When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (audiobook)

 genre: magical realism

In this novel, written like a mix of autobiography and historical documents, we learn about what happens to our society when, in the middle of the 1950s, thousands of mothers around the United States suddenly turned into dragons.  This “dragonning“ created a host of motherless children and communities heavy with a kind of grief that had nowhere to go. Of course, in this very tight lipped time period, any uncomfortable thing was covered up and quickly became taboo.  For young Alex, her life absolutely has a before and an after with consequences that will reach until the end of her life. This is a coming of age story. It is a "what if" story. It is a magically realistic look at what can happen to women when they’re in a box for too long.

I loved this. It is lush and wildly believable, the narrative style feels so authentic. I loved how it makes us think about the rules - both stated and unstated, for women in America during this time.  I also appreciated thinking about the way in which they managed to break free or their very personal choice to stay.  Sometimes it was repetitive but not enough to give it less than four stars.