wulfdog reviewed The Tea Dragon Society (Tea Dragon, #1) by Kay O'Neill (The Tea Dragon Society, #1)
None
4 stars
The Tea Dragon Society is a story about a young blacksmith girl named Greta that doesn't understand the importance of her craft. She feels it singles her out as it isn't practiced much anymore, and that while more in demand long ago, her family's creations aren't as popular as they once were. But, when she finds a lost tea dragon and returns it to its owner, she meets a lot of wonderful people who come to change her perspective.
This graphic novel is a nice one with a lot of love put into it, but that's really all I can say, that it's nice. I feel the pacing was too fast to really enjoy the characters, scenery, and flow of seasons through the chapters. It provides a lovely, cozy atmosphere with well-written, diverse representation, but it doesn't actually allow you to rest and settle into that atmosphere with these …
The Tea Dragon Society is a story about a young blacksmith girl named Greta that doesn't understand the importance of her craft. She feels it singles her out as it isn't practiced much anymore, and that while more in demand long ago, her family's creations aren't as popular as they once were. But, when she finds a lost tea dragon and returns it to its owner, she meets a lot of wonderful people who come to change her perspective.
This graphic novel is a nice one with a lot of love put into it, but that's really all I can say, that it's nice. I feel the pacing was too fast to really enjoy the characters, scenery, and flow of seasons through the chapters. It provides a lovely, cozy atmosphere with well-written, diverse representation, but it doesn't actually allow you to rest and settle into that atmosphere with these characters. Although, despite this, the book still left me wanting more.
While being light-hearted and cozy is the goal of this book, I think it could've benefited from some mild conflict. It kinda just felt like things were happening with nothing to grab me into the story in particular. This left it feeling rather two-dimensional in that regard. Any "issue" that came up was immediately fixed, so there was nothing really to help flesh out the characters in these instances.
Greta, while being, y'know, the main character, feels rather flat. It feels like she's more there to be a device to help tell the other character's stories. I couldn't remember her name afterward, and I'm not sure I could tell you much about her aside from her kindness and how she learned to appreciate less-practiced crafts. The other characters are well-crafted and their dialogue is rich and meshes well with their style and personality. Speaking of style, the character designs in this novel are very well put together and reflect each character perfectly, as well as fitting the vibes of the story itself.
Not to mention the tea dragons themselves, with each species designed in loving detail with a guide in the back of book with additional info about each one. It feels a shame we didn't get to see more about the tea dragons and their unique personality within the writing itself. I almost wish the end of the book was more fleshed out into its own little spin-off, just going into details about the behaviors and husbandry of each species.
As for the themes of this story, it shows how practices that have fallen out of popular use are still important and have a unique cultural impact around them. As Greta learns to appreciate the time and skill it takes to raise tea dragons and harvest tea from them, this in turn makes her appreciate her blacksmithing anew. The culture that surrounds raising tea dragons and how it brings the few that do
engage in it together causes her to think about how the items she makes may make people wonder who made it and how that brings them together by way of sharing her craft.
All in all, I think this graphic novel would be great for people who love cozy, queer, light-hearted, idyllic, fluffy breaks from reality. And if ya wanna breeze through something without thinking too much, this also works well for that. And I don't mean that in a bad way. We all need breaks sometimes. But, if you're looking for something more in-depth and seeing the words "cozy", "light-hearted", and "fluffy" in the same sentence makes you wanna groan, you'd best skip this one.
This graphic novel is a nice one with a lot of love put into it, but that's really all I can say, that it's nice. I feel the pacing was too fast to really enjoy the characters, scenery, and flow of seasons through the chapters. It provides a lovely, cozy atmosphere with well-written, diverse representation, but it doesn't actually allow you to rest and settle into that atmosphere with these characters. Although, despite this, the book still left me wanting more.
While being light-hearted and cozy is the goal of this book, I think it could've benefited from some mild conflict. It kinda just felt like things were happening with nothing to grab me into the story in particular. This left it feeling rather two-dimensional in that regard. Any "issue" that came up was immediately fixed, so there was nothing really to help flesh out the characters in these instances.
Greta, while being, y'know, the main character, feels rather flat. It feels like she's more there to be a device to help tell the other character's stories. I couldn't remember her name afterward, and I'm not sure I could tell you much about her aside from her kindness and how she learned to appreciate less-practiced crafts. The other characters are well-crafted and their dialogue is rich and meshes well with their style and personality. Speaking of style, the character designs in this novel are very well put together and reflect each character perfectly, as well as fitting the vibes of the story itself.
Not to mention the tea dragons themselves, with each species designed in loving detail with a guide in the back of book with additional info about each one. It feels a shame we didn't get to see more about the tea dragons and their unique personality within the writing itself. I almost wish the end of the book was more fleshed out into its own little spin-off, just going into details about the behaviors and husbandry of each species.
As for the themes of this story, it shows how practices that have fallen out of popular use are still important and have a unique cultural impact around them. As Greta learns to appreciate the time and skill it takes to raise tea dragons and harvest tea from them, this in turn makes her appreciate her blacksmithing anew. The culture that surrounds raising tea dragons and how it brings the few that do
engage in it together causes her to think about how the items she makes may make people wonder who made it and how that brings them together by way of sharing her craft.
All in all, I think this graphic novel would be great for people who love cozy, queer, light-hearted, idyllic, fluffy breaks from reality. And if ya wanna breeze through something without thinking too much, this also works well for that. And I don't mean that in a bad way. We all need breaks sometimes. But, if you're looking for something more in-depth and seeing the words "cozy", "light-hearted", and "fluffy" in the same sentence makes you wanna groan, you'd best skip this one.
