{"id":45826,"date":"2026-09-30T01:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T01:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:15:07","slug":"when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\/","title":{"rendered":"When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\r\n\r\nA rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman&#8217;s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. &#8211; The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal 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. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex&#8217;s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s taboo to speak of.  Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.  In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small&#8211;their lives and their prospects&#8211;and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n<h2>Details<\/h2>\r\n<table class=\"TFtable\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Title: <\/strong>\u00a0When Women Were Dragons<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Author: <\/strong>\u00a0Kelly Barnhill<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>ISBN: <\/strong>\u00a09780390000000<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Subtitle: <\/strong>\u00a0A Novel<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Genre: <\/strong>\u00a0Speculative Fiction<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Subject(s): <\/strong>\u00a0<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Publication Date: <\/strong>\u00a02022<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Original Publication Date: <\/strong>\u00a0<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Publisher: <\/strong>\u00a0Doubleday<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Language: <\/strong>\u00a0English<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Format: <\/strong>\u00a0<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Pages: <\/strong>\u00a0352<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Rating: <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Notes: <\/strong>\u00a0<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Book_ID: <\/strong>\u00a024391<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman&#8217;s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. &#8211; The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal 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. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex&#8217;s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s taboo to speak of.  Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.  In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small&#8211;their lives and their prospects&#8211;and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4326],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speculative-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.9 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When Women Were Dragons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman&#039;s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. - The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal 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. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex&#039;s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn&#039;t know. It&#039;s taboo to speak of. Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden. In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. 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.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman&#039;s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. - The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal 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. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex&#039;s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn&#039;t know. It&#039;s taboo to speak of. Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden. In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. 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.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesbian Bibliography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-30T01:15:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/WhenWomenWereDragonsANov24391_f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"291\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"NorthShore Noir Press\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/47475bc37f43183328c7cf208b3d817f\"},\"headline\":\"When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T01:15:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":276,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/WhenWomenWereDragonsANov24391_f.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Speculative Fiction\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/\",\"name\":\"When Women Were Dragons\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/when-women-were-dragons-by-kelly-barnhill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/WhenWomenWereDragonsANov24391_f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T01:15:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman's place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. - The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal 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. 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