fantasy, historical fiction
In April 1955, over 600,000 women turned into dragons,
fleeing their dissatisfactory lives and, in many cases, destroying the people
and places who made them feel miserable, unappreciated, undervalued, and unhappy.
Alex lost her aunt (and her uncle) during the Mass Dragoning of 1955 and she
relays her experiences of being raised during this ordeal and how it affected
her life. Interspersed between Alex’s story sections are excerpts from a doctor
who has researched and written a book about dragoning, news clips, and
transcriptions from political inquisitions.
When Women Were Dragons was fascinating in the way it treated dragoning as if it actually happened. There was eyewitness
testimony, scientific findings, video evidence, and Alex’s personal experiences
and observations. People, mostly women, finally got tired of living under
restrictions and limitations and burst free to live life on their own terms. Kelly Barnhill imagined women turning into dragons to metaphorically highlight feminism, racism, transgenderism, and otherism.
The novel is an ode to women and an anthem to their power,
perseverance, and never-ending fight for equality. It is also meant to show how
people who are different from what is expected by society have a
difficult time being accepted, valued, and cherished. It was extremely creative
but I do feel it took its message to the extreme by the end. There was only one
decent man in the entire novel—the doctor who took dragoning seriously and made
it his life work to understand the dragon transitions. I’m sure there will be
good discussions at Book Club. But I wonder how the man in our book club will
feel about it. The book wasn’t about bashing men but it certainly didn’t show
them in even a dimly favorable light.
There were some very serious outrages committed in this
novel which enraged me. For example, there was the story about Alex being reprimanded for being too smart and taking away top spots from the boys. And there was
parental abandonment. My heart went out to Alex. She was raised in a time when mothers
failed to inform their daughters about upcoming female health concerns and
ambitious girls were forcefully kept away from opportunities. Alex was left to
figure things out on her own. I was infuriated about her unfair situations. And,
of course, I always get upset with stories about poor parenting.
Sadly, the cover-up of scientific evidence and facts as well as governmental denial of reality felt so relatable to some of the worst failings that took place during COVID pandemic.
The audiobook was narrated by Kimberly Farr (as the main narrator) and Mark Bramhall (reading all the doctor’s segments and other interspersed fact-based information.) I enjoyed Farr’s acting a lot. She had a bit of a vocal repertoire for different characters too. Bramhall did his sections well. They tended to require formality and he did that perfectly. He didn’t have to stretch much outside of the point of view he was reading. However, they both read pretty slowly so I had to speed up the audiobook a bit. I’ll give them an A- as a team.
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