I loved this debut so much! At a time when dragon books are becoming the popular magical creature again, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath stands out as unique. It takes the classic setting of a magical school and adds so much depth to not only the setting, but also to the dragon training aspect. I really appreciated the discussions on the topics of colonialism and racism and how it affected and continues to affect indigenous peoples. It shows some comparisons to cultural practices, such as yoga,being white-washed and appropriated into condensed, profitable practices and products that vaguely resemble the original practice.
It tows the line of young adult and adult fantasy very well and, while it may be set in an alternate colonial time in America, it manages to feel fresh and inventive. Anequs is a strong lead with the ability to hold to her morals while the people around her challenge what she believes. She is kind and understanding to those who are not kind or understanding in return, but does not allow others to step on her.
I also really enjoyed the focus on family and the strained relationship that can occur when different values or paths don’t align.
I can’t wait for the next book!

This book isn't for me. It's well written and I can see how people can enjoy it, but the way it's told isn't pulling me into the story. I feel like I'm being kept at a distance and our charcters do something and then we get a bunch of history and information. Then it repeats. I do recommend it for people to read, especially for a book club. It would be great for discussion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC for my honest review.

I have a huge nostalgic soft spot for both dragon riders, magic schools, and stories where women say “fuck you” to restrictive societal expectations. Add an anticolonialist and queer twist to all that and of course I absolutely loved it. How could I not? It’s nostalgic yet refreshing, and even cozy.

The plot is essentially slice of life, following Anequs as she takes classes, makes friends, learns to take care of her dragon, and deals with Anglish people’s racism and their desire to “civilize” her into a proper, respectable lady. She is, of course, having none of that. And I’ve always wanted to see someone walk into a stuffy fantasy of manners book and wreak absolute havoc. At its core, the plot is fairly standard and predictable, but why would that be a bad thing? The framing is fresh, and it’s all executed very well.

Speaking of her friends, the side characters were fantastic. The complicated relationship with Marta, who is the only other female student, but still desperately trying to fit into the Anglish society and simply not getting why Anequs might not want to. Sander, who doesn’t fit in because he’s autistic (it’s never explicitly stated, but it’s quite clear) and usually communicates via a special erasable tablet. Theod, who was raised Anglish and taught to be ashamed of his parents and heritage. There’s a lot of complexity in both the characters and the interactions between them, and it’s just. So good.

I also liked the worldbuilding twist – alternate history of course, but with Anglish being English with purely Germanic influences and Norse-inspired religion. It was fun, especially figuring out which of the elements (the magic system is chemistry-based) extracted with dragon breath is which.

Not only am I looking forward to the sequel, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is likely to make it into my comfort reread rotation.

An extremely original take on dragon riding full of beautiful worldbuilding, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is a tale like no other.

WOWOWOW! a favorite of the year for sure! A YA novel that read like an Adult fantasy! Great start to a hopefully amazing series.

"To Shape a Dragon's Breath" by Moniquill Blackgoose (great name btw) is a spellbinding fantasy novel that brings you along on an epic adventure through a richly crafted world filled with magic, dragons, and intrigue. The story follows a young protagonist as she discovers her own powers and navigates a complex web of politics and danger. I loved the intricate and detailed world-building and how the backdrop felt equally rich and intriguing. The characters are well-developed and relatable, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and motivations and their fantastical journey simultaneously explores themes such as questioning power, finding identity, and the importance friendship.

When Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with it, her people are delighted, However the Anglish conquerors of her land are not. Shipped off to dragon school Anequs will have to figure out what who she is and how to keep herself and her dragon alive.

I liked Anequs and Kasaqua. This was every interesting in so many aspects. The plot did slow down in the middle and I wish that there was more dragon interaction. I do look forward to hopefully more dragons in the next book.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath follows Anequs, a young Indigenous teen who finds a dragon egg on her island, Masquapaug. Finding this egg changes Anequs’s life as she is the first person on her island in ages to see a dragon, find its egg and bond with it. Because of the rarity of the situation, Anequs must go to an Anglish dragon academy. Being that this academy is run by and for Anglish peoples, Anequs must deal with frequent discrimination and attacks on her culture. Anequs must stay at the academy to learn how to raise her dragon to keep it and others safe. Further, if Anequs doesn’t complete her schooling, her dragon will be taken from her and killed. Anequs studies hard and does her best to adapt to her environment without changing who she is. Many of the Anglish are not happy to see Anequs with a dragon, studying at the academy which eventually cumulates to threats of violence, but Anequs continues to stand for what is right with honesty and strength.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is a strong fantasy novel that skillfully explores colonialism, identity, culture, race, gender, sexuality, history, and much more. This novel is detailed and sometimes slow moving, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. I am looking forward to seeing how the Nampeshiweisit series continues.

