📕 Title: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
✏️ Author: Moniquill Blackgoose
📖 Genre: Fantasy
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📝 The First Book of Nampeshiweisit

When fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling, she is the first in many generations to become a Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon. Living on the remote island of Masquapaug, Anequs has no one to teach her how to shape her dragon’s breath and is compelling to enroll in an Anglish dragon school on the mainland. The Anglish colonizers look down on indigenous people like Anequs, but her refusal to submit to their ridiculous social rules may end up changing things for the better.

REVIEW

I absolutely loved this book!

Set in an alternate universe, this story closely parallels our world and features indigenous people whose land has been colonized by the Anglish and Vaskokish.

I loved Anequs and her adorable dragon Kasaqua! I did feel like the dragons took a backseat to the academic and social aspects, although the dragons are very young in this timeframe and so are a little removed from the introductory schoolwork that the teens are doing. I suspect the dragons may play a larger role in the next books. The magic is very cool and feels like it’s chemistry based in its logic, with some intriguing discoveries that made me very excited for the sequel.

Anequs’s relationships with students from different backgrounds serve as commentary on Anglish social norms and classism, while her relationships with her family and community explore the effects of colonization. I especially loved Anequs’s friendship with a nuerodivergent student and her relationship with Liberty, a Black maid who works at the school. There is also queer representation, including bi and poly rep.

The critique of Anglish society isn’t to say that the Masquisit community is perfect; there are absolutely rifts between the older generation who highly value traditional and the newer generation who see benefit in adopting new technologies and learning from the Anglish. And while Anequs’s logical approach to issues often felt cathartic to me as a reader, she doesn’t always get it right and sometimes doesn’t understand where her friends are coming from. She grows throughout the story as much as anyone.

The story is generally slow paced but always interesting, and I think this book would appeal to readers who enjoy academia novels such as Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education, or to readers who enjoy the social commentary of Becky Chambers.