This isn’t new information, and your mother isn’t alone. All women are magic. Literally all of us. It’s in our nature. It’s best you learn that now.” Thirdly, the language is often quite simple and direct, if a little uneven. Altogether it feels very like a fun book for late teens, but with a not-so-hidden message. This world, perhaps a similar world to that of the readers’ grandmothers, wants to keep women small—both their lives and their prospects. But we see what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve. There is a clear message here about expanding your horizons: opening your mind to new possibilities, and accepting others for who they really are. These are suitable messages for everyone, but especially for what have come to be termed as YA books. Her story, as a bright and academically inclined woman, with no plans to marry or have kids-in a time where society expected all women to exactly that-is far from easy. But, her resilience pays off despite the rampant sexism she faces, though I have to admit several scenes had me literally wanting to go full dragon whilst reading, as the injustice all the female characters faced made me really angry. Alex, while attending university, reluctantly gives her sister Beatrice permission to fully dragon. Her sister goes on to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner while Alex becomes a scientist. but we see very little exploration of other cultures and classes. 1950s America is presented as uniform and rather bland.

The messages, the metaphor behind the "dragoning", the layering of meaning and trauma would have been more impactful in a skillfully crafted short story. This has Margaret Atwood short story vibes and I wish I could have read that instead. Feminism, horror, dytopia, womanhood, motherhood... In longer form, the messages and meaning become repetitive, pounding you in the head, over and over, and I found myself saying I GET IT, OK? It's a magical realism version of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, with a particular focus on what trauma her children are left with after their mother chooses to abandon them. Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; andI, along with the rest of America listened with horror and incandescent fury to the brave, stalwart testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, as she begged the Senate to reconsider their Supreme Court Justice nominee and make a different choice, and I decided to write a story about rage. And dragons. But mostly about rage.” Just thinking about this book makes me smile, I love the message to it, I love how this book makes me feel, how clever it is, this book is a celebration of and a love letter to women. The pains and struggles of women are not glided over in this book but women are not made victims either. The writing style is easy to get your teeth into (no dragon pun), the characters likeable and good (mostly) but not perfect which makes them feel like someone you know.

Alex’s fire and desire for answers never dies and only intensifies as she grows into a fiercely independent teenager in the era of the Mass Dragoning. Society turning in on itself, a mother more protective than ever; the upsetting and confusing insistence that Marla never even existed and watching her beloved Beatrice becoming dangerously obsessed with the forbidden. The focus is on Alex, a young girl who is confused by events that are happening, not just to family and neighbours who have changed, but also the changes in her own body. As a young girl, there are expectations of her and what she is to do with her future. Alex however has other ideas, she wants to go on with her education and go to university. Others think that a piece of paper to say you are clever isn't much use when you are a mother and wife. When Women Were Dragons is an attention-grabbing title. It sounds like alternative history, is it? Yes. But is it also a metaphor? Yes. Or is it an allegory? Again, yes. It’s also in part a coming-of-age story. You see, it all depends how you look at it. I wish I could have rated this book higher. In honesty it barely reaches my default of 3 stars. However, it is a brave attempt to say something important, and it manages to avoid the rigid gender binaries which most fantasy books, or those including magic fall prey to. The timeless political parallels are also worth exploring. But I think it was misguided of Kelly Barnhill to set the overall tone as light, and to depict one of the most terrifying monsters in mythology as she does. Ultimately, these dragons let the message down badly. They show a placid acceptance of their lot, in returning to their humdrum lives, many even taking up their former roles. They may be paragons of the community, but for my next read about dragons, I shall expect far more fire, fury and devastation.As the story continues, Alex is forced to become more independent. Her beloved aunt Marta dragons, and her mother dies from the cancer, which has returned. Her father maintains his disinterest in Beatrice, and sets up an apartment for Alex to live in and take care of Bea, providing groceries and a monthly allowance. In vain, Alex argues that she is far too young to have parental responsibilities, at only fifteen years old. But her father is moving his pregnant mistress into the family home. Alex’s aunt Marta, having married a useless lump of a man, now has a child. But she feels constrained by her new existence and transforms into a dragon. As soon as her aunt disappears from her life, Alex finds that the toddler Beatrice is referred to as her sister, not her cousin. Baffled and upset, Alex discovers that her parents even maintain that her aunt never existed. We read that the sort of pretence and false memory Alex is witness to is replicated all over America. History is being rewritten. I looked at my aunt. I looked at the stranger. I looked at my father. I waited for an explanation, but nothing came. I stamped my foot. They didn’t react. Finally, my father cleared his throat. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.

The novel ends with Alex having achieved her academic promise, and Bea having now dragoned, becoming an ambassador for peace worldwide. How other countries responded to the dragons is not mentioned, nor what happened when they travelled or emigrated. There is a huge discrepancy here, since the existence of dragoning has only ever been mentioned as happening in America. Unfortunately this is another flaw in the book, which I feel may not have been so evident if it had been a short story or novella.

Book review

The beautiful thing about science is we do not know what we cannot know and we will not know until we know.” No, this would not have suited me, nor perhaps you, but the world was a different place then. The burning, building rage that is described is transposed from the perceptions of a 21st century woman. It is just not that simple. It’s also worth pointing out that these conditions still apply today, for some, and are not consigned to the history books. The USA today even has a term, “stay-at-home mom”, for those women who choose to do so, although the UK does not adhere to this concept. We see the gradual return, and grudging acceptance and integration of the dragons into American society. The book is written in the style of a historical memoir; our MC Alex recalls her life from childhood, interspersed with newspaper articles, court case records, scientific journals, etc. Unfortunately, there was no differentiation in writing style to separate the personal memoir and the historical pieces. Dumbfounded, Alex swallows her questions and goes along with the ruse. She adores her buoyant sprite of a “sister”; besides, she has work to do: Unlike the other girls in her class, Alex is determined to make it to college and study physics.