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The Dragon Has Some Complaints
In this heartfelt and humorous fantasy, a dragon whose three heads bear rather…different personalities finds family in the most unexpected of places.
From the Nebula-winning author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In!
Garrodigh was once a four-headed dragon, among the most powerful in Kardoša. After an unfortunate incident, he now has three heads, one stump, and a daily whirlwind of internal bickering. Centerhead wants to rain death upon all humanity, Bottomhead is like a feral cat, and Upperhead is under the delicate delusion that he is, in fact, human.
When a nearby battle goes awry, Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy, pretending to be tame to get free food and a warm bed. Lucky for him, rider Rania Albright is desperate enough for a dragon of her own that she overlooks his eccentricities.
As Garrodigh recovers under Rania’s care, all three heads start to turn, for the first time, in the same direction. Each wants to protect her from the invaders who killed their fourth head—the same invaders who seek to conquer Kardoša. When the academy comes under attack, can this wild dragon and his wilder rider save their homeland together?
This cozy fantasy intertwines epic battles with loving friendships, sharing an utterly unique perspective on what it means to be a ‘monster.’
From the Nebula-winning author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In!
Garrodigh was once a four-headed dragon, among the most powerful in Kardoša. After an unfortunate incident, he now has three heads, one stump, and a daily whirlwind of internal bickering. Centerhead wants to rain death upon all humanity, Bottomhead is like a feral cat, and Upperhead is under the delicate delusion that he is, in fact, human.
When a nearby battle goes awry, Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy, pretending to be tame to get free food and a warm bed. Lucky for him, rider Rania Albright is desperate enough for a dragon of her own that she overlooks his eccentricities.
As Garrodigh recovers under Rania’s care, all three heads start to turn, for the first time, in the same direction. Each wants to protect her from the invaders who killed their fourth head—the same invaders who seek to conquer Kardoša. When the academy comes under attack, can this wild dragon and his wilder rider save their homeland together?
This cozy fantasy intertwines epic battles with loving friendships, sharing an utterly unique perspective on what it means to be a ‘monster.’
392 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2026
About the author
John Wiswell
62 books1,232 followersJohn Wiswell is a disabled author who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Debut Novel for Someone You Can Build A Nest In, and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for Open House on Haunted Hill, and the Locus Award for Best Novelette for That Story Isn't The Story. His fiction has been translated into over fifteen languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 476 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Sometimes the bravest thing a dragon can do is fall.
Garrodigh, the Great Terror, is not so fearsome anymore. Once a four-headed dragon, he now has three heads, one stump, and a lot of unresolved trauma. He can’t fly, and the remaining heads are coping in very different ways. Centerhead is proud, regal, furious, and anti-human. Standard dragon. Upperhead is convinced that he is human. Bottomhead is basically a child and only cares about eating. After a nearby battle goes badly, the three of them make the executive decision to sneak into an elite dragon rider academy in the floating Winged City, pretend to be tame, and get free food and lodgings. Unfortunately for this wild, anti-human dragon, this involves being claimed by Rania, a refugee and aspiring dragon rider who desperately wants a dragon of her own.
The relationship between Garrodigh and Rania is where this book shines. They are both outsiders. Rania is trying to belong in a city that doesn’t fully accept her, and Garrodigh is trying to recover from something that has left him physically and emotionally changed. He never really feels like he belongs with any of the dragons. Too tame for the wild dragons, and too wild for the tame dragons. The bond between Garrodigh and Rania has a warm, found-family feeling, and I loved watching this furious, traumatized dragon slowly grow attached despite their best efforts.
The first half of the book is so endearing. It has this cozy training montage feeling. Eye of the Tiger, but make it dragon rehab. It’s a story about trauma, shame, fear, and remembering who you were before you fell. Remembering that the greatness isn’t lost just because you fell. I like the way Garrodigh’s heads externalize different responses to trauma. It’s silly, but there’s something tender underneath the absurdity. Centerhead wants revenge. Upperhead escapes into delusion. Bottomhead retreats into instinct.
I have to mention Oleksiy. I say this as someone with no authority on how queer characters should be written or introduced: Oleksiy is the only character in this book whose identity is made explicit on first appearance. He is introduced as a trans man before we know much else about him. No other queer character in the book, and there are several, is introduced the way he is. It's clear that they're queer based on who they date, for example. His introduction stands out by contrast, but that alone doesn't mean it's an issue. I’m curious how this lands for queer readers more broadly. When a character shares your identity, do you prefer it to be stated clearly right away, or do you prefer finding out when other pieces of their background come up naturally?
On the topic of Oleksiy, though, I love him. He has this unbothered confidence about him, calls everyone darling, and has glorious hair. If you love Howl, you will love Oleksiy. We need more MMCs like Howl and Oleksiy. Seriously, where are they?? (pls tell me in the comments)
My main issue, and the reason I'm giving this 3.5 stars, is that the book started to feel so long. It's not even that long, but it felt like it would never end. I struggle to describe why. Maybe the descriptions were too long and tangential? I love intricate side characters and all that, but sometimes it felt a bit like listening to that friend who never gets to the point because they go into 15 side stories.
Ironically, the second half, which is a lot more action-packed than the first, is when I started getting bored. The quieter moments and character detours started to feel stretched out, and the larger war plot never grabbed me as much as the Garrodigh/Rania dynamic did. It's more serious, with battles, airships, political tension and real danger. While that gives the book more plot, it's not what I would expect from a cozy fantasy, but I am certainly no expert on the genre.
Still, despite my complaints, there’s a lot of heart in this story. The chapters are short (and named! I miss named chapters!), the humor is cute, and Garrodigh is a delightfully ridiculous creation. The book works best when it’s about the divide between dragons and humans, and how kindness can sneak past even the most stubborn defenses. I just wish the whole book had stayed as sharp and endearing as that central bond.
3.5 ⭐ rounded up
A big thank you to NetGalley, DAW, and John Wiswell for the ARC!
Garrodigh, the Great Terror, is not so fearsome anymore. Once a four-headed dragon, he now has three heads, one stump, and a lot of unresolved trauma. He can’t fly, and the remaining heads are coping in very different ways. Centerhead is proud, regal, furious, and anti-human. Standard dragon. Upperhead is convinced that he is human. Bottomhead is basically a child and only cares about eating. After a nearby battle goes badly, the three of them make the executive decision to sneak into an elite dragon rider academy in the floating Winged City, pretend to be tame, and get free food and lodgings. Unfortunately for this wild, anti-human dragon, this involves being claimed by Rania, a refugee and aspiring dragon rider who desperately wants a dragon of her own.
The relationship between Garrodigh and Rania is where this book shines. They are both outsiders. Rania is trying to belong in a city that doesn’t fully accept her, and Garrodigh is trying to recover from something that has left him physically and emotionally changed. He never really feels like he belongs with any of the dragons. Too tame for the wild dragons, and too wild for the tame dragons. The bond between Garrodigh and Rania has a warm, found-family feeling, and I loved watching this furious, traumatized dragon slowly grow attached despite their best efforts.
The first half of the book is so endearing. It has this cozy training montage feeling. Eye of the Tiger, but make it dragon rehab. It’s a story about trauma, shame, fear, and remembering who you were before you fell. Remembering that the greatness isn’t lost just because you fell. I like the way Garrodigh’s heads externalize different responses to trauma. It’s silly, but there’s something tender underneath the absurdity. Centerhead wants revenge. Upperhead escapes into delusion. Bottomhead retreats into instinct.
I have to mention Oleksiy. I say this as someone with no authority on how queer characters should be written or introduced: Oleksiy is the only character in this book whose identity is made explicit on first appearance. He is introduced as a trans man before we know much else about him. No other queer character in the book, and there are several, is introduced the way he is. It's clear that they're queer based on who they date, for example. His introduction stands out by contrast, but that alone doesn't mean it's an issue. I’m curious how this lands for queer readers more broadly. When a character shares your identity, do you prefer it to be stated clearly right away, or do you prefer finding out when other pieces of their background come up naturally?