If you like dragons, inclusive characters and storylines, historical fantasy, or academic settings, I would highly recommend To Shape a Dragon’s Breath.

I’m not usually a fan of magical school stories so I went into this one with tempered expectations. The setting is an alternate history America in the vein of Temeraire which I thoroughly enjoyed! In this world, global imperialism and colonization were driven by Norse and Scandinavian peoples, leading to a slightly different world map and dominant culture, but still maintaining familiar dynamics of white supremacy and settler colonialism. And also there are dragons because, YES. Imagine my delight when I read an interview with the author in which she talks about how much she was influenced by Temeraire!

I really liked the unique storytelling perspective that Anequs delivers, being an indigenous girl from, as the author puts it, a traditional indigenous community. A lot of the delight from this story is getting to see her swap cultural stories and practices with all the different types of people she meets. I like that her intention from the beginning is to help her own people and those those that are similarly oppressed by the ruling culture through her gifts. It feels totally congruent with her background and attitude.

The parts I struggled more with were the story structure, the level of development for some characters, and the characters’ voices in dialogue. The writing style is more straightforwardly descriptive than many other books in this genre which I liked and disliked at different points. Because of this, many characters tend to just say exactly what they’re thinking, sometimes to a fault. I know that a lot of the conversations are patterned off of Victorian etiquette mannerisms but most of these characters sound more like adult Austen characters than teenagers. They always have the exact correct words they need say ready and sometimes it feels as if they’re reading lines. I did notice that Anequs’s speaking style changes to be more casual when she is talking with her people and those close to her which I really appreciated. I would’ve liked to see more differentiation of voice in general though.

I wish Anequs had made mistakes throughout the story or faced an issue that caused her to have to change her mind about something. I’m certainly not saying she needed to struggle more, she does plenty of that as an indigenous girl in a white boarding school and is forced to display maturity and tolerance beyond what anybody should expect of her. But, I wanted to see her get the opportunity to have a strong internal character development arc separate from the adversarial narratives she has with characters around her. This is a huge hope for me in book 2!

Somewhat along those same lines, I’d like to see book 2 have a stronger sense of rising action, of events cumulatively building up to an explosive climax. A lot of that happens in the background in this book without a lot of engagement from the main characters. This just may be a difference in storytelling conventions, but I think a steeper level of escalation of stakes directly affecting the characters would really boost the story flow.

Anyways this is absurdly long but that’s only because I had a really good and interesting time with this book and really wanted to talk about it! I’ll definitely be following the rest of the series, especially with the promise of bigger dragons and higher stakes!

I'm incredibly embarrassed at how long it took me to read this book, but I'm happy I did so before finalizing my 2024 Hugo nominations because this definitely deserves to be on the list. TO SHAPE A DRAGON'S BREATH is simultaneously a coming of age, a story about existing as Indigenous in a colonized world, and a tale of resistance via the celebration of culture. In time when we're watching the violence of settler colonialism live on social media, Anaque's determination to uplift her people and protect her heritage brings a breath of hope for what could and should be in the real world too. And as the icing on the cake, there's ridiculously adorable dragons, cute folks for her to smooch, and intricate worldbuilding that asks what the world would be like if Vikings fully colonized North America.

There hasn't been a sequel announced yet, but I'm hoping one comes out as soon as possible.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

for fans of:
🐉 the current dragon trend
🐉 boarding school novels
🐉 fantasy inspired by historical settings

anequs’ life changes when she finds a dragon egg and is chosen by its hatchling, kasaqua. her people celebrate her as the first nampeshiweisit (“person who belongs to a dragon”) in generations, but in the eyes of their conquerors, she is unfit to be bonded to a dragon. she is begrudgingly permitted to enroll in an anglish dragon academy, where she must learn to become a dragoneer and survive in the foreign culture of her people’s colonizers.

i love the premise of to shape a dragon’s breath, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

despite its length (why is it 500 pages when 300-350 would have sufficed?), TSaDB never finds a balance between YA fantasy and social commentary. nothing happens for most of the novel. anequs is boring. she doesn’t have a single flaw—she’s always in the right, always rational and level-headed and emotionally mature despite being 15 years old. she never experiences any real conflict, internal or external, so she never matures or changes. it’s 500 pages of excessive world-building (why did we need pages and pages of fantasy chemistry?) and moralizing with a hint of plot at the very end.

