A Natural History of Dragons is set in a fantasy world that really isn’t that different from reality with the exception of the existence of dragons and dragonlike species. In my opinion, it should have just been set in an alternate reality. The anglocentrism and the references to real-world countries were obvious to the point of being unnecessary. Using real-world countries etc. wouldn't have made a difference other than being easier to read because the author wouldn't have had to mention so many made up names for things such as regions, languages, and months.

Initially I liked what felt like a low-stakes, faux-historical, Austen-esque story. There’s “period appropriate” sexism, of course, and our narrator doesn’t fit in with other girls and young women. As a scientist, she does stick out. And that would have been fine! Naturalism is an unsual interest for women to pursue in that setting, and there is nothing wrong with depicting the difficult path that lies before her. But. It's glaringly obvious that it's important to Isabella that she is not like other girls. Because unlike other girls she is neither faint of heart, nor does she care about silly novels and gossip. She is a scientist, after all. (And scientists can't enjoy the occasional silly novel?) If this is something that you don’t like in a protagonist, you might want to steer clear of this book. 

Other than that, there is plenty of half-heartedly or not at all reflected upon classism, prejudice, entitlement, and colonialism. The mystery that unfolds was not exciting to me, and, like I said, I found the main character less and less likeable as the story progressed. Since this is written as a memoir with the older Isabella commenting on her past actions quite a lot, she could have easily commented on her NLOG qualities as well, but didn’t. I appreciate that through the memoir-style, older Isabella criticises her younger self in other regards, and I liked the bits and pieces of dragon-lore we got, as well as the illustrations. However, there weren't nearly enough dragons, and if there were,

they'd usually be shot or already dead

.

I really wanted to like this one. Will not be reading the other books in the series.