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jennireadsmaybe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
To Shape a Dragon's Breath is one of the most well rounded fantasies I've read in a while. Set in a fantasy land that mirrors colonial era America. White colonizers have taken over the land and they have dragons. The worldbuilding and setting were so descriptive. Moniquill Blackgoose did a remarkable job at blending the worldbuilding aspects in, so it never felt like an info dump session. The different ways each culture views dragons and their relationship with them was so interesting.
Anequs is by and far the best fantasy character I've ever read because she knows who she is and what she stands for. You learn right alongside her. I loved her relationships with other the students and teachers and most of all her family. The way she took bits of what she'd learned in school and connected them to her own culture was very powerful!
I'm definitely looking forward to whatever comes next in the Nampeshiweisit saga!
Anequs is by and far the best fantasy character I've ever read because she knows who she is and what she stands for. You learn right alongside her. I loved her relationships with other the students and teachers and most of all her family. The way she took bits of what she'd learned in school and connected them to her own culture was very powerful!
I'm definitely looking forward to whatever comes next in the Nampeshiweisit saga!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and War
dweeks417's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
The world building of this book is solid, and I really liked the differences in how cultures perceived a dragon's place in the community. The school classroom bits could get a bit tedious - long paragraphs of lectures that served as exposition for the history of the world. I honestly skipped over a lot of that. I really loved the creativity with the different dragon species. They're so varied and colorful!
Anequs is a kind, wise, and brave woman, but she didn't develop very much as a character. She remains pretty static throughout the book and never really makes any mistakes, which made her less interesting. All the other characters - including Theod, Karina, Aponakwe, etc - have moments where they realize they were wrong and make amends, or when they face consequences. Anequs doesn't have that growth because she is apparently infallible. 🤷‍♀️ I was also a little disappointed in the lack of exploration of Anequs and Kasaqua's relationship. We don't spend a lot of time with them just together.
Overall, this is a really solid steampunk fantasy, and I'll read the rest of the series when it comes out.
Anequs is a kind, wise, and brave woman, but she didn't develop very much as a character. She remains pretty static throughout the book and never really makes any mistakes, which made her less interesting. All the other characters - including Theod, Karina, Aponakwe, etc - have moments where they realize they were wrong and make amends, or when they face consequences. Anequs doesn't have that growth because she is apparently infallible. 🤷‍♀️ I was also a little disappointed in the lack of exploration of Anequs and Kasaqua's relationship. We don't spend a lot of time with them just together.
Overall, this is a really solid steampunk fantasy, and I'll read the rest of the series when it comes out.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and War
apersonfromflorida's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and War
nina_rae_131's review
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Sexism, and Lesbophobia
Minor: War
lpdx's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Death, Genocide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and War
Minor: Confinement, Transphobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
persephonefoxx's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
“All I've ever tried to do is the right thing. If that's so very different from how things have been done before, then what's done before was wrong.”
There is a lot to love about this story. A rich fantasy full of culture, politics, and dragons - sign me up! But what really took me my by surprise was the sheer amount of representation oozing out of this book.
I knew going in that this was a story of an indigenous girl flung into coloniser society, tackling issues of colonisation and racism from an incredibly important perspective. But on top of that, the story also handles queer and polyamorous identities, particularly from the viewpoint of someone from a more accepting culture.
But the representation that really caught me off guard, and the representation that meant the most to me as an autistic person, was the beautifully handled, well-crafted, autistic coded character.
The pacing was this novel’s enemy. And as a result of overall pacing issues, the climax felt lacklustre. Which is a shame for a novel with such a good foundation in world-building, characters, and a magic system that will make science lovers giddy.
Overall, this book left me very excited for the rest of the series. And more importantly, the narrative centralises around deep themes of culture, indigenous peoples, colonisation, and identity from a vital perspective. I am keen to see what else the Nampeshiweisit series has in store
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and War
readingwithtemperance's review
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I really loved the representation in this book. There were bisexual/lesbian and neurodivergent/mute characters. As well as polyamory; which is something I haven't really seen in YA.