On the topic of Oleksiy, though, I love him. He has this unbothered confidence about him, calls everyone darling, and has glorious hair. If you love Howl, you will love Oleksiy. We need more MMCs like Howl and Oleksiy. Seriously, where are they?? (pls tell me in the comments)
My main issue, and the reason I'm giving this 3.5 stars, is that the book started to feel so long. It's not even that long, but it felt like it would never end. I struggle to describe why. Maybe the descriptions were too long and tangential? I love intricate side characters and all that, but sometimes it felt a bit like listening to that friend who never gets to the point because they go into 15 side stories.
Ironically, the second half, which is a lot more action-packed than the first, is when I started getting bored. The quieter moments and character detours started to feel stretched out, and the larger war plot never grabbed me as much as the Garrodigh/Rania dynamic did. It's more serious, with battles, airships, political tension and real danger. While that gives the book more plot, it's not what I would expect from a cozy fantasy, but I am certainly no expert on the genre.
Still, despite my complaints, there’s a lot of heart in this story. The chapters are short (and named! I miss named chapters!), the humor is cute, and Garrodigh is a delightfully ridiculous creation. The book works best when it’s about the divide between dragons and humans, and how kindness can sneak past even the most stubborn defenses. I just wish the whole book had stayed as sharp and endearing as that central bond.
3.5 ⭐ rounded up
A big thank you to NetGalley, DAW, and John Wiswell for the ARC!
September 10, 2025
Not a new favorite, but of course I did enjoy the book with the three-headed dragon main character. The whole concept of the three heads having all different personalities will never not make me grin, and I just loved to read about Garrodigh, the Great Terror. That's the name the dragon is widely known under, but we get to know him a little better than that. There is Centerhead, who is bloodthirsty and hostile, Bottomhead, who feels more like a dog and is mostly thinking about food, and Upperhead, who is convinced that he is a human hallucinating this whole situation. Which is understandable, because reality really doesn't look too good for Garrodigh. War made him flee his home and other wild dragons were not willing to shelter him. He can't fly anymore and is gravely injured (he used to be a four-headed dragon after all) when he comes up with the great plan of letting himself be captured by humans. The people of the Winged City tamed dragons long ago and so they might as well feed and heal Garrodigh. There's still enough time to conquer the city and destroy humanity afterwards. Especially Centerhead is determined to hate all humans, but it's hard when they show him so much love and care. One dragon-rider in particular just adopts Garrodigh and is beyond thrilled to have a new steed. John Wiswell always writes weirdly cozy and wholesome stories set in rather harsh worlds, and this one was no exception. At first it was the healing journey of a dragon with quite the repressed feelings, and a bit of a found family situation with his new rider, a woman named Rania. She was an interesting character as well, a refugee of war struggling with being accepted in her new home. I know that the dragon POV is a big part of the appeal of this book, but I wish Rania had gotten her own chapters as well. It was rather unnatural how her whole personal story was observed from an outside perspective and there were plenty of awkward moments because of that. (Really, what was up with all the sex she was having right next to her dragon?) Rania had a whole rom-com-drama going on, and I was not into it. I was very interested in the dragon-part, though. There were pretty cool dragon powers shown in this book, like dragons producing lava or them basically manipulating gravity to fly. They also had a whole religion and it was very interesting how it tied into the war plot of the story. It's definitely a mix of humor and heavier themes, so be aware of that when you pick it up expecting a fun little silly read. I enjoyed it, but I ultimately also have to call it my least favorite book from this author. But I guess it's just hard when you only ever write bangers.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and DAW for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Pre-read: John Wiswell really saw that meme with the three-headed dragon and made a whole book out of it, but his dragon has one head that wants to annihilate humanity, one that thinks it's human and one that just wants some good head scritches, and I love absolutely everything about that.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and DAW for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Pre-read: John Wiswell really saw that meme with the three-headed dragon and made a whole book out of it, but his dragon has one head that wants to annihilate humanity, one that thinks it's human and one that just wants some good head scritches, and I love absolutely everything about that.
August 8, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
Cozy fantasy about a three-headed dragon whose each head has a vastly different personality and the found family he picks up along the way.
Garrodigh, a wild three-headed dragon, infiltrates Winged City with thoughts of getting free meals while plotting on how to raise terror and overthrow the "evil" mortals who have waged war while riding his fellow dragons (tamed versions) into battle.
Meet the heads:
Centerhead: The "leader" of the heads. Opinionated and convinced he hates humans (he doesn't). He's the one who comes up with the plan to infiltrate Winged City.
Upperhead: Thinks he's a human and is hallucinating and/or comatose. This head spends the first half of this book FULLY convinced that his being a dragon is a figment of his imagination, haha.
Bottomhead: Gluttonous and silly. The most "dragon-like" of all heads. Cares mainly for feeding and making friends. He's the most childlike and emotive of all heads.
Lefty: Formerly a four-headed dragon. Lefty is now a stump in the place where this head used to be.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, with "cozy" in the genres, that this is far from a bloody tale of a dragon conquering a town. It's about a ball-of-sunshine human female from this town, Rania, slowly but surely forming a close bond with the injured Garrodigh. Taking a limping, torn-winged dragon and not only healing his body but also stabilizing his mind so he could fly once more.
The found family aspect was done well. The outsider woman and her "broken" dragon healed each other and rose to even higher heights together!
My main complaint is that this story lost some steam in the middle. Meandering about with a silly misunderstanding-focused love drama. Since the main character is a multi-headed dragon, I could've done without the human love life drama. Nevertheless, it was a cute story. Not revolutionary, but did its job as a cozy fantasy!
Cozy fantasy about a three-headed dragon whose each head has a vastly different personality and the found family he picks up along the way.
Garrodigh, a wild three-headed dragon, infiltrates Winged City with thoughts of getting free meals while plotting on how to raise terror and overthrow the "evil" mortals who have waged war while riding his fellow dragons (tamed versions) into battle.
Meet the heads:
Centerhead: The "leader" of the heads. Opinionated and convinced he hates humans (he doesn't). He's the one who comes up with the plan to infiltrate Winged City.
Upperhead: Thinks he's a human and is hallucinating and/or comatose. This head spends the first half of this book FULLY convinced that his being a dragon is a figment of his imagination, haha.
Bottomhead: Gluttonous and silly. The most "dragon-like" of all heads. Cares mainly for feeding and making friends. He's the most childlike and emotive of all heads.
Lefty: Formerly a four-headed dragon. Lefty is now a stump in the place where this head used to be.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, with "cozy" in the genres, that this is far from a bloody tale of a dragon conquering a town. It's about a ball-of-sunshine human female from this town, Rania, slowly but surely forming a close bond with the injured Garrodigh. Taking a limping, torn-winged dragon and not only healing his body but also stabilizing his mind so he could fly once more.
The found family aspect was done well. The outsider woman and her "broken" dragon healed each other and rose to even higher heights together!
My main complaint is that this story lost some steam in the middle. Meandering about with a silly misunderstanding-focused love drama. Since the main character is a multi-headed dragon, I could've done without the human love life drama. Nevertheless, it was a cute story. Not revolutionary, but did its job as a cozy fantasy!
November 6, 2025
PLEASE BE A REFERENCE TO THIS MEME
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(wow this new review page is UGLYYYYYYYY Goodreads WTF)
This was a goddamn delight of a novel. First off though, why on earth does the book summary say an "elite dragon rider academy", making this seem like it's a YA novel?? Garrodigh goes to a flying city that has other dragons and those dragons and their riders are basically the city's military protection. There's no "academy" here!
Little things aside, this was a wonderful, heartfelt dragon fantasy in the vein of Terry Pratchett and Peter S. Beagle. Maybe throw in some T. Kingfisher, too. It's about surviving and facing trauma, about friendship, about love and found family and finding what home means to you. It's queer and joyful and hopeful. A wonderful addition to the dragon fantasy canon.
Many thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for this eARC!
=====
(wow this new review page is UGLYYYYYYYY Goodreads WTF)
This was a goddamn delight of a novel. First off though, why on earth does the book summary say an "elite dragon rider academy", making this seem like it's a YA novel?? Garrodigh goes to a flying city that has other dragons and those dragons and their riders are basically the city's military protection. There's no "academy" here!
