915: Best of 2024: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
In this episode, I found it hard to explain my emotional reaction to a story…
Hi everyone.
From now until the new year, I am highlighting my favorite books of 2024. Every book can be special, but these books were my favorites of the past year. They are in no particular order, and we continue with an intensely thought-provoking novel from a brilliant new author
Friends, friends, friends.
Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.
Have you ever misremembered something? Dates of memorable events in your life, titles of songs and their respective albums? Things like that?
When I sat down to write this review for Moniquill Blackgoose’s exceptional novel To Shape A Dragon’s Breath, I was convinced that because I got this review copy from the good folks at NetGalley, that I was reading something early.
Obviously, it doesn’t matter to me in a snobby, exclusivity sort of way, but I was convinced that this book hadn’t been released yet and that made me even more excited to talk about it.
Instead, I realized that the January 2024 release date was for a different advance copy and this book had been released more than a year ago.
Put simply, To Shape A Dragon’s Breath was an intense exploration of indigenous peoples and their relationship with colonizers. In this book, dragons offered us the entry point and even though it took me a little while to get pulled into the story, I was left absolutely awed at the sheer beauty and ugliness of the worlds where our main protagonist Anequs found herself.
For a second, you might be tempted to compare this book with other middle-grade/YA magical boarding school experiences, but the truth was far more interesting: Anequs never felt out of place in her island. She never wanted to leave, but the hatching of her dragon and her new position in the community as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon put her in a tricky position.
Anequs was a refreshing character and the friends she made were much more imperfect and flawed than in other books in this type of archetypal story. Sander, Theod, Marta, and Liberty, each were vibrant characters, but the nature of the quote “civilized” society and their reaction to the indigenous people felt very timely, especially with all of the conflicts going on in our world today.
Author Moniquill Blackgoose wrote a deeply intense novel of trauma, colonization, indigenous experience, and personal growth with true skill. It wasn’t a fast-paced story (at least for me), and yet I cannot wait to learn when the sequel will come out.
That is a real testament to the caliber of novel that is To Shape A Dragon’s Breath.
I cannot recommend it highly enough!
Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.
Peace, Love, Pages.
Note: As Always, Affiliate Links are here for your convenience at no cost to you. All reading was at my own expense.