Mid-Month Check In: When Women Were Dragons
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Happy St. Paddy’s Day! If you’re following My Side Plot on Fable, you know we’re 13 chapters into our March pick, When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill.
We’ll finish the book on March 31st, so mark those cals!
My thoughts from the first pages
I’ll be honest, I’m not invested in this book. Despite loving the overall premise (women in the 1950s randomly turning into dragons?!?!), I’m finding it hard to get into. Here’s why:
The only character I like is the aunt.
The voice is strange: Sometimes the main character almost breaks the fourth wall with her on-the-nose reflections. Other times the prose is super dense with metaphor.
I don’t know why we’re in Alex's’ POV. I would love to feel all the messy emotions between the adults in the room, and it’s frustrating being stuck in the head of a child (especially in a novel written for adults!!)
The scientific journals are cool, but seem like unnecessary backstories (who knows though, maybe it will come together)
All in all, this book somehow feels both too young and too metaphor-heavy. It makes me wonder if it would be better suited as a short story? I can vividly imagine a version of this taught in schools and resonating much better.
Right now, it just feels a bit muddled, and the plot is dragging ….Fingers crossed the second half wins me over!
One detail I want to call out….
This depiction of puberty from Chapter 11. The girls are told changing is a choice, but not given any other context. The lesson was clearly about turning into dragons, but, as often happens in sex ed, the adults assumed the girls understood without getting into specifics. When a girl in class starts her period, everyone is understandably confused:
“Unlike Dr. Ferguson’s caterpillar, she remembered herself, and remembered her previous life as an unchanged girl…And we know for sure that she didn’t choose any bit of it”
Brilliant.
Recently Shelved:
Good Material, Dolly Alderton
If you know someone going through a breakup in their thirties - send them this book. I liked Good Material more than Ghosts, but I’m not sure how much I’ll remember it. It’s a fun, punchy, read and an easy reco for your book club or group chat. 3/5.
Us Against You, Frederik Backman
I cried pretty much non-stop through this Beartown sequel. The writing is beautiful, the characters are compelling, and Backman tackles so many dark themes (violence, grief, self-harm, rage) with endless compassion. I would happily read 12 more books featuring this cast, but nothing will ever compare to my first stay in Beartown. 4/5 - as long as Benji gets a happy ending!
My TBR
She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan
This has been described to me as “gay Mulan.” I cannot confirm or deny. I am approximately 30 pages in and will let you know.
Last Thought:
