Review: When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill

 

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.
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; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

“What is grief, but love that’s lost its object?”. Kelly Barnhill's When Women Were Dragons is a powerful exploration of sisterhood, grief, motherhood, and mysogyny, a timeless feminist tale. In this alternate world, all throughout history women have been becoming dragons, and each time their so-called "dragoning" was erased from history. Dragoning is seen as inherently female and wrong and almost impure, not a subject for polite company. The protagonist, Alex, struggles at first with this obligation to silence, uncomprehending of the reasons behind such a prohibition.

There is a long string of injustices in this novel that make one want to dragon oneself. As a young girl in the Fifties, Alex faces the discrimination of her gender and, too, of her orientation, when she's separated from her childhood friend who's obviously becoming so much more. She cultivates with her little cousin a relationship that becomes stronger as time passes and, too, almost obsessive, marred by fear of additional loss. Bea is a firecracker, a vivacious kid that dreams of the sky and doesn't seem to understand the dangers of showing it.

But there's not only injustice. Alex has allies, people in her life that see her struggle and try to help. There's the librarian, Mrs. Gyzinska, set on truth and liberation - and this book is also a powerful story about the importance of libraries; there's the ever elusive Dr. Gantz, popping up at first in pamphlets and in sparse chapters recounting the long history of dragoning in the world. There's dragons, so many dragons freeing themselves from the shackles of their lives. And there's joy, at the end, joy and understanding but also loss.

The relationships between mothers and sisters and daughters and nieces is so beautifully explored, it made me want to cry. We don't really know our parents, we think we know everything, but we don't know their inner lives. When Alex consumes herself with grief over what-ifs, she is all of us. When she rages at seemingly becoming her own mother, she is all of us. When she reflects over loss, over making your peace with things, she is all of us.

When Women Were Dragons is a stunning story about overcoming oppression.

✨ 5 stars