Little things aside, this was a wonderful, heartfelt dragon fantasy in the vein of Terry Pratchett and Peter S. Beagle. Maybe throw in some T. Kingfisher, too. It's about surviving and facing trauma, about friendship, about love and found family and finding what home means to you. It's queer and joyful and hopeful. A wonderful addition to the dragon fantasy canon.
Many thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for this eARC!
May 7, 2026
3.5 ⭐️ Very cute if a little underwhelmed. Garrodigh is an ancient four headed dragon who’s a bit worse for wear. He can’t fly, has a busted leg and one of his heads is dead. Losing Lefty has left his other three heads more than a little confused. Upperhead thinks he’s a human, Bottomhead doesn’t think just eats and Centerhead is trying to keep them all together except there’s some pretty big holes in his memory. All Centerhead knows was the humans killed Lefty & he wants revenge but he’d like some breakfast first!
This is the type of cozy that I like! There are still stakes that propel the action forward and the world is filled with positive accepting characters. The whole book is from Centerheads POV. Such a fun character to spend time with! I disliked how drawn out the final battle was & how much time it took to help the dragon goddess. There was lots of random action thrown in that felt like filler.
A bit of a random noodle. I keep thinking about how Oleksiy a trans male character, was introduced. Wiswell tells the audience that Oleksiy is trans immediately. It was done simply/to the point in the same way an author might say so and so had brown hair. I do appreciate Wiswells directness. Although I wish that Oleksiy was introduced in the same way every other character was & use of pronouns tells us what gender he is. We weren’t given additional labels for other characters like nonbinary or queer.
At multiple points, Rania, Garrodighs rider, talks about her childhood growing up with Oleksiy. We learn about how her sexuality was something to be hidden & she was sold off to be a child bride before she ran away. We also learn about Oleksiys struggles to transition/ be accepted as male before he ran away. It’s important we know about both Oleksiys & Rania past but Rania wasn’t labeled queer or child bride upon introduction…
I guess I feel if a person identifies as/is a man we should treat them the way we treat all the other male characters. If that man’s history is important to their story then we should learn they were AFAB in the same way we learn any characters backstory.
Big caveat while I’m demi gendered I am not trans. I’ve had feelings of gender incongruence but it is not even close to the same experience Trans people go through. If Trans readers are happy with or prefer the way Wiswell introduces Oleksiy then that’s what I support.
This is the type of cozy that I like! There are still stakes that propel the action forward and the world is filled with positive accepting characters. The whole book is from Centerheads POV. Such a fun character to spend time with! I disliked how drawn out the final battle was & how much time it took to help the dragon goddess. There was lots of random action thrown in that felt like filler.
A bit of a random noodle. I keep thinking about how Oleksiy a trans male character, was introduced. Wiswell tells the audience that Oleksiy is trans immediately. It was done simply/to the point in the same way an author might say so and so had brown hair. I do appreciate Wiswells directness. Although I wish that Oleksiy was introduced in the same way every other character was & use of pronouns tells us what gender he is. We weren’t given additional labels for other characters like nonbinary or queer.
At multiple points, Rania, Garrodighs rider, talks about her childhood growing up with Oleksiy. We learn about how her sexuality was something to be hidden & she was sold off to be a child bride before she ran away. We also learn about Oleksiys struggles to transition/ be accepted as male before he ran away. It’s important we know about both Oleksiys & Rania past but Rania wasn’t labeled queer or child bride upon introduction…
I guess I feel if a person identifies as/is a man we should treat them the way we treat all the other male characters. If that man’s history is important to their story then we should learn they were AFAB in the same way we learn any characters backstory.
Big caveat while I’m demi gendered I am not trans. I’ve had feelings of gender incongruence but it is not even close to the same experience Trans people go through. If Trans readers are happy with or prefer the way Wiswell introduces Oleksiy then that’s what I support.
June 27, 2026
The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell
Book Blurb: A dragon whose three heads bear rather…different...personalities finds family in the most unexpected of places.
Rating: ****
Feels: Amused, Impressed, Adventurey, Happy
Style: Fantasy, Dragons, Cozy, Adult, Cozy Fantasy, Fiction
First published July 14, 2026: 400 pages
Themes & Setting:
Main Character: Garrodigh !! The Great Terror !!! Is just so much fun. We have so much personality wrapped up in this fun dragon. Centerhead made me want to believe in humanity again (while he wants to destroy humanity !!!). He went through alot of development and it was so very heartwarming. Upperhead ... thinking he was human ... was just too funny. The things he would say .. had me in stitches. Bottomhead is just the sweetheart you wanna pat on the head. Enjoy getting to know the dragon !!!
FMC: Rania was such a great strong female character and I love that she was the one that got to be with Garrodigh !! Her heart and spirit are what guided everything and made this all such a very enjoyable read.
Conclusion: Such a fun adventure with a dragon with the most amusing multi head personalities!!! It was really interesting to have the story from the POV from one of the heads of the dragon and that be the filter of the relationships around the dragon. The dragon’s rider is fantastic and gives great treats !! She also has a romance sub plot which is pretty fun to have narrated through center head dragon. The world building was a lot of fun as seen through the dragon and a world in the midst of a war. I always love a good conflict. I think my favorite part of this story was the POV and just enjoying this story through such a novel view. Really fun read !!
This book has:
Dragons !!!
Politics and Waring Nations
Hidden Identities
Lots of conflicts
Queer Friendly
Book Blurb: A dragon whose three heads bear rather…different...personalities finds family in the most unexpected of places.
Rating: ****
Feels: Amused, Impressed, Adventurey, Happy
Style: Fantasy, Dragons, Cozy, Adult, Cozy Fantasy, Fiction
First published July 14, 2026: 400 pages
Themes & Setting:
Main Character: Garrodigh !! The Great Terror !!! Is just so much fun. We have so much personality wrapped up in this fun dragon. Centerhead made me want to believe in humanity again (while he wants to destroy humanity !!!). He went through alot of development and it was so very heartwarming. Upperhead ... thinking he was human ... was just too funny. The things he would say .. had me in stitches. Bottomhead is just the sweetheart you wanna pat on the head. Enjoy getting to know the dragon !!!
FMC: Rania was such a great strong female character and I love that she was the one that got to be with Garrodigh !! Her heart and spirit are what guided everything and made this all such a very enjoyable read.
Conclusion: Such a fun adventure with a dragon with the most amusing multi head personalities!!! It was really interesting to have the story from the POV from one of the heads of the dragon and that be the filter of the relationships around the dragon. The dragon’s rider is fantastic and gives great treats !! She also has a romance sub plot which is pretty fun to have narrated through center head dragon. The world building was a lot of fun as seen through the dragon and a world in the midst of a war. I always love a good conflict. I think my favorite part of this story was the POV and just enjoying this story through such a novel view. Really fun read !!
This book has:
Dragons !!!
Politics and Waring Nations
Hidden Identities
Lots of conflicts
Queer Friendly
Read
July 12, 2026A delightful, found-family, second-chance, mostly-cozy fantasy about an iriscible three-headed dragon (whose heads quarrel among themselves, providing much of the humor) who bonds with an immigrant woman not permitted to be a dragon rider . . .
The first half is decidedly more cozy and light, with broadly-painted worldbuilding. The second half gets more grim, though not quite with enough worldbuilding gravitas to focus it. There is a tendency for the narrative voice to explain what has already been sufficiently shown, still, for diversity and acceptance of a wide variety of life experiences, this novel is an entertaining exemplar.
The first half is decidedly more cozy and light, with broadly-painted worldbuilding. The second half gets more grim, though not quite with enough worldbuilding gravitas to focus it. There is a tendency for the narrative voice to explain what has already been sufficiently shown, still, for diversity and acceptance of a wide variety of life experiences, this novel is an entertaining exemplar.
September 3, 2026
Really 3.5
It bogged down a bit but the dragon is a good character
It bogged down a bit but the dragon is a good character
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I also have some complaints.
tl;dr: This book was not for me. I mean that both in the sense that I didn't like it much, and also in the sense that it wasn't intended for the kind of person I am. I didn't know that going in; I was attracted by the unusual premise and the (in my opinion, inaccurate) claim to be cozy.
If you're the kind of person who will love this book, or have already read it and loved it, reading this review may only annoy you, and you may be better off skipping it and reading one that will reinforce your views instead. I always implicitly write my reviews for people who value the things I value (writing craft, especially) and enjoy the things I enjoy. I write positive reviews to direct them towards books I think they would like, and negative reviews to direct them away from books that are probably not going to be to their taste. If you have different priorities and enjoy different things, what I have to say will not be of much interest to you.
This review is going to be as much an expression of concerns I have about the current cozy fantasy genre in general as it is about this book in particular, though starting from thoughts I had while reading this specific book. I critique cozy as strongly as I do because I love the idea of it, while frequently being disappointed by the execution. It's an experience I've had before, when steampunk was as popular as cozy is now.
The first thing that bothered me about this book is that it feels like one long point-of-view violation. The viewpoint character is the relatively sane and sensible central head of a three-headed dragon; the other two heads have issues. Upperhead has the delusion that he's human, and Lowerhead has become almost animalistic. All three, including Centerhead, have lost memories because of the trauma of the loss of Lefty, the fourth head, who was favourable towards humans and worked with them. That obscured backstory may partially explain why this supposedly wild dragon not only understands but freely uses so many human concepts, including trans men and women (who he identifies instantly as such), cathedrals, apothecaries and vacations -this last itself being an anachronistic concept for the setting. However, while he recognizes ink and paper, he doesn't understand what writing is - but uses the verb "read" in a metaphorical sense multiple times.
How this came across to me is that the author wasn't putting in the effort, or maybe didn't even think about the need, to characterize someone based on what that sort of character is familiar with and would know and value. Reading some of the reviews of one of his other books reinforces this idea; multiple reviewers mentioned how a solitary swamp monster who had previously had limited and brief interactions with humans seemed to have a complete and instant grasp of how abusive human relationships work, as seen through a this-worldly current-state-of-psychology lens. To me, this is a basic craft issue.
And this is a problem I have with the cozy genre in general. Not only is the worldbuilding often thin, little more than generic sword & sorcery scenery flats, but those scenery flats stand behind people who are, in their attitudes and ways of thinking, completely indistinguishable from mid-2020s US people of a particular type (to which the authors belong). My suspicion is that they are so embedded in a filter bubble that emphasizes doctrinal purity that they are almost unable to conceive of people who might think differently from them, except as othered and villainized; that they have no functional sense of history; and that they believe implicitly that everything they think, and the way they behave, cannot be improved upon and therefore should be universalized. As a young person, I was in a community like this myself, and even though the content of the beliefs could hardly have been more different, I recognize the patterns. And to me, exploring other perspectives and ways of thought is part of the point of speculative fiction.
In the typical cozy book, basically every single character (who isn't a villain or at least an opponent) is queer in some way, and most of them are at least one of neurodivergent, disabled, or struggling with anxiety or depression. In these days of self-selecting groups ("found family"), this may be the lived experience of the author; everyone they know is like this. But it's like the famous example of the journalist who, when a political candidate won an election, protested that nobody he knew had voted for him. It says more about the narrowness of the person's experience than the actual constitution of the world at large. I should note that I don't have a problem with people being queer, neurodivergent and etc. These are ways that real people are, and I respect them as fellow humans. But it isn't how everyone is, and universalizing it places me and people like me, who don't have those characteristics (except that I am arguably slightly disabled and occasionally anxious), in an outgroup, just as much as earlier literature placed people who did have them in an outgroup. It's not true inclusiveness if there's still an outgroup, even if that is the people who were traditionally the ingroup. It's still not fully honouring our shared humanity.
In this particular book, the pervasiveness of these types of characters is more or less its only claim to belong to the cozy genre, since it's about a war between diverse refugees from a lightly sketched fascist-imperialist country and that country's military. Nobody here is living the equivalent of a Japanese "slow life." It's more like the demimonde of the Weimar Republic left Germany (though the names are mostly Eastern European), found an uninhabited island, tamed some dragons, created a flying city using the antigravity magic of the dragons, and held out against a much-less-efficient Nazi regime, with Britain pretending to help, but actually out to take half their land and half their dragons in return for minimal assistance. (That is, at least, slightly more worldbuilding than cozy authors often bother with.)
The other thing that annoyed me about this book, and the main reason I gave it up in the middle, is the character Raina, who becomes the rider of the dragon central character. She is the complete opposite of the kind of character I like to read about. She's outwardly naive and optimistic to the point of getting on people's nerves, while on the inside she's a complete emotional bombsite who uses alcohol and casual sex as forms of maladaptive coping. And what escalated her from "annoying character" to "reason to put the book down and not pick it up again" was that the dragon declares to Raina that she is everything a human should want to be, which is a statement I couldn't disagree with more strongly. To me, that's not unconditional acceptance; it's enabling.
If you don't care about the POV issues and can cope with Raina, this is a competently written book with the right emotional beats to appeal to plenty of readers. In the author's afterword, he mentions that the copy editor remarked on how clean it was, and I agree that it has fewer issues than average, but there are some words used in odd senses, and a few small words like "to" and "the" dropped out of the occasional sentence in the pre-publication version I had from Netgalley. (Missing words are a hard thing to spot unless you have the knack of it.)
It's not a terrible book. It just very much is not for me.
tl;dr: This book was not for me. I mean that both in the sense that I didn't like it much, and also in the sense that it wasn't intended for the kind of person I am. I didn't know that going in; I was attracted by the unusual premise and the (in my opinion, inaccurate) claim to be cozy.
If you're the kind of person who will love this book, or have already read it and loved it, reading this review may only annoy you, and you may be better off skipping it and reading one that will reinforce your views instead. I always implicitly write my reviews for people who value the things I value (writing craft, especially) and enjoy the things I enjoy. I write positive reviews to direct them towards books I think they would like, and negative reviews to direct them away from books that are probably not going to be to their taste. If you have different priorities and enjoy different things, what I have to say will not be of much interest to you.
This review is going to be as much an expression of concerns I have about the current cozy fantasy genre in general as it is about this book in particular, though starting from thoughts I had while reading this specific book. I critique cozy as strongly as I do because I love the idea of it, while frequently being disappointed by the execution. It's an experience I've had before, when steampunk was as popular as cozy is now.
The first thing that bothered me about this book is that it feels like one long point-of-view violation. The viewpoint character is the relatively sane and sensible central head of a three-headed dragon; the other two heads have issues. Upperhead has the delusion that he's human, and Lowerhead has become almost animalistic. All three, including Centerhead, have lost memories because of the trauma of the loss of Lefty, the fourth head, who was favourable towards humans and worked with them. That obscured backstory may partially explain why this supposedly wild dragon not only understands but freely uses so many human concepts, including trans men and women (who he identifies instantly as such), cathedrals, apothecaries and vacations -this last itself being an anachronistic concept for the setting. However, while he recognizes ink and paper, he doesn't understand what writing is - but uses the verb "read" in a metaphorical sense multiple times.
How this came across to me is that the author wasn't putting in the effort, or maybe didn't even think about the need, to characterize someone based on what that sort of character is familiar with and would know and value. Reading some of the reviews of one of his other books reinforces this idea; multiple reviewers mentioned how a solitary swamp monster who had previously had limited and brief interactions with humans seemed to have a complete and instant grasp of how abusive human relationships work, as seen through a this-worldly current-state-of-psychology lens. To me, this is a basic craft issue.
And this is a problem I have with the cozy genre in general. Not only is the worldbuilding often thin, little more than generic sword & sorcery scenery flats, but those scenery flats stand behind people who are, in their attitudes and ways of thinking, completely indistinguishable from mid-2020s US people of a particular type (to which the authors belong). My suspicion is that they are so embedded in a filter bubble that emphasizes doctrinal purity that they are almost unable to conceive of people who might think differently from them, except as othered and villainized; that they have no functional sense of history; and that they believe implicitly that everything they think, and the way they behave, cannot be improved upon and therefore should be universalized. As a young person, I was in a community like this myself, and even though the content of the beliefs could hardly have been more different, I recognize the patterns. And to me, exploring other perspectives and ways of thought is part of the point of speculative fiction.
