Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-Arc

"A Language of Dragons" was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but it ended up being a bit of an underwhelming experience. This book didn't present anything I haven't already read in other fantasy books. I don't think it's a bad book and in fact, I believe it's a solid one that will find a receptive audience in the Young Adult market.

But I find myself very distanced from this read. I did not care about any of the characters, I could appreciate the main character's growth throughout the book, but at no point did I find myself rooting for her.

I liked the academic aspect of the language of dragons, the linguistics, and the whole process behind dragon communication and reproduction.

This is a very political book with themes of social classes, limited social mobility, corruption, and rebellion, so if you're looking for a YA fantasy with academia, politics, and dragons, this might be right up your alley.

A Language of Dragons is an absolute masterpiece! It has magic and dragons, while also relating back to our own world history and our political/societal struggles. I really liked the steampunk aspect to the story, and the fantastical take on code breakers. It’s a complex story with a very heavy topics. I can honestly, say I feel a little wrecked after finishing the book, and I still loved it.
The line between “you are what society forces you to be” and “you are responsible for your choices” is such a thin one, and it is a crucial topic in A Language of Dragons. Vivian is definitely a flawed heroine and - for me at least - she was not very likable character for 95% of the story. She is a product of her society and the pressures it puts on children to excel on the test, no matter the cost. She’s done horrible things for the sake of her ambition as a result . However, I feel like she uses her “rottenness” as an excuse to continue being selfish, rather than doing what is right. She gets there in the end but she sure did cut it close to the wire.
All in all, I highly recommend ALOD to everyone but caution the reader to know it is HEAVY and you don’t necessarily get a happy ending. Definitely read this if you are a fan of books like Bright Over Moon Haven

A huge thank you to SF Williamson and NetGalley for the arc opportunity!🫶🏻

Reading the world and atmosphere of dragons and experiencing them through the characters Williamson created was so much fun to just be invested in. I found myself curious on all the twists and turns that kept being revealed. I loved the politics and scientific devices that were created, as well as how the story flowed.

I would definitely recommend this book to dragon fans who are fans of Hunger Games and Fourth Wing!

I love when authors blend genres together effortlessly. In A Language of Dragons, S.F. Williamson has written a historical fiction and also a fantasy; my favorites. The backdrop is Bletchley Park, and the magical part is dragons.

I enjoyed A Language of Dragons and the world that was built. This is a great young adult novel with a morally gray FMC. There is a romantic subplot that could have been developed a little more. But overall I enjoyed this!

A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson surprised me. I enjoyed the post-WWI 1 setting with dragons and the academic setting. I also enjoyed Viv as a flawed main character.
The world is relatively modern with all the states and governments in place that are in the real world. This captures some of the post-World War paranoia that was happening in the world in the 1920s'. This story also deals with racism and classism throughout. I also liked the idea of kids working on espionage for the government and was intrigued by it.
Viv as a character is competitive to a flaw. She betrays her best friend and ruins her life to further her academic career. She spent a lot of time dealing with the guilt, it got a little repetitive, This was realistic for anyone with a conscience. She'd probably feel guilty over her actions toward Sofie for the rest of her life. Viv is also fiercely protective of her family, which is to be admired but makes her desperate and reckless and leads to the story's main conflict.. I appreciate how Viv uses her wits and knowledge of languages to get around the villains of the story.
The only thing that got me is the dragons seem much stronger than the people. Why would they even put up humans? admittedly some of them don't. Why would humans even think they would stand a chance fighting them? i just felt like they could just burn up and eat everybody and be done with it.
The romance is light and appropriate for the YA genre. There is a lot of action and violence which would up the rating to pg. I think this would be appropriate for my twelve year old who likes action-adventure stories.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollin's Children's books for this lovely arc. All opinions expressed are my own

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I like the idea of our main character who has to work to nt only unravel the lies she's been old by a system she believed in but also learn to work through the internal biases and privileges that she has. Her ambition has no bounds going as far as betray her best friend. This book explore so many themes including such a morally grey character.

3.5 rounding up because this is an ambitious debut that mostly pulls off what it's trying to do. The setup using dragons and dragon linguistics as a background for the political system and its collapse leads to a lot of really tense and interesting conversations and scenes, even if at times you're almost violently reminded this is YA by how cartoonishly evil the antagonists get.

Many readers may end up hating Viv because she clings idealistically almost to the end to a system we can see is broken and unequal, but imo she's an excellent representation of a teenager who has been indoctrinated into a system and trained to think of her own small circle before being able to think about the wider implications. As many of those in the world are. And while it's easy to dislike Viv for this, I think it speaks well to a sort of head-in-the-sand complacency of buying into a system you think will one day reward you if you play within its bounds, because that's easier than thinking you can tear it all down. That "maybe it will all be okay if things change slowly" being stronger than the "this is the right thing to do but will destroy my life as I know it". This does get a lot more strained when the "maybe" side is, as mentioned, cartoonishly evil, breaking bones and killing people out of nowhere.

There are some comparisons that I don't particularly like - pulling in Bletchley and the enigma machine comparisons but not actually tying it to anything, so the greenhouse could have been anywhere, aside from the easy connection between Bletchley and codebreaking, and the "enemies to lovers" is....not at all? The romance isn't even close to enemies, or even rivals, but okay.

At the end of the day, though, I was drawn more and more into the story, and while as it got towards the end, it started to feel more YA in aligning its characters, I'm still invested enough to keep an eye out for the sequel.

This has been really hyped up and I was really excited to start this. I think this was definitely original, even though dragons seem to be the new Fae. This reminded me a lot of early 2010 YA novels that I feel have been missing in recent years. The ending definitely had me surprised, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the sequel. I think a lot of people will love this one!

I found this novel both interesting and underwhelming at the same time. This story is probably better for teens who may not be ready or mature enough to read Fourth Wing yet. It was filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities. The main character, Vivian Featherswallow, didn’t completely win me over and the story could have benefited from some different POVs, I found the premise, the lore, and the overall setting fascinating.

This was a good read. I enjoyed it well enough. While it was definitely more of a YA dragon book than other popular dragon books in the public eye at the moment, it had an interesting magic system, and an interesting enough plot. If dragon books are your thing, this might help tide you over for the next one!

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

I wasn’t sure at the start of this book, I felt that I wouldn’t like it, but I am proud to announce that I was wrong, and I am so happy that I keep reading this book. If you liked books with fantasy, dragons, politics (but not in a boring way), rebels and romance, you need to read this book.

I thought the author did a great job with the plot, it was well developed, and you can see where this book will be going. I do hope that we will be getting book two soon because of that ending… I need to know if that was who I think was in the dragon’s claws. I liked that it kinda gave off dystopian vibes, but not fully. I found the class system and the languages and the decoding to be so interesting that I wanted to know more and more about it, and I found myself already through the book. It was fast paced, once you got through the first part of it. I found the set up for the sequel to have been done well, it definitely did for me. I know I can’t wait to read the next book. With the dragons and communicating with them I found this author’s concept to be a fresh breath of air, something new. The romance is nothing to swoon over, but it is just a really small build up, and for me the chemistry between the characters just was lacking. I liked the characters, but I wish that we would have gotten to know more information about the side characters because you will see that they become important later on. Maybe in the next one we will.

I found Viv characters to be a little naive about the world, but with her being still young, I can understand and at the end of everything she did come around and have more understanding about the pain and suffering that is happening around the world. Instead of only caring about her family, her close friend, and herself. I liked that even though I was not happy about how Viv was acting and treating others, you will see her growth by the end of the book. I found her characters to be interesting and it was nice to see that she had flaws (even though they might have been annoying to be at times), but honestly, I can understand. I liked that the side characters really helped her with her growth and didn’t give up on getting Viv to understand what was really going on. As for the romance side in this book, I really didn’t feel the romance in this book, I mean maybe a little bit, but it was definitely more at the end of the book that you will see more. However, those Dragons and the different ways of communication with them. I loved learning about the different dragon languages and then the dialects and how they have a special way to connect to each other. It was so fascinating to learn.

I want to thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to review this book.

I really wanted to love this book. I'm a linguistic major and I absolutely love books where languages/learning languages/studying languages/based on languages is the focus. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy most of the aspects of this book. I wasn't the biggest fan of the main character, and I understand that she was supposed to be kind of a selfish character to give her a way to see some growth, but the problem I have with younger characters isn't the development (I think you can still do this with older characters) I just really do not enjoy the teenager aspects that come with having a teenager character. I loved the idea behind this book with the dragons and the dragon languages was fascinating, I did love a lot of the side characters and I didn't HATE the main character, I just found myself not as invested in her as much as others. I am really excited to see where this story and the characters go.

A big thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

A Language of Dragons by SF Williamson plays out in an alternate history of our world, where dragons are part of our everyday lives. In 1923 a small incident gives rise to an entire chain of events that would leave the relationship between dragons and humans changed forever.

Vivian Featherswallow is one of the brightest linguist minds of her age, growing up with a mother that has been studying dragon languages her entire life. After an incident where her parents and uncle are arrested, Vivian decides to attempt a rescue of her parents by making a deal with a dragon that has been convicted of previous crimes - but things go wrong. The parliament takes it as a rebel act and this was the last spark needed to start a full war.

The president realises that the brightest young minds might turn the tides of war, using children with pasts that they would like to fix to help discover the secrets of the rebel forces - human and dragon alike. But what would you do when you realise you might be on the wrong side of a war? And what if your entire family's lives are depending on your success?

This was a truly unique book, and I enjoyed the way that the author added in elements from what we know into a world with such a different organisation system. The introduction of social classes that dictate what you get access to is a great motivator for a lot of the decisions made by the characters. I know there isn't any information on whether this is a standalone or part of a series, but I do hope that there will be more from this universe, as there are so many interesting elements still to explore!

"Every act of translation requires sacrifice–it is this harsh truth that made me fall in love. There exists no direct correlation between the words of one language and another, and no translation can be entirely faithful to its original. So, while a person can more or less bridge the gap between languages using words, there is always some deeper meaning left unsaid, a secret invisible to those who only have one language with which to navigate the world. A translator, on the other hand, is a creature that flies with several pairs of wings."

A Language of Dragons is a really strong YA novel that pulls together thematic elements prevalent in both Fourth Wing and Babel. The book takes us a to a reimagined post-WW1 London where dragons and humans coexist (sort of), where we meet Vivien Featherswallow a brilliant young linguist who will stop at nothing to reunite and protect her family. In this post war world, protests are erupting against the peace agreement that brokered some semblance of harmony between dragons and humans, and set up an in-equitable class system for humans (though those in the second and first class don't realize the inequity faced by those in the lowest class, and the treatment of dragons. One night, Viv's parents are arrested as traitors for aiding the rebellion, and Viv sets a captive dragon free to burn the evidence against her parents, and unknowingly starting a civil war.

The book includes a lot of discussion around the role of language and linguistics in empires, along with political intrigue, rebellion, corruption, and a look at just how far we will go to protect ourselves and our family, and what it means to sacrifice for the greater good, and what matters most.

While Vivien is a very self-centered character, she struggles with a lot of questions and decisions that I think any young person would struggle with and I value how this book might help young person think about our world, their role in it, and the power of the decisions they make every day. Not to mention - the dragons and the action are really cool. This book ends on a WILD cliff hanger and I can't wait to see what comes in the next installment.

4.5 ⭐️
Starting the year with A Language of Dragons truly set the bar high for 2025 debuts! This book was a breath of fresh air—original and captivating from chapter one.

Set in a reimagined early twentieth century, with gaslamp fantasy vibes. Think “The Imitation Game” meets Babel meets The Hunger Games with talking dragons a la Fourth Wing (but done way more complexly).

