What can't be named can't be questioned in this new novel by Minneapolis writer Kelly Barnhill, which immerses readers in a post-World War II period of conformity and repression with a speculative twist.
The Newbery Medal-winning children's author dedicates her first novel for adult readers to Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony at the confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh unleashed the rage of many women.
Barnhill transforms that suppressed rage into a wellspring of power, creating an alternate timeline where women told to suffer in silence instead spontaneously transform into dragons, often immolating abusive men in the process.
The story opens in a small Wisconsin town, where Alex, a budding scientist, grows up in a household full of secrets.
No one will tell her why her mother disappears for months, and her unmarried Aunt Marla moves in to take care of the family. Or why her father disappears into his work, sometimes not returning home at night.
Meanwhile, alarming events are happening in her community, as women spontaneously "dragon," erupting in a conflagration that sometimes levels buildings.
These isolated eruptions are hushed up, suppressed by the local news media and by police and fire crews that respond to the "incidents." Scientists who seek answers to the phenomenon are called in for questioning and blackballed from their universities.
Aunt Marla is a breath of fresh air in this stifling environment. She's a mechanic who works in a body shop — a large woman who takes up space and stares down men who cross her.