Dragons! Strong female lead! Queer representation! What's not to love?

When Anequs finds a dragon egg and bonds with the baby, she is forced to enroll in a dragon school on the mainland. While a dragon school might sound fun, the different expectations and culture prove challenging. Thankfully, Anequs is tough and doesn't break easily.

A great coming of age story, and I'm excited for more!

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me and I struggled to finish it.
I truly liked the concept and the way colonization was pictured in this book. However, the writing style wasn't for me and I felt the story just went too slow, nothing really happened at all until the last 10% of the book. There were dragons, but it was not a significant part of the story beyond describing that the dragons, were eating, or now they were playing or now they were flying.
I won't be reading follow up book sadly.

DNF at 38%

Anequs is a girl who finds a dragon egg which later hatches, and is sent to a boarding school away from her home on the remote island of Masquapaug. This is part coming of age story and part introduction to a supernatural world. I liked how the themes of colonialism in the book parallel actual history in many ways. This is the books true strength - while it’s definitely a story about dragons and magic etc. it is a world very similar to our own where racism and colonialism and still apparent. I wanted to like this book! I felt it was very slow, and still at 38% I’m not quite sure what the book is about/where the plot is heading. Someone who enjoys high fantasy would probably like this book and like all the little details. I found it hard to keep track of all the terminology and worldbuilding throughout. I really had to focus to try to make sense of the story.

Thanks to Random House Publishing (Ballantine) and NetGalley for the eARC.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars--

To Shape a Dragon's Breath is THE dragon-riding school fantasy of 2023 (who knew there'd be more then one contender?!). Every time I started describing this book to someone they initially thought I was referring to Fourth Wing. I can't truly compare since I haven't admittedly read the later, but I have to assume that To Shape a Dragon's Breath brings a lot more to the table.

Beyond being a great fantasy novel, it's also a biting critique of English colonization and genocide of indigenous people, communities, and culture. The main character, Anequs, discovers a dragon egg. Dragons are revered in her culture, and presented with a choice of who to bond with upon their hatching. However, Anequs's indigenous island community is overseen by "Anglish" colonizers who strictly control access to knowledge and training in dragon husbandry and riding. For Anequs to remain with her dragon, she must move to an Anglish school for young dragon riders and assimilate to Anglish norms and culture for living with dragons. But Anequs is strong and proud of her culture. In this first book in the series, Anequs struggles to keep her dragon and learn useful information gatekept by the Anglish, while resisting Anglish ideas about ownership and domination over dragons and indigenous people.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group (Ballantine) and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose is a page-turning indigenous fantasy. I was easily immersed in the story of Anequs and her dragon, Kasaqua, as they found their way in a world full of unfamiliar customs and rules.

Anequs is a young woman who stumbles on a dragon egg and brings it home to her village. The stories of the Nampeshiwe and Nampeshiweisit, their riders, are well known, but there hasn’t been a dragon on Masquapaug for generations. Thanks to the generosity of Headmaster Karina Kuiper, Anequs and Kasaqua are accepted on scholarship into Kuiper’s Academy of Natural Philosophy and Skiltakraft, a school for dragoneers in an Anglish city far from her home.

Anequs struggles with the judgements and expectations of the Anglish school and community as they seek to civilize her and force her to assimilate. More than a dragon story, Blackgoose’s book addresses the violent history of colonization, social inequality, the importance of heritage, and the value of storytelling.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath keeps the reader as off-balance as Anequs, never forgetting the high stakes involved. Every word, every action she takes can put herself, Kasaqua, her family and village in danger.

The world-building is vivid and both the academy and village are populated with well-developed and likeable characters. I’m eager for book two of this series, curious to learn what’s next for Anequs, her friends, and family.

This was a good book with a great storyline. It feels like a good introduction for people who aren't familiar with indigenous peoples and the struggles they face. I appreciated the interplay between generations, each trying to find their way in the world either through preserving their history or trying to forge new paths. The use of a dragon and dragon handler as the pivotal point between old ways and new ways was over cleverly done. I also loved the use of cultural heritage as ways to preserve knowledge in unique ways. Showing that even if some of the knowledge is lost value is still found in maintaining cultural heritage.

I really tried to love this book, but unfortunately I had to DNF. While the world is beautifully rendered, and the main character sympathetic, I just never found myself fully immersed. The pacing was too slow for my taste, and the plot felt tired and overdone--too many familiar elements that overshadowed what's new and innovative about this book. I think this is a decent book that will appeal to a lot of people, I just wasn't one of them.