I went into this almost entirely blind and would recommend you do the same! But a brief premise is that our FMC, Viv, lives with her younger sister, older cousin, parents and uncle in a Britain divided by three class systems. They’re in the Second Class, and hope with the right education, the younger generation can be elevated to First. Schooling is very important, as are the class passes each student must carry, because it dictates where you live, shop, and who you can associate with. Dragons used to be a more integral part of society, but have slowly been pushed out and unfairly discriminated against under the current Prime Minister.

Within the first few chapters, Viv’s parents, uncle and cousin Marquis are arrested for being suspected rebels and conspiring with the dragons. She is intent on keeping her little sister Ursa safe and freeing her family, no matter the cost. And as a student of both human and dragon languages, Viv is in a special place to possibly help her government. She’s is a very naive 17, but I feel that it worked well for her character growth and the way she sees the world is understandable.

This was a 5 star read from the jump and only got demoted half a star with the way the romance played out. That said, I loved this book, will be shouting its praises from the rooftops and eagerly await the next installment!

Wow! Any book with dragons draws me in, and this one was so good! This book is an epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, I recommend giving this title a read!! Not to mention how gorgeous some of the special editions are!

This was a well written fantasy debut novel. It takes place in London, 1923, in a world where humans and dragons interact under the guise of a peace agreement. Then a young girl, Vivien, inadvertently starts a war. There were times when Viv annoyed me, but overall she was a good character who showed depth. There were some surprising twists. The story moved along at a good pace, and towards the end it picked up, though it didn’t feel rushed. I feel the ending was left somewhat open ended and I would definitely read more from this world.

Imagine 1920’s London with dragons, rebellion, a touch of romance, but most importantly dragons! The world building was really interesting and I think it was done really well. I loved that the bulk of the story took place at Bletchley Park. The index cards with different coding terminology for dragon”language was an actual method used by the code breakers at Bletchley during WW2 to break Nazi transmissions. It was really cool that the author had some real world Bletchley history in there.

As for the cast of characters, in the beginning Viv wasn’t my favorite, I felt she was really naive and selfish. She’d definitely fit the morally grey category and I’m not used to that. I love her growth the whole time though. I loved her and Atlas together and I wish there had been more scenes with them.

I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I’m glad it didn’t end on a terrible cliffhanger, but I’ll still be waiting impatiently for the next release. That ending nearly killed me.

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

It's 1920s London and dragons and humans coexist under the Peace Agreement. Viv Featherswallow is on her way to living the Second Class life she's always dreamed of, until her parents are arrested as rebels. With England now in the midst of a civil war, Viv is given an opportunity to save her family through a mysterious job, which throws her into codebreaking for the war effort.

This was such a wonderful first read of 2025 for me. I was immediately drawn in to this imagined version of England where dragons lived and worked alongside their human counterparts. The pacing of the story was on point, the character arcs and development felt natural and well thought-out, and I found myself eager for the next book by the end.

Williamson also did a wonderful job of drawing attention to social class and making it a huge part of the story without making the entire book feel like a social commentary.

Read if you like:
Speculative fiction
Dark academia
Dragons
Slowburn romance
Commentary on social class and racism
Political intrigue and rebellion
Codebreaking and linguistics

I want to start off by saying that I apologize for late review. But I really wanted to take my time reading this book. I am reading this book after reading Iron Flame. I have to say that I really enjoyed another fantasy about dragons. But the special language of dragons. I really enjoyed being in this world. I have never read anything from this author. And it definitely won’t be the last book. Now I am not sure if there will be a book two. But I am kinda wandering what become of Viv parents? That was left unsaid at the ending. I really had so much fun reading this book. The characters and world building amazing. I could see the dragon flying around.
This book did or as come out January 7, 2025.
I would highly recommend this book. If you are looking for a young adult dragon book. With each chapter and page turner with this book. I know this book took me a little longer to finish not because I didn’t like it. But I rather enjoyed it and didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to not be in this world anymore.
Thank you the author and publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read such a fun and amazing book.