'Snapdragon' is as messy, colourful, loud, passionate, tenacious, resolute, impulsive, eclectic, adorable, and precious a graphic novel as its namesake protagonist.
Snapdragon Bloom is a young girl, an outcast, who is trying to find her place in a world cruelly not suited to her, or to her needs and wants. Life is generally strange and hard when you're a kid, but Snap feels this anxiety and isolation very strongly. She hides nothing and wears her heart on her sleeve, and she can't help but lash out. She's my kind of girl. Anyone considered "weird" in society can relate to Snapdragon immediately.
In reality, there is nothing odd about her; she lives in a trailer park, with her single, overworked but beyond loving and understanding mother who is also studying for a degree, and with her three-legged dog, Good Boy. She loves horror films, dragons, the gruesome inside details of living things and nature, and she is hyper, full of energy, precocious, super funny, and is outside almost all the time. She's a fit and healthy spunk. She's a role model!
This is the story of Snapdragon. Of how she became an assistant and apprentice to her town's resident "witch", Jacks, as she helps to take care of baby possums, and collect roadkill, articulate animal bones, learn about all bones, and other unique skills. Snap also makes friends with fellow schoolkid Lulu, who through spending time with Snapdragon and her energy will learn to be free and be herself, as a trans girl. There is a lot more to things in Snap's life than meets the eye, such as in regards to the mysterious Jacks. And to Snap herself and her inner strengths.
Of course, all "outcasts" are in fact amazing, beautiful people, who are never to be judged outright and underestimated.
'Snapdragon' - her coming-of-age tale.
I love all of the characters in 'Snapdragon'. A lot of them are too precious for this cynical and backwards world. Special mention goes to Jacks, an older woman who looks, acts and dresses in a "masculine" manner, and is often mistaken for a man. She rides a motorbike (or did constantly when she was young), and is gay. These are what mark her as an outcast and witch, among other reasons which I won't reveal here due to the risk of spoiling any magic. Jacks is a wry loner, but deep down she possess a warm and caring heart, which Snapdragon draws out of her.
I cannot overstate enough the importance of Lulu's character, as a transgender child, and how her family is with her. This graphic novel contains such vital representation and diversity; right down to Snapdragon and Lulu, and their families and friends, also being POC.
There is, however, one thing in particular which bugs me about 'Snapdragon':
Snapdragon actually says that she is not like other girls. It's in a conversation with her mother, concerning her feelings about being a girl and whether she thinks she might be a boy, similar to Lulu coming out as a girl when she'd been thought to be a boy. Snap feels like a girl, but is distraught that she "doesn't act like it", or knows how to "do it right". Her angel of a mother corrects her on this assumption, saying that she is acting fine the way she is and she shouldn't have to change. But the "I'm not like other girls" line is never addressed.
I guess Snap being in the wrong is subtly implied. After all, she doesn't really know any other girls her age - never gave them a thought or the time of day - apart from Lulu, who started out as a "boy" until she finds she loves dresses, nail polish and other typically "girly" stuff. Jacks is also not a typical woman, and she still identifies as a woman despite not being viewed as "feminine". It's clear that one of the messages of 'Snapdragon' is that gender is a social construct, and there is no right or wrong way to be any sex. It is against any puritanical BS.
I only legitimately hate that "I'm not like other girls" is a line that continues to exist in a 2020 text. For children and young audiences at that. In a story all about how bad it is to generalise groups of people. I'd thought that that misogynistic line of thinking had died a permanent and painful death a decade ago.
Towards the end of the book as well, the structure and flow of the narrative get muddled and rushed, and suddenly a villain shows up, who had barely factored into the book until then, at the climax. There was no big bad antagonist in 'Snapdragon' up to that point - it didn't need one, and not one who is one-dimensional, either. Was it for the sake of having an "exciting" and dramatic finishing touch to the story, which had been doing fine in its unconventionality? It is melodramatic and kind of forced, even for a colourful and magical kids' graphic novel.
But in the end, the more I thought about it, the less I cared. My feelings for the lovable characters and the book's other elements didn't change. I'd still recommend it to anyone of any age.
Give me further adventures of Snapdragon, Jacks, Lulu, Snapdragon's mum, and the families! They deserve to be happy, and together, no longer alone and suffering in silence.
Dogs, possums, foxes, bucks, bones, bike rides, trailers, family legends, secrets of the elderly, the spiritual, willpower, a motorbike in the shape of a buck, and come on what more could you want? Under a critical, storytelling eye, it's a mess, but so is life, and it is absolutely charming and full of heart. I won't forget these characters.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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