I love a magic school book, and I love a dragon book, and I especially love a dragon school book. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose was such a great entry to the genre. I couldn’t put it down, and I keep thinking about its innovative world-building. Anequs is the protagonist I didn’t know I’ve been looking for: whip-smart, calm in the face of whatever comes her way, and able to tell what is worth picking a fight over. If you are looking for some dragons to fill up your winter reading list, look no further, because I could not put this book down.
Anequs of Masquapaug is astounded to spot a dragon where dragons have not been seen for generations, and her village is joyful when she also finds a dragon egg. When the newly-hatched dragon chooses her, Anequs wants nothing more than to be able to become a Nampeshiweisit—a dragon’s person—and bring back her people’s dragon lore and aid her village. However, the colonizing Anglish, with whom they have a forced treaty, have strict laws surrounding dragons. To avoid a tragic incident, Anequs enrolls in an Anglish Academy for dragoneers on the mainland. Anequs is an accomplished young woman by her people’s standards, but by Anglish standards, she is ignorant and backwards. Anequs finds her days at school filled with willful misunderstandings, microaggressions, and outright hatred, but she perseveres, because there is nowhere else she can learn how to work with her dragon’s natural skills. Along the way, she gathers together a delightful group of friends, acquaintances, and crushes to court when circumstances allow.
First of all, this book is a general delight to read, and with short chapters, it’s easy to “one more chapter” yourself into a late night. If you are a fan of magic school books, probably part of what you delight in is the general school details: what are the classes, what are the rules, how does the protagonist relate to their classmates? To Shape a Dragon’s Breath delivers. Anequs may not have as much formal education as her classmates, but she is incredibly smart and dedicated, and she is more than willing to fill in the gaps with hard work and logic. As a result, she is placed in a combination of remedial classes that do not cause her much trouble except the actual effort of trudging through them, and in with her classmates, where often her teachers and classmates feel she doesn’t belong. It was so satisfying to see Anequs succeeding when everyone thought she would fail, and often in spite of additional barriers and context that she lacked for how things should go.
If anything, I would have liked even more classroom sections of the writing, but Anequs also has to deal with the social aspects of Anglish society. She is not the only “nackie” student at the Academy, and the headmistress is determined to prove to Anglish society that “even nackies” can be civilized and be a part of Anglish society. So Anequs not only has to deal with everyone’s assumptions of the barbarism of her people, she also has to continually squash efforts to socialize her, as no one she meets believes she actually intends to return to her village now that she’s seen “proper” civilization. Which brings me to one of my favorite things about this book: I hadn’t realized how much I longed for a protagonist of this genre who knows how to pick her battles. Anequs does not hesitate to speak up against things like being assigned a last name that is not hers, or against the assumptions of her roommate, but just as often she finds it not worth her time when she just wants to study and then go home, and she’s very good at determining between the two circumstances. It was so satisfying to watch her work the system to get what she wants while at the same time refusing to let her new circumstances change her goals and her feelings as a person. I also enjoyed seeing her gain the skills she came to the Academy to gain.
Another delight for me was the casualness with which Anequs realized she had feelings for both Liberty—the friend she had made amongst the school’s maids who is an indentured servant and a seamstress—and Theod, the other Indigenous student who was taken from the neighboring island as an infant and raised among the Anglish to be think their society was superior in every way. Liberty is dismayed because women are not allowed to be in relationships with each other in Anglish society, and Theod is dismayed by Anequs’s insistence on adhering to her own traditions rather than changing herself to fit Anglish society. Anequs calmly explains how on Masquapaug, it is no one’s business but their own if two men or two women are with each other, and in a matrilineal society where the men are often whalers by trade, it is often seen as quite practical to bring a second wife into a household for company or assistance while the men are away, or for a man to have a husband that will be with him on a whaling boat (a practical point of view, in my opinion). And, as eldest daughter and future Nampeshiweisit, Anequs is the one offering from a position of security and plenty. She will run her own household, and it’s her prerogative to fill it with whatever partners she has her eye on, which is just delightful to read when all the Anglish-raised characters assume that everyone should be trying their best to fit in to Anglish ways. I love this for her, and I’m rooting for her to get all of her bisexual dreams in future books.
In conclusion, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is amazing, compelling, queer, Indigenous fantasy, and it should absolutely be on any fantasy fan’s to-read list. I couldn’t put it down, and I cannot wait for further books in the series.
