Moniquill Blackgoose: To Shape a Dragon's Breath

Hi everyone

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose is the first book in the Nampeshiweisit series.
I got my copy from Bol.

"A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.
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."

To Shape a Dragon's Breath was intriguing, but the execution was not really well done in my opinion.

I LOVED reading from the POV of an Indigenous girl being thrust into the society of the colonialists and expected to conform to them. I loved reading about her family, her way of life, her outlook on everything. Most of the time, especially in historical fiction, it’s the other way around. The scenes in her village were so lovely to read, and I also really enjoyed the side characters; I thought they were nicely done.

But I hated how superior Anequs felt. It got so wearying to read about how perfect her culture is; not once is anything wrong with her people mentioned, not a thing that could be improved upon. I would have liked some balance: both cultures are definitely not perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and while colonialism is bad, the Anglish do some good things too. As it stands, it’s just too black and white. Her world is overly idealized, a true utopia, and the whole book felt very moralizing.
The same goes for Anequs: she’s right every time, she can do everything, she’s good at everything, she’s so smart, she’s empathic, she stands up for others; she has absolutely no faults. It’s so unrealistic. Meanwhile, the Anglish are written as if everything is wrong with them. I know that people thought (and sadly still think) that way about Indigenous people, but writing it the other way around is just as aggravating to read.
What was done well were these little things: the way classmates would speak to her, the way they were being condescending, the way everyone assumed she wanted to be like them. This covert racism was a very eye-opening reading experience.

The dragons aren’t really part of the book. They’re just the means to get an Indigenous girl into Anglish society. The few dragons we get to know a bit act like pets; so if they were cats, the book would have been pretty much the same which was a shame.

And the story itself is so boring. There’s no finale it works up to. The whole plot is just about Anequs getting a dragon even though she’s not supposed to because she’s a “savage,” her being bullied, ridiculed, and underestimated because she’s a “savage,” and her proving everyone wrong because the oppressors are actually inferior to her culture, and Anequs is perfect in every single way. Imagine this being repeated over and over again, and you have basically the whole plot.
It’s a very slow book, and I caught my mind wandering very often while reading, which is a dead giveaway that I’m actually bored.
The writing read more like YA, especially with the romance aspect and the friend group consisting of all the 'special' people on campus. But aside from being boring, the writing was easily readable and had a nice flow to it.
And lastly, there’s soooo much infodumping throughout the book. We read about the lessons, and there are endless talks about what they’re studying. It’s so boring and most of the time quite irrelevant.

Have you read To Shape a Dragon's Breath? Did the black-and-white portrayal bother you, or did it work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy reading!
Helena