Scan barcode
hanz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment
casualk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Death of parent, and Abandonment
searedfish's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Abandonment
3bobbielee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence and Death of parent
toppoptart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Homophobia and Misogyny
bb_11's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Another sentiment my bookclub shared: we couldn't wait for the first half of the novel to be over, but then the second half made us miss the first half! The end of book "climax" completely invalidates the main character's development and obliterates the stakes all at once.
Would recommend if you want to challenge yourself to critically deconstruct feminish literature and uncover evidence as to why a novel needs more than women>men to say something powerful.
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Body horror
beebowbabe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, and Transphobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and War
rosa_lina96's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
The premise itself is interesting- women spontaneously turning into dragons, sometimes ridding themselves of the awful men in their lives in the process, and then flying away to seek greener pastures- but I felt that the concept of "dragoning" was a bit under-utilized. How can you have an entire book built around this concept and really only make vague mentions to it throughout the narrative? And why is it never truly explained why everybody just agrees to cover it up and go along with their lives when, uh, oh yeah, there's a bunch of women spontaneously turning into dragons, which you would think would be pretty darn noticeable? Why did the author choose to make the dragons out to be mindless beasts at first before doing a complete 180 and saying that they have human intelligence, actually, and can even sometimes wear silly hats and such? There just seemed like far too many holes poked in the narrative for it to be worthwhile to me, way too many dangling loose ends left over at the end.
The narrator also came across as a bit insufferable, in my eyes. I did empathize with her struggles to some degree, but after a certain point it really seemed like she was just choosing to be angry at the world for no real reason, like the author decided "hmm okay what this girl really needs is a healthy dose of teenage angst" and decided to cram it into the narrative at the last second. Okay, yes, I get it, on some level your teenage years are a lot of just being angry at the world in general, but at some point you have to let up on it.
That being said, I did love the themes of feminism and independence and struggling with suddenly being thrust into adulthood far too early throughout, even if it seemed rather clumsily executed even at the best of times. I second the opinion that this really would have been better off as a collection of short stories or something, instead of the author trying to stretch the narrative out to a novel format in a way that just made it seem rather hollow as a result.
Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail
jeleigh16's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Misogyny and Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Violence and Blood
eliya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I wanted to DNF a few times, listened to it on 2.0x just to get through lol.
One thing that really threw me off, and this might be a little mean, was the voice actor. She read with a sorrowful whine that made me angry to listen to the whole time and was quite unpleasant. TBH that was also the way it was written, the main character’s POV was dull and repetitive. Alex’s attitude the whole times was “hear all these terrible things that have happened to me? :( feel so bad for me :(“ and “gotta remember this lie! do you remember it, audience?” and it make a caricature of women and girls who through this period went through similar stuff or worse.
i believe this book would have been much more impactful if it had
-been written from a POV of one of the women who had dragonned,
-included more intersectionality instead of the brief like “people of color exist too! trans people AND black people dragoned” one offs here and there
-wrapped up to more modern take on how this history of misogyny has effected us today. the conclusion winds up being “we did it!! boy we suffered but now we don’t have to suffer anymore” when - um no - the work is not done people are still suffering in the same and different ways than in the 1950s.
Its approach is very like “women sure did suffer in the 1950s” when it wasn’t just middle class housewives and their children who suffered, there were so many other people and cultures who sufferered more?? and the suffering is still happening??
Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia