, but this one had a narrative that kept the story moving. We were able to see all sides of the new dragon-centric society through one girl's experience.

(DNF at 52%).

Upon starting this read, if you had told me a book revolving around housewives in the 50s spontaneously combusting into dragons was going to be this boring and tedious, I would have told you that you must be sorely mistaken. But after trying to get through this book over the course of the past week and failing to muster up any interest in the plot or the characters, I'm going to have to call it quits on this one. Barnhill can write so beautifully, but the way she writes <u>When Women Were Dragons</u> did not hold my interest in the slightest. Told through the perspective of Alex, a young girl with a difficult childhood who has experienced "The Mass Dragoning" and its immediate effects on her family, there's just so little that happens in so many pages...None of the Dragoning is ever experienced firsthand. Everything is told through articles or journal entries or fables. Everything Alex recounts is hearsay. Most of the first half of the book is Alex's parents treating her like crap and her learning to live with it. The idea/concept behind this book is so witty and sassy and I love the premise, but the execution is just not there. I found myself making up excuses to not pick this up because that's how little I wanted to finish it...so somehow this story about dragons ended up becoming one of the most boring reads I've attempted in years....

I wanted to love this book more than I did. It had an interesting premise, but overall I couldn't get into it. It felt like it might have been better served as a shorter length. However, just because it wasn't quite for me, doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend it! I still love Barnhill, but I prefer their middle grade to this first foray into adult.

In April of the year 1955, 642,987 women turned into dragons in what was called the Mass Dragoning. Now, no one wants to talk about it, or acknowledge that women are still turning into dragons, fewer at a time. It’s called spontaneous dragoning. Why are women turning into dragons?

Information about the dragooning is kept censored. Families whose females have taken the path to dragons are shamed, so they ignore the fact that it happened and just move on. But women have good cause for following that path. They’re tired of being controlled by men. Tired of male condensation. Tired of the drudgery they live on a daily basis. They’re tired of being subjugated by men because those men fear the women’s ability. Tired of anything feminine being considered embarrassing and impolite.

This was a fabulous book. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was a page turner, and kept me involved from beginning to end. There is a background story that involves LGBTQ, but it’s only there if you really look for it.

I highly recommend this book. It reflects much of what’s happening in the world today. If only we could all turn into dragons.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

3.5 - I loved the beginning, but as the book went on I couldn’t help but think this might have been better off as a novella. The length required a lot of padding, and that padding mostly came in the form of fourth-wall-breaking, too on the nose commentary. One of my biggest bookish pet peeves (especially in adult titles) is a book being overly didactic or beating you over the head with a message - even a message I 110% agree with - and not giving the reader space to critically think and arrive at said lesson on their own. The writing style and imagery was lovely, but I do feel like the book is stronger when Alex is a child - which makes sense, given the author’s middle grade background. Despite the issues I had with the lack of nuance towards the end of the book, there were still multiple instances (especially when Alex was a child) when I wanted to set things on fire on her behalf; the book made me angry in a way few books have before. A 3.5 is, for me, still a book I wholeheartedly liked and enjoyed and would recommend. I will definitely be checking out Kelly Barnhill’s future adult releases!

It took a while to get into the book, it just felt frustrating and chaotic at first which is how the main character validly felt. I'm glad I stuck with it though, good wrap up and solid ending.

When Women Were Dragons is a unique, inspiring tale about what it means to be a woman and constrained by societal expectations. I really loved the concept and the magical realism and the feminist undertones of this book. Unfortunately, I did struggle to really get into it at times and found the pacing to be a bit irregular. While I did enjoy the writing and the plot, I just couldn't fully immerse myself in this story. That said, I think this may have had more to do with me and my mood at the time I read this and less about the story itself, so I would definitely recommend checking this one out if you are a fan of dragons, feminist tales and magical realism.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for this one--when there's an event called the "mass dragoning" it's hard not to want to know more! Unfortunately the plot and the pacing seemed obstructed, and where the fantastical elements were certainly present, they were often obscured or overshadowed by the other elements of the story.