In the typical cozy book, basically every single character (who isn't a villain or at least an opponent) is queer in some way, and most of them are at least one of neurodivergent, disabled, or struggling with anxiety or depression. In these days of self-selecting groups ("found family"), this may be the lived experience of the author; everyone they know is like this. But it's like the famous example of the journalist who, when a political candidate won an election, protested that nobody he knew had voted for him. It says more about the narrowness of the person's experience than the actual constitution of the world at large. I should note that I don't have a problem with people being queer, neurodivergent and etc. These are ways that real people are, and I respect them as fellow humans. But it isn't how everyone is, and universalizing it places me and people like me, who don't have those characteristics (except that I am arguably slightly disabled and occasionally anxious), in an outgroup, just as much as earlier literature placed people who did have them in an outgroup. It's not true inclusiveness if there's still an outgroup, even if that is the people who were traditionally the ingroup. It's still not fully honouring our shared humanity.
In this particular book, the pervasiveness of these types of characters is more or less its only claim to belong to the cozy genre, since it's about a war between diverse refugees from a lightly sketched fascist-imperialist country and that country's military. Nobody here is living the equivalent of a Japanese "slow life." It's more like the demimonde of the Weimar Republic left Germany (though the names are mostly Eastern European), found an uninhabited island, tamed some dragons, created a flying city using the antigravity magic of the dragons, and held out against a much-less-efficient Nazi regime, with Britain pretending to help, but actually out to take half their land and half their dragons in return for minimal assistance. (That is, at least, slightly more worldbuilding than cozy authors often bother with.)
The other thing that annoyed me about this book, and the main reason I gave it up in the middle, is the character Raina, who becomes the rider of the dragon central character. She is the complete opposite of the kind of character I like to read about. She's outwardly naive and optimistic to the point of getting on people's nerves, while on the inside she's a complete emotional bombsite who uses alcohol and casual sex as forms of maladaptive coping. And what escalated her from "annoying character" to "reason to put the book down and not pick it up again" was that the dragon declares to Raina that she is everything a human should want to be, which is a statement I couldn't disagree with more strongly. To me, that's not unconditional acceptance; it's enabling.
If you don't care about the POV issues and can cope with Raina, this is a competently written book with the right emotional beats to appeal to plenty of readers. In the author's afterword, he mentions that the copy editor remarked on how clean it was, and I agree that it has fewer issues than average, but there are some words used in odd senses, and a few small words like "to" and "the" dropped out of the occasional sentence in the pre-publication version I had from Netgalley. (Missing words are a hard thing to spot unless you have the knack of it.)
It's not a terrible book. It just very much is not for me.
August 28, 2026
Can I just say that I really want a dragon now? I mean, I’ve always wanted a dragon, but now I really want a three-headed grumpy dragon named Garrodigh, and more specifically I want the heads to be named Upperhead, Centerhead, and Bottomhead. And I want Rania to be my best friend.
Author John Wiswell had me just at the title of his newest release, The Dragon Has Some Complaints. I had read his Wearing the Lion and really enjoyed it so jumped at the chance to see what he did with dragons. I got much more than I expected as it was such a fun filled fantasy chock full of dragons.
Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy and Rania claims him as her dragon. Garrodigh actually hates humans and would just prefer to eat them, but tolerates Rania as she feeds him and works long and hard to heal him. Little by little, Garrodigh begins to tolerate this eccentric human, and eventually to love her.
This story is action packed and so beautifully endearing and I’m sad that it’s over.
*Thanks so much to Daw Books for the gifted ARC along with the wonderful PR package!*
Author John Wiswell had me just at the title of his newest release, The Dragon Has Some Complaints. I had read his Wearing the Lion and really enjoyed it so jumped at the chance to see what he did with dragons. I got much more than I expected as it was such a fun filled fantasy chock full of dragons.
Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy and Rania claims him as her dragon. Garrodigh actually hates humans and would just prefer to eat them, but tolerates Rania as she feeds him and works long and hard to heal him. Little by little, Garrodigh begins to tolerate this eccentric human, and eventually to love her.
This story is action packed and so beautifully endearing and I’m sad that it’s over.
*Thanks so much to Daw Books for the gifted ARC along with the wonderful PR package!*
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
—3.5 stars—
The Dragon Has Some Complaints is the story about a dragon with three heads—Bottomhead, whose motivation lies almost entirely in food, Upperhead, who is convinced he’s actually a human, and Centerhead, who’s desperately trying to keep them all alive and together—and the unlikely bond he forms with his rider. It’s sweet and heartwarming at times, but also has more than enough invasion and conflict happening in the background to keep things interesting.
First of all, I don’t often read books with non-human (okay, non-bipedal) protagonists, so this was a new venture for me! Seeing the human characters through Garrodigh’s (Centerhead’s) eyes was such a fun writing choice, and how he described their interactions was hilariously cynical at times. Each of the separate heads has their own journey to finding themselves, and i really appreciated how Centerhead’s plan changed from infiltrating the human forces and destroying them to helping them in their own battles. Such a good depiction of character growth!
Another character arc i really enjoyed was Raina, possibly the most cheerful dragon rider of all time, though i (like Centerhead) was initially a little dubious of her unrelenting optimism. One large facet of this book is identity and finding yourself, and seeing Raina grow into her bravery and courage was so endearing to see. She’s most assuredly a sunshine character, and it got to the point where i would smile every time she was on page. The little background hints of her relationships did make me wish we had her pov too, but i think the book worked remarkably well without it!
While The Dragon Has Some Complaints has a large focus on the war with the FFR, i do think it also could have benefited from some more expansive world building. It worked well enough, and i really enjoyed the world John Wiswell created, especially the welcoming nature of Kardoša, but there were points when i would have appreciated some more in-depth information on how the dragons became tamed, or even how the war started in the first place.
I would also say it definitely took some time for me to truly get into the story, though i was very invested for the last third of the book! The earlier parts could have been condensed or shortened a little for me, but it ended up working out overall.
(many thanks to John Wiswell, Arcadia, and Netgalley for this digital ARC! all thoughts and opinions are my own.)
The Dragon Has Some Complaints is the story about a dragon with three heads—Bottomhead, whose motivation lies almost entirely in food, Upperhead, who is convinced he’s actually a human, and Centerhead, who’s desperately trying to keep them all alive and together—and the unlikely bond he forms with his rider. It’s sweet and heartwarming at times, but also has more than enough invasion and conflict happening in the background to keep things interesting.
First of all, I don’t often read books with non-human (okay, non-bipedal) protagonists, so this was a new venture for me! Seeing the human characters through Garrodigh’s (Centerhead’s) eyes was such a fun writing choice, and how he described their interactions was hilariously cynical at times. Each of the separate heads has their own journey to finding themselves, and i really appreciated how Centerhead’s plan changed from infiltrating the human forces and destroying them to helping them in their own battles. Such a good depiction of character growth!
Another character arc i really enjoyed was Raina, possibly the most cheerful dragon rider of all time, though i (like Centerhead) was initially a little dubious of her unrelenting optimism. One large facet of this book is identity and finding yourself, and seeing Raina grow into her bravery and courage was so endearing to see. She’s most assuredly a sunshine character, and it got to the point where i would smile every time she was on page. The little background hints of her relationships did make me wish we had her pov too, but i think the book worked remarkably well without it!
While The Dragon Has Some Complaints has a large focus on the war with the FFR, i do think it also could have benefited from some more expansive world building. It worked well enough, and i really enjoyed the world John Wiswell created, especially the welcoming nature of Kardoša, but there were points when i would have appreciated some more in-depth information on how the dragons became tamed, or even how the war started in the first place.
I would also say it definitely took some time for me to truly get into the story, though i was very invested for the last third of the book! The earlier parts could have been condensed or shortened a little for me, but it ended up working out overall.
(many thanks to John Wiswell, Arcadia, and Netgalley for this digital ARC! all thoughts and opinions are my own.)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Sometimes that feral weirdo is an inspiration.
The Dragon Has Some Complaints is a new savage yet humorous and heartwarming adventure from John Wiswell, author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In.
