Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For is When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill!
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 3rd May 2022
Goodreads
A slyly funny, utterly original, triumphantly feminist novel, by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons...and change the world.
Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950's America is characterized by a significant 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. Seemingly for good. 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, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate.
Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new "sister" obsessed with dragons far beyond propriety. Through loss, rage, and self-discovery, this story follows Alex's journey as she deals with the events leading up to and beyond the Mass Dragoning, and her connection with the phenomenon itself.
In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the limitations of girlhood. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small--their lives and their prospects--and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.
You had me at Mass Dragoning!!! This sounds absolutely incredible – an exploration of femme rage via dragon transformation??? AND it’s queer??? Could you tailor this any more to my interests if you tried??? I THINK NOT.
I immediately want to know everything about the Mass Dragoning – I would absolutely be like the sister with all the improper questions, I can already tell she and I are going to get along – and I’m fascinated by what the world would look like after an event like that. What did it do to the feminist movement? In our world American women (well, the white ones) had the vote by then; would you take the vote away from women, if there was a chance of them turning into dragons??? The blurb doesn’t sound like the world tripped over itself giving women more rights, which tbh is what I would do if I thought there was any chance a pissed-off lady might turn into a dragon if I didn’t give her what she wanted. Were there any Dragonings outside of the USA? Will we get a glimpse of what the rest of the world thinks about it? Where did the dragons go, and how is anyone explaining the fact that dragons are apparently real??? Were all the old myths inspired by similar transformations in the past???
QUESTIONS, I HAVE THEM.
On a different note, I’m also delighted just because dragons. Even though we think of dragons as a staple of Fantasy…we actually don’t get to see them that often. Of the 208 books I’ve read so far this year, only 5 of them included dragons – and one of those was a collection of flash-fiction where the dragon was only in the shortest of short stories. That’s 2.4% of all my reading, and the dragons weren’t the focus in any of those. WE NEED MORE DRAGONS, is what I’m saying here, so I’m grateful and super happy that Barnhill decided to provide!
Barnhill has already written a bunch of fabulous MG books – most famously, The Girl Who Drank The Moon – but I think this is her first Adult Fantasy, and as should be obvious, I am very, very excited!
Ooh, what a concept! I definitely agree that we need more dragons. I have only read The Girl Who Drank the Moon but that’s enough for me to add this to my TBR. Thanks for putting it on my radar.
You’re very welcome! The only thing better than discovering awesome-sounding books is sharing ’em!