When Women Were Dragons: an enduring, feminist novel from New York Times bestselling author, Kelly Barnhill

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This is a brilliant story that is about women empowering themselves and making the choice as to how they live their own lives. This is a time when women stay home, cook meals, look after the house, raise the children and have a meal ready on the table for when their husband walks in the door. It is very much a patriarchal society and while this story is set in a small area in the US, it was something that was a worldwide thing.

Sometimes, she said the knots were magic. Sometimes, she said they were math. More often, though, she said that both were true, the way a particle can be both matter and light and no one knows why.”The Newbery Medal-winning children’s author dedicates her first novel for adult readers to Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony at the confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh unleashed the rage of many women. No one know exactly what happened that night in 1952 - other than that twenty-five different people rang the operator, asking to make a collect call, only to be told, "A girl can only take so much after all." And then the line went dead.”

A complex, heartfelt story about following your heart and opening your mind to new possibilities.This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.”

When Women Were Dragons is a fabulously fierce, utterly original and unapologetically feminist novel that explores centuries of female rage, due to subjugation, violence and misogyny—leading women to spontaneously transform into DRAGONS. A relevant and timeless coming of age story that’s heartfelt, complex and thoroughly addictive. I, 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.” 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. The premise is original and both meaningful and fun; the historical setting works very well for the kind of story this book is trying to tell; the in-universe excerpts and quotations add to the story and expand the worldbuilding. Alex's story starts out engaging and powerful, with a whimsical tone that really suits the magical realism premise, and there are some great passages and beautiful quotes... and all in all, finishing this book felt like a chore.