The Great Terror Garrodigh is a three-headed dragon (RIP Lefty), injured and hiding in the wilds from the ravages of human warfare. Rejected by his own kind, he winds up posing as one of the dumb tamed dragons ridden and cared for by the people of the Winged City in order to be fed and sheltered, his ailments treated. After forging a special bond with his rider, the effusive Rania, he winds up helping these humans in their fight against invaders who would steal their home and their dragons.
Although I enjoyed Garrodigh and the different personalities of each of his heads, I found all of the human characters to be more irritating than anything. I wasn't very engaged in the parts of the story involving weird sex and awkward romance, though it was all done in the name of promoting healthy relationship dynamics, finding ones place in the world, accepting all the parts of one's identity, and forging therapeutic connections. The parts of the story relating to the dragon goddess Polarka, on the other hand, were absolutely awesome. The rest of the book leading up to that, however, felt too long.
There is some darkness to the adventurous action in this book, but there are also a whole lot of feel good sentiments and healing. For this reader, the details of the story made for a mixed bag, and in all I'd call it a 3.5 star read.
(Seriously, though, the climax part of the story was insanely epic!)
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
July 14, 2026
I received an ARC from the publisher through Netgalley. Opinions are always my own.
This is such a cozy, feelgood read!
The Dragon has some complaints is a dragon rider book, from the perspective of a dragon(head). Garrodigh used to be a powerful dragon, with four heads. Now he has only three, one that wants scritches and snacks, one with memory loss and a vendetta against humans, and one that thinks he is a human that imagined the other two. While struggling to find anything to care for he decides to go undercover in the human city to destroy the warmongers - quickly realizing not all humans are created equally.
It's a story about finding friendship in unlikely places, finding and more importantly trusting yourself, and finding a home and a family.
The first half felt a bit too young for me. It's an adult book, but the whimsy made it feel more like YA. The second half more than made up for that though. The last 30% had more depth and action especially, and made me absolutely love the book.
All in all I would recommend it for lovers of cozy fantasy or adults who miss having a bit of whimsy in their lives.
This is such a cozy, feelgood read!
The Dragon has some complaints is a dragon rider book, from the perspective of a dragon(head). Garrodigh used to be a powerful dragon, with four heads. Now he has only three, one that wants scritches and snacks, one with memory loss and a vendetta against humans, and one that thinks he is a human that imagined the other two. While struggling to find anything to care for he decides to go undercover in the human city to destroy the warmongers - quickly realizing not all humans are created equally.
It's a story about finding friendship in unlikely places, finding and more importantly trusting yourself, and finding a home and a family.
The first half felt a bit too young for me. It's an adult book, but the whimsy made it feel more like YA. The second half more than made up for that though. The last 30% had more depth and action especially, and made me absolutely love the book.
All in all I would recommend it for lovers of cozy fantasy or adults who miss having a bit of whimsy in their lives.
September 19, 2026
3.5
Garrodigh is a three headed dragon, formerly four but one was lost, who takes an opportunity to sneak into the human city and take his revenge. Of course before he can wreak vengeance he should let the humans rehab his injuries, give him treats, head scratches and bubble baths but after that he is going to really let them have it. All part of the plan. First on the list to be eaten is the over enthusiastic dragon rider Raina, who bestows flower crowns on him and dubs him Mister Slithers.
This was very sweet. Garrodigh's three heads each had a distinct personality but the story is told from the point of view of Centerhead. He has the vibe of a grumpy old man who would yell at the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn but would also secretly repair a flat bike tire. Him and Raina were both outsiders but found a family and home in each other. Underdogs who had been counted out, Garrodigh because of his injuries and Raina for being a refugee from an enemy county. Her eternal optimism and his reluctant affection made them easy to root for.
Despite really liking both Garrodigh and Raina I found myself reluctant to pick this up at times. Nothing I can really pinpoint but it didn't really grab me. Clocking in at a whopping 400 pages didn't help. Overall still a very solid cozy fantasy read.
Garrodigh is a three headed dragon, formerly four but one was lost, who takes an opportunity to sneak into the human city and take his revenge. Of course before he can wreak vengeance he should let the humans rehab his injuries, give him treats, head scratches and bubble baths but after that he is going to really let them have it. All part of the plan. First on the list to be eaten is the over enthusiastic dragon rider Raina, who bestows flower crowns on him and dubs him Mister Slithers.
This was very sweet. Garrodigh's three heads each had a distinct personality but the story is told from the point of view of Centerhead. He has the vibe of a grumpy old man who would yell at the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn but would also secretly repair a flat bike tire. Him and Raina were both outsiders but found a family and home in each other. Underdogs who had been counted out, Garrodigh because of his injuries and Raina for being a refugee from an enemy county. Her eternal optimism and his reluctant affection made them easy to root for.
Despite really liking both Garrodigh and Raina I found myself reluctant to pick this up at times. Nothing I can really pinpoint but it didn't really grab me. Clocking in at a whopping 400 pages didn't help. Overall still a very solid cozy fantasy read.
July 15, 2026
2026: 4.25
This was cute
This was cute
August 24, 2026
Apparently, the non-human narrating creature who is supposed to have little contact with human weirdness perfectly clocks social(?)/bodily(???) signifiers of gender variance at a distance, implying that these are both apparent, innate, and readily readable (we can always tell) and that [the amnesiac non-human, not socialized among humans, non-normatively embodied, flying sentient reptile who is our narrator] knows to apply our highly historically and socioculturally contingent jargon: an approach that is so contextually nonsensical it loops back around the conforming to and reifying what is fundamentally a bigot's world view.
I've resolved to treat my allotment of hours more mindfully and not try to complete books for ?????? reasons, so I am dropping this, about a third of the way through, as it is dropping the ball on both the comedy and the interest inherent in a non-human protagonist who can look on and make the mundane strange.
Intend on being heart-warming with blundering bluntness. Fun, but flat and cartoonish in the wrong ways. (Politics is deadly serious but also hilarious and therefore stupid. This only does the stupid, sort of, as a byproduct of doing it sketchily, and I am not invested.) Kind of juvenile about sex.
I've resolved to treat my allotment of hours more mindfully and not try to complete books for ?????? reasons, so I am dropping this, about a third of the way through, as it is dropping the ball on both the comedy and the interest inherent in a non-human protagonist who can look on and make the mundane strange.
Intend on being heart-warming with blundering bluntness. Fun, but flat and cartoonish in the wrong ways. (Politics is deadly serious but also hilarious and therefore stupid. This only does the stupid, sort of, as a byproduct of doing it sketchily, and I am not invested.) Kind of juvenile about sex.
July 30, 2026
John Wiswell is rapidly turning into one of my favourite authors. I really love his books. This one was great, it started off pretty cozy, dragon has physical therapy!! But there were serious discussions around colonialism and refugees as well as how we deal with trauma.
The characters were wonderful. I could not pick a favourite head. I love them all. Bottomhead for his directness and knowing exactly what he wanted, centerhead seemed the most like me fighting through everything and Upperhead ended up being terribly wise.
The humans were great too.
Definitely one to savour and read again.
The characters were wonderful. I could not pick a favourite head. I love them all. Bottomhead for his directness and knowing exactly what he wanted, centerhead seemed the most like me fighting through everything and Upperhead ended up being terribly wise.
The humans were great too.
Definitely one to savour and read again.
July 30, 2026
I really wanted to like this, but the pacing was off
We start with the slowest lead-up, race through recovery, spend more time plodding through various emotional revelations, then race through a bunch of predictable and conveniently timed action bits at the end. 50 pages of this book could cover 1 event or 5 events.
I am usually a sucker for books where dragons are characters, not steeds, but frankly we spent way too much time introducing all the heads’ personalities before getting into the plot and meat of their emotional arcs. Upperhead especially like WE GET IT
Parts of this were very funny, and very sweet, and I think this is a heartwarming story and endearing set of characters, but we simultaneously spent too long on everything and not enough time on the important things. This was very much a miss for a book I expected to be a major hit for me. I kept checking to make sure the page count wasn’t magically extending every time I picked it up. I will still pick up the next book by this author because I like their style, but this one is not finding a home on my shelves
We start with the slowest lead-up, race through recovery, spend more time plodding through various emotional revelations, then race through a bunch of predictable and conveniently timed action bits at the end. 50 pages of this book could cover 1 event or 5 events.
