Okay so everyone was right about To Shape a Dragon’s Breath. It is as amazing as you all promised me! Talk about a story about dragons, learning magic, and colonization. I am so excited for the next! Keep reading this book review of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath for my full thoughts.
Summary
The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.
Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.
For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.
Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is going to become my go to dragon recommendation book. It’s a story about discrimination and the colonizers who have created this society of ‘education’. Their prejudices, underestimations, and racism. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath doesn’t hold back. It’s a fantasy that resembles our own world minus the dragons. We have it all from their definitions of ‘civilization’ all the way to their greetings and misnaming. And the book examines this conflict in a few different characters. Do we assimilate to their ways? Try to blend in and change from within? Learn what we can from them? Or ignore them – if we can?
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Anequs, her brother, and a student she meets allows readers to mull over these questions. For Anequs, she just wants to learn what she needs and then return home. But her time at school opens her eyes to what they think about her, the history, and their future together. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is phenomenal from head to toe. I got lost in the book. It examines the erasure of truth, culture, and history and how we can open our eyes to the misconceptions, lies, and prejudices. Plus it has dragons, magical training, and a dose of danger.
Find To Shape a Dragon’s Breath on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.