Read This Book…

In 1955, hundreds of thousands of women across the United States spontaneously turned into dragons in a three hour period, setting fire to countless homes and businesses and devouring more than one philandering husband. Then they took to the skies and disappeared. Alex was only a child when the mass dragoning occurred and while her mother stayed, her beloved Aunt Marla left. Her cousin Beatrice became her sister, and Alex learned after that to never speak of the dragoning, or of dragons in general. But as she grows up and begins to learn more about her mother and aunt and the injustices of the world, and as Beatrice becomes perilously fascinated with that which should not be named, Alex must confront all of the anger and secrets that society would keep hidden.

I adored this book. The premise alone had me hooked from the get-go, but the actual writing is incredibly beautiful and fairy tale-like, yet grounded in wonderfully real and tangible details. Barnhill is a Newbery Medal winning children’s writer and you can see that in how deftly she writes about Alex’s childhood, but this is also very clearly a book written for grown ups. It probes into the injustices women face and the ways that society expects everyone to keep quiet about the obvious, and how we suppress knowledge if it doesn’t conform to the conclusions we’ve already drawn. These ideas can be explored at any point in American history, but I loved how it was set in the ’50s and ’60s, as women who found freedom during WWII were suddenly forced back into stifling gender roles and change was brewing. The book is written in the style of a memoir, interspersed with various reports, witness statements, studies, and other ephemera that help expand the world and give context to Alex’s story. Her own account is a beautiful memoir of love, acceptance, queerness, found family, and self-determination that spans years and had me crying and laughing and crying again. I inhaled this book—it’s a truly magical gem.