When Women Were Dragons

When Women Were Dragons Book Review by Kelly Barnhill 

This book unfortunately broke my beautiful golden streak of good books. 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill is a surprisingly boring book for a story where women turn into dragons. Not metaphorically, but literally turn into dragons and still it was a bore. 

The whole premise is an allegory for female rage and generational trauma starting in 1950’s America. Barnhill could have done so many interesting things with this idea, but instead she swaps out civil rights for dragons rights and that’s…about it believe it or not. 

If Barnhill wanted to focus on female rage and trauma passed down from our families she could have done it in a much clearer, more subtle way than having women turn into dragons and yet act exactly like anthropomorphized people. 

The story follows a main character, Alex Green, from her childhood until her deathbed. However, the pacing of this book is utterly atrocious.

More than half of the book features Alex as a child where every adult tells her not to ask questions, to keep her head down, to be obedient, and to never, ever, discuss dragons…yet, that’s the premise of the book?

So as a reader, you’re waiting for most of the novel for some kind of explanation of why women are turning into dragons and yet we are forced to sit through chapter after chapter where our child protagonist has zero idea and actively avoids thinking about it.

Instead, we are forced to read the slog of Alex’s childhood with her negligent father, strict and cold mother, and rambunctious sister/cousin/child. 

Yup, you read that right. 

Finally, some time passes and Alex is a teenager now raising her sister/cousin/child named Beatrice after the passing of her mother and the abandonment of her father and aunt.

These chapters are depressing and uninteresting as Alex repetitively complains about how hard her life is and drones on about what she needs to do while proclaiming her love of math. 

Then, abruptly, the aunt from her childhood, and Batrice’s real mother, returns in her dragoned form along with thousands of other dragons who had just been dilly dallying for the last fifteen years or so exploring the earth. 

Alex wants nothing to do with this amphibian aunt who left her to raise her child as a teenager while she was off flying around with her dragon lovers, but eventually Aunt Marla wears Alex down.

So much so that the next few chapters are Alex living in a commune type of house with Marla and her three female dragon lovers and a halfway transitioning Beatrice. Alex attends the University of Wisconsin as she comes to terms with this new society and her shifting family dynamics. 

Then, I kid you not, Barnhill spends the rest of the novel simply summarizing what is happening in society in an incredibly mundane display of show-not-tell. We zip through years as Barnhill goes on and on and on about dragons rights, marches, education, and the impact dragons have on American society. 

Not only is it monotonous, but it’s ridiculous. Dragons can stop and sniff out bombs, are large enough to lift heavy buildings and construction parts, but also don aprons, bake bread, wear purses, and reapply lipstick?

The discrepancy between the dragon's description and their behavior is downright implausible and takes you out of the story continuously as a reader. 

You are told that they are fierce beautiful creatures who have the strength and survival skills to explore the cosmos and yet they also return just to work in community parks and attend schools?

None of it makes any sense. Barnhill’s swap with historical civil rights with dragon rights is also an odd choice that left a sour taste in my mouth. 

The only explanations of dragoning and the phenomenon it entails are interspersed chapters in the form of journal entries, medical reports, and court documents.

These entries are beyond dull, repeat the same banal information, and provide nothing of note or interest for the reader. I began to skip through them towards the end because they were so irritating and wordy. 

Speaking of the end, it was a shitshow. 

Alex finds her literal only friend from childhood, Sonja, reconnects and falls in love with her, only for Sonja to change into a dragon and fuck off, leaving Alex behind, who didn’t feel like joining Sonja as a dragon.

Then, skip decades and Beatrice is winning a Nobel Peace Prize and Alex is suddenly a retired old woman lamenting about the people in her life who have died, including some wife named Camilla (?!), and that’s…it. 

That’s the whole book. 

I’m actually speechless just writing this because it’s dawning on me how poorly written and executed this book is.

From start to finish, this book took an interesting premise and completely ruined it with a stupid and irritating main character, abominable pacing, so much show-not-tell that I felt like I was attending a school lecture, and nonsensical writing choices that made this book difficult to immerse myself in and enjoy in any capacity. 

It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but thinking about all the pieces that make up When Women Were Dragons I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that the book is bad and not worth the time or money I spent on it.

I didn’t even get into the gender dynamics of the book (every man being the worst piece of shit person possible with zero redeeming qualities) but I’m too tired and frustrated to do it now. Avoid this book at all costs. 

Recommendation: This book is not worth anyone’s time. If you love dragons, look literally anywhere else—Eragon, Fourth Wing, A Song of Fire and Ice—I don’t care. Just don’t turn to Kelly Barnhill. 

Score: 3/10