I am usually a sucker for books where dragons are characters, not steeds, but frankly we spent way too much time introducing all the heads’ personalities before getting into the plot and meat of their emotional arcs. Upperhead especially like WE GET IT
Parts of this were very funny, and very sweet, and I think this is a heartwarming story and endearing set of characters, but we simultaneously spent too long on everything and not enough time on the important things. This was very much a miss for a book I expected to be a major hit for me. I kept checking to make sure the page count wasn’t magically extending every time I picked it up. I will still pick up the next book by this author because I like their style, but this one is not finding a home on my shelves
September 28, 2026
“Garrodigh needed others to help him, and he was the help they needed. Neither was wrong. Not in this war.”
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for the early copy! This book was published in the US on July 14, 2026.
Last year, I read John Wiswell’s Someone You Can Build a Nest In and was immediately taken with his writing, and The Dragon Has Some Complaints only confirmed that nobody writes quite like him. Wiswell somehow manages to weave disability justice, found family, queer normativity, anti-imperialism, and questions of belonging into a cozy fantasy about a three-headed dragon who is deeply convinced that humans are terrible and would very much like everyone to stop making him have feelings.
Garrodigh is such an insightful vehicle through which to explore human violence, xenophobia, and the categories we build to decide who belongs. Much of the novel functions on questions of identity: what makes someone a “real” dragon, what happens when disability changes the things your body can do, and whether needing care makes you any less yourself. Wiswell refuses the idea that independence is the opposite of dependence. Garrodigh needs other people, and other people need him, and neither diminishes the other.
I also loved Kardoša, a floating city built for refugees and exiles by refugees and exiles. Its existence gives the novel’s politics real emotional weight as its residents resist empires that keep disguising conquest as diplomacy, security, or inevitability.
And somehow, this is all extremely funny. I giggled aloud constantly while still feeling genuinely invested in the plot and its emotional stakes. There are two major reveals, one I anticipated and one I absolutely did not, and both landed beautifully.
I would happily live in Kardoša. Preferably near the dragons. And preferably with plenty of John Wiswell books to read.
📖 Read this if you love: Cozy fantasy with sharp political teeth; queer-normative worlds, found family, and disability justice narratives; dragons with extremely strong opinions about humans; stories about refugees, exile, and chosen belonging; anti-imperialist fantasy, resistance to conquest, and critiques of militarism; emotionally earnest character work wrapped in absurd, deadpan humor; characters learning that dependence, vulnerability, and care do not make them less powerful.
🔑 Key Themes: Identity and Belonging, Disability and Changing Bodies, Interdependence and Mutual Care, Found Family, Queer Normativity, Refuge and Exile, Xenophobia and Othering, Imperialism and Colonial Violence, Militarism and Resistance, Grief and Trauma, Communication and Vulnerability, Redefining Monstrosity.
Content / Trigger Warnings: War (severe), Gore (severe), Fire (severe), Violence (severe), Injury (severe), Xenophobia (moderate), Death (moderate), Sexual Content (minor), Alcohol (minor), Gun Violence (minor), Transphobia (minor), Homophobia (minor).
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for the early copy! This book was published in the US on July 14, 2026.
Last year, I read John Wiswell’s Someone You Can Build a Nest In and was immediately taken with his writing, and The Dragon Has Some Complaints only confirmed that nobody writes quite like him. Wiswell somehow manages to weave disability justice, found family, queer normativity, anti-imperialism, and questions of belonging into a cozy fantasy about a three-headed dragon who is deeply convinced that humans are terrible and would very much like everyone to stop making him have feelings.
Garrodigh is such an insightful vehicle through which to explore human violence, xenophobia, and the categories we build to decide who belongs. Much of the novel functions on questions of identity: what makes someone a “real” dragon, what happens when disability changes the things your body can do, and whether needing care makes you any less yourself. Wiswell refuses the idea that independence is the opposite of dependence. Garrodigh needs other people, and other people need him, and neither diminishes the other.
I also loved Kardoša, a floating city built for refugees and exiles by refugees and exiles. Its existence gives the novel’s politics real emotional weight as its residents resist empires that keep disguising conquest as diplomacy, security, or inevitability.
And somehow, this is all extremely funny. I giggled aloud constantly while still feeling genuinely invested in the plot and its emotional stakes. There are two major reveals, one I anticipated and one I absolutely did not, and both landed beautifully.
I would happily live in Kardoša. Preferably near the dragons. And preferably with plenty of John Wiswell books to read.
📖 Read this if you love: Cozy fantasy with sharp political teeth; queer-normative worlds, found family, and disability justice narratives; dragons with extremely strong opinions about humans; stories about refugees, exile, and chosen belonging; anti-imperialist fantasy, resistance to conquest, and critiques of militarism; emotionally earnest character work wrapped in absurd, deadpan humor; characters learning that dependence, vulnerability, and care do not make them less powerful.
🔑 Key Themes: Identity and Belonging, Disability and Changing Bodies, Interdependence and Mutual Care, Found Family, Queer Normativity, Refuge and Exile, Xenophobia and Othering, Imperialism and Colonial Violence, Militarism and Resistance, Grief and Trauma, Communication and Vulnerability, Redefining Monstrosity.
Content / Trigger Warnings: War (severe), Gore (severe), Fire (severe), Violence (severe), Injury (severe), Xenophobia (moderate), Death (moderate), Sexual Content (minor), Alcohol (minor), Gun Violence (minor), Transphobia (minor), Homophobia (minor).
September 10, 2026
3.5 rounded up.
I got distracted by Blankets, but did return to finish this one up. It was a cute story. I like the bonds that grew between grumpy centerhead and the other two heads. I enjoyed the annoyingly uplifting Rania. (Toothless is still my favorite dragon though.)
I got distracted by Blankets, but did return to finish this one up. It was a cute story. I like the bonds that grew between grumpy centerhead and the other two heads. I enjoyed the annoyingly uplifting Rania. (Toothless is still my favorite dragon though.)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into, but if a book contains dragons I'm going to read it! And it sure was entertaining.
In a world with a howering city high in the sky, off course human greed wins and the city gets attacked by another nation. The wild dragons on the ground are affected and injured by the ammunition falling from the sky in the clashes between airships and dragonsriders from the floating city. One of these dragons is Garrodigh, The Great Terror. He has lost one of his four heads, Centerhead the most bloodthirsty of the three remaining heads get the bright idea to trick their way to the floating city, so the dragon can get fed and heal among the tame dragons. Upperhead is very interested because he believes himself to be a human and hallucinating being a dragon. and just want to return to his people, the human. Bottomhead is a glutton and just want to eat everything presented to Garrodigh.
Not everything isn't as easy or straightforward as expected, and a bold young woman, Rania, basically bullies her way to becoming Garrodigh's rider. Hilarities ensues.
I found this story heartwarming, and the found family delightful. The way kind, gentle, and persistent relationships can heal wounds neither known or recognised.
I saw some reviews talking about the meme with the three dragon heads, but while reading I felt it more resembled the two-headed dragon (Devon and Cornwall) from Quest for Camelot fits so much better. The heads need to reconcile their differences before they can become a 'proper dragon' and fly. Getting to that stage with personal growth and help from friends is just like Devon and Cornwall in that they get outside help and guidance to reach that point. I love the movie and I enjoyed the book.
I wanted a bit more of everything I guess, though I can't exactly pinpoint what so that's why it's not getting a higher star rating. If you love the found-family tropes and healing, then this book is for you. It's not something I read much of so that may be what is affecting the rating.
3 stars
Thank you to DAW through NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
In a world with a howering city high in the sky, off course human greed wins and the city gets attacked by another nation. The wild dragons on the ground are affected and injured by the ammunition falling from the sky in the clashes between airships and dragonsriders from the floating city. One of these dragons is Garrodigh, The Great Terror. He has lost one of his four heads, Centerhead the most bloodthirsty of the three remaining heads get the bright idea to trick their way to the floating city, so the dragon can get fed and heal among the tame dragons. Upperhead is very interested because he believes himself to be a human and hallucinating being a dragon. and just want to return to his people, the human. Bottomhead is a glutton and just want to eat everything presented to Garrodigh.