Anequs was such a wonderful lead. She was constantly advocating for herself/her people. While simultaneously proving the Anglish wrong about their prejudices regarding her capabilities. I especially enjoyed when Professor Ezel had no choice but to pass her and Theod. I also loved that our love triangle was solved via polyamory. And I'm looking forward to that being explored in the sequel! A double marriage would be incredible.
I loved her friendships with Sander and Liberty in particular. And I'm hoping Marta improves in book two because honestly I just found her very annoying.
At times this book was so incredibly heavy. To Shape a Dragon's Breath shone a light on atrocities that happened throughout history to native peoples. Colonization is an ugly beast. The Anglish want nothing more than to strip Anequs and her people of their land and culture.
I thought that the magic system was so interesting. And I'm very eager to see more skiltakraft in book two.
My favorite aspect of this book aside from Anequs' bond with her dragon was the time we spent among her people. I loved learning about her culture and hearing their stories. All of the food sounded incredible!
This was something truly remarkable. I'm so impressed that this was a debut! I cant wait for more feom this world and this author. Sequel NOW!
Anequs was such a wonderful lead. She was constantly advocating for herself/her people. While simultaneously proving the Anglish wrong about their prejudices regarding her capabilities.
I loved her friendships with Sander and Liberty in particular. And I'm hoping Marta improves in book two because honestly I just found her very annoying.
At times this book was so incredibly heavy. To Shape a Dragon's Breath shone a light on atrocities that happened throughout history to native peoples. Colonization is an ugly beast. The Anglish want nothing more than to strip Anequs and her people of their land and culture.
I thought that the magic system was so interesting. And I'm very eager to see more skiltakraft in book two.
My favorite aspect of this book aside from Anequs' bond with her dragon was the time we spent among her people. I loved learning about her culture and hearing their stories. All of the food sounded incredible!
This was something truly remarkable. I'm so impressed that this was a debut! I cant wait for more feom this world and this author. Sequel NOW!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War
znvisser's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This wasn’t the fastest read for me; I was a bit impatient for all world building (never my fave) and was happy when Anequs finally arrived in her new environment so the action could get started.
The world building is elaborate but all very…. Neat, I guess? Anequs is a flawless superior child being miles ahead in logic and intelligence from anyone in her new environment (yet her need to show this to everyone who already hates her for her heritage never leads to actual problems - except for me as a reader, being annoyed by her boring superiority); most geography, science and linguistics appear just slight variations of the actual world, and even the racism and kolonialism racisms and kolonialisms precisely as it does in the real world.
In a way this is all fine - it probably made it all relatively easy to follow and helps laying ground for plot, but it also made all of it… quite unsurprising, at some time close to uninteresting? There was little friction, struggle or mystery, and it all just floats on (sometime there is drama over nothing and then it turns out to be… nothing indeed); it made me wish for accelerated plot development but we just kept learning new Anglish words for known concepts (I really would have preferred a glossary over the pronunciation guide). Maybe I’m just looking for more complexity than what YA is for; and these characters sure didn’t provide that, suffering from being either flat or incoherent.
In a way this is all fine - it probably made it all relatively easy to follow and helps laying ground for plot, but it also made all of it… quite unsurprising, at some time close to uninteresting? There was little friction, struggle or mystery, and it all just floats on (sometime there is drama over nothing and then it turns out to be… nothing indeed); it made me wish for accelerated plot development but we just kept learning new Anglish words for known concepts (I really would have preferred a glossary over the pronunciation guide). Maybe I’m just looking for more complexity than what YA is for; and these characters sure didn’t provide that, suffering from being either flat or incoherent.
However, it wasn’t not entertaining either: I was somehow invested enough to see where it would go, and it is a good set up for a further series - let’s see if enough of this sticks for me to be eager to pick that up by the time it comes out. But this did count a lot of pages for it to turn out not much more than a set-up for the actual story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, War, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia
cozyscones's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, and War
nboyd31's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Blood and War
Minor: Biphobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia