When Women Were Dragons

May we all find our inner dragons 

Never has there been a title that so immediately grabbed my attention than “When Women were Dragons.” I stumbled upon the title printed so boldly on the book’s spine while browsing Avid Bookstore in Athens, GA. I pulled the book out immediately and much to my delight discovered that it was a book written by Kelly Barnhill. I adore Kelly Barnhill so the paperback was clenched tightly in my arms awaiting it’s purchase before I even read the synopsis on the back cover.

Honestly, who needs to read a synopsis when women are apparently dragons written by Barnhill? I sure don’t.

I fell in love with Barnhill’s writing with The Girl Who Drank the Moon which won the Newbery Medal in 2017. Her whimsical, fairytale style of writing grabbed my attention from the beginning and cemented her as an author whose books I will pick up no matter the storyline simply because she wrote it.

The baseline story of When Women Were Dragons is that women, fully and utterly exasperated by the unrealistic expectations placed upon them (mainly by the patriarchy) give in fully to the sacred feminine inside of them and transform into dragons where they leave and live a mostly feral existence away from civilization. That is, until one day when many decide to return and attempt to live a life in harmony with humans.

This story follows one family whose lives are affected, in some ways destroyed, by the great dragoning, and then eventually become the catalyst for understanding and acceptance as a society. It’s heavy, it’s a lot, but like everything Barnhill writes, is handled with such care and compassion that it is an absolute delight to read.

I know many readers who do not enjoy fantasy and will probably be turned off by the mention of dragons in a story. But I want to tell those readers that this is not a high fantasy writing, the dragons are merely a symbol of a deeper message, one that I hope more people will be open to exploring within their selves. Maybe if we all got in touch with our inner dragon our world could be a more compassionate place to live.