Not everything isn't as easy or straightforward as expected, and a bold young woman, Rania, basically bullies her way to becoming Garrodigh's rider. Hilarities ensues.
I found this story heartwarming, and the found family delightful. The way kind, gentle, and persistent relationships can heal wounds neither known or recognised.
I saw some reviews talking about the meme with the three dragon heads, but while reading I felt it more resembled the two-headed dragon (Devon and Cornwall) from Quest for Camelot fits so much better. The heads need to reconcile their differences before they can become a 'proper dragon' and fly. Getting to that stage with personal growth and help from friends is just like Devon and Cornwall in that they get outside help and guidance to reach that point. I love the movie and I enjoyed the book.
I wanted a bit more of everything I guess, though I can't exactly pinpoint what so that's why it's not getting a higher star rating. If you love the found-family tropes and healing, then this book is for you. It's not something I read much of so that may be what is affecting the rating.
3 stars
Thank you to DAW through NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
August 15, 2026
Big thanks to the author and publisher for providing an advance copy!
I requested this ARC because I'm a fan of John Wiswell and this has his signature caring style all over it. There were a lot of things I really loved: the unabashed queerness of the characters, the varied disability rep, the incredibly sweet romantic subplot, and the entire concept of the three-headed dragon where three distinct personalities share a body and are both separate and one are all so fantastic. The overall plot was sort of background decoration and that's fine because it wasn't the point. The characters are the point. There's a huge focus on recovering from injury and trauma that was perhaps a bit too cozy and feel-good for my personal taste, but I can see how it would speak to an audience who wants that comforting perspective.
However, I will say that in a lot of ways, this feels like a children's book (obviously minus all the boinking). The tone, the writing style, the way the dragon spells everything out for the reader, honestly if you took out the dragon rider's frequent sexual escapades and removed the curse words and references to genitals, the actual story itself feels like a middle grade fantasy novel. You've got the injured dragon, the runaway girl trying to prove herself, the mean girl thwarting her, the love interest whose attention she can't seem to get (and I did really love Olek), a simple defeat-the-bad-guys plot … I ended up feeling like it was just lacking that extra punch we got from the monster in Wiswell's first book or the crazy Hera-Hercules dynamic from the second one.
But — some people might totally go for the quieter, simpler route this novel takes. The writing is delightful and story is well-paced and easy to read, so if it looks like your cup of tea, it's definitely worth the read.
I requested this ARC because I'm a fan of John Wiswell and this has his signature caring style all over it. There were a lot of things I really loved: the unabashed queerness of the characters, the varied disability rep, the incredibly sweet romantic subplot, and the entire concept of the three-headed dragon where three distinct personalities share a body and are both separate and one are all so fantastic. The overall plot was sort of background decoration and that's fine because it wasn't the point. The characters are the point. There's a huge focus on recovering from injury and trauma that was perhaps a bit too cozy and feel-good for my personal taste, but I can see how it would speak to an audience who wants that comforting perspective.
However, I will say that in a lot of ways, this feels like a children's book (obviously minus all the boinking). The tone, the writing style, the way the dragon spells everything out for the reader, honestly if you took out the dragon rider's frequent sexual escapades and removed the curse words and references to genitals, the actual story itself feels like a middle grade fantasy novel. You've got the injured dragon, the runaway girl trying to prove herself, the mean girl thwarting her, the love interest whose attention she can't seem to get (and I did really love Olek), a simple defeat-the-bad-guys plot … I ended up feeling like it was just lacking that extra punch we got from the monster in Wiswell's first book or the crazy Hera-Hercules dynamic from the second one.
But — some people might totally go for the quieter, simpler route this novel takes. The writing is delightful and story is well-paced and easy to read, so if it looks like your cup of tea, it's definitely worth the read.
August 26, 2026
I love Garrodigh and his three heads
I love a dragon with personality and this one has THREE!
Just imagine King Ghidorah from Godzilla in all his magnificence except we get to be inside his head.
We follow Centerhead, the main brain, Bottomhead, the basic ID of a dragon, and Upperhead, who thinks he's a human and this is all a big mistake. Suffice to say I loved this dragon and concept. The plot? It bit off more than it could chew (badum tss)
We get a lot of world building and mystery with very big answer that I enjoyed. BUT we never get a back story about Lefty? I really was hoping to learn more about how they became injured and their past life.
Also I was at first turned off by the random banging that the human character Rania does but I feel like that ending alluded to a ROMANCE SEQUEL!? JKJK but honestly I would 100% read more about Garrodigh and his adventures heck even the previous life!
I love a dragon with personality and this one has THREE!
Just imagine King Ghidorah from Godzilla in all his magnificence except we get to be inside his head.
We follow Centerhead, the main brain, Bottomhead, the basic ID of a dragon, and Upperhead, who thinks he's a human and this is all a big mistake. Suffice to say I loved this dragon and concept. The plot? It bit off more than it could chew (badum tss)
We get a lot of world building and mystery with very big answer that I enjoyed. BUT we never get a back story about Lefty? I really was hoping to learn more about how they became injured and their past life.
Also I was at first turned off by the random banging that the human character Rania does but I feel like that ending alluded to a ROMANCE SEQUEL!? JKJK but honestly I would 100% read more about Garrodigh and his adventures heck even the previous life!
September 2, 2026
Debating heavily on my rating for this book. I really enjoyed it!! My one big criticism is just that we have like no backstory. We are left to draw a lot of our own conclusions about Mister Slithers past and even the FFA. I wanted to know why the FFA r our bad guys. YES I get that they r trying to destroy our beautiful haven city... but why...yes we r told they want dragons and such. But r dragons not in other parts of the world? Why do they need these dragons? Obviously it is eluded that they r just not cool over there but like I need a bit more. We did the same thing with Lefty's story. Just alluding to things instead of just saying "here is what happened" which I would have liked cause I never really caught on to exactly what happened to him. I could be going crazy or I'm just stupid tho. I mean look at what time I'm writing this review. Overall though, I loved the evolution of Mister Slithers character and the different personalities of the heads. A great lil side romance and some humor had me enjoying the ride. 3.75 that I am rounding up for GR sakes.
August 9, 2026
This was mildly interesting, but there is some serious tonal whiplash between the "dragon identity crisis" and "oh shit, oh shit, war!!" (I'm being vague and oversimplifying, but it was just not doing it for me by the end).
August 31, 2026
Gorgeous and fun fantasy about a dragon with three heads (=its three personalities) and the dragon rider who becomes their found family.
October 10, 2026
The dragon parts were fun, the human parts not so much. Still an enjoyable read and probably my favorite Wiswell work to date.
September 13, 2026
A wonderful concept (a story about dragons narrated BY dragons), though a little predictable and unfortunately clunky prose. I would have preferred slighlty different personalities for the protagonist(s). 10/10 for the name Mr. Slithers.
August 2, 2026
I enjoyed this book of threes -- a dragon with three heads, each with its own personality. Three main themes for the book: coping with disability and/or trauma, a romantic subplot, and a background setting around immigration due to war, also identity and belonging. Plus a little bit around religion/faith. Okay, maybe the themes of this one don't fit quite this neatly. But certainly three levels to the fantasy world that come into the story: cosy, regular and military.
This was way too much fun for three stars! But, four stars not five, because in places the various elements didn't gel together in the way I was hoping for. The story starts soft and cosy and then builds out in scope and intensity. I was happy enough following along because our narrator is such a fun character, but I did feel the last part of the story had higher stakes than were really explained by what I took from the worldbuilding.
All in all, an entertaining standalone, just maybe not one I'll come back to.
Rating: 15/20
This review is based upon a complimentary advance review copy provided by the publisher.
This was way too much fun for three stars! But, four stars not five, because in places the various elements didn't gel together in the way I was hoping for. The story starts soft and cosy and then builds out in scope and intensity. I was happy enough following along because our narrator is such a fun character, but I did feel the last part of the story had higher stakes than were really explained by what I took from the worldbuilding.
All in all, an entertaining standalone, just maybe not one I'll come back to.
Rating: 15/20
This review is based upon a complimentary advance review copy provided by the publisher.
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