#dylan meconis

Margaret, our protagonist, is such a strong character, and a part of that to my eyes is the fact that Meconis doesn’t fall into the Not Like Other Girls character archetype. Margaret is raised with the expectation that she will become a nun when she is older, and doesn’t really seem to consider any other future for herself than that initially. We see her learning embroidery, and she seems to like doing it! She does her chores around the convent, and while she’s a headstrong and outspoken girl, she never really contrasts herself with other girls while being that, it’s just a character trait that she has, which is really nice. I love to see historical women who aren’t given anachronistic or heavy-handed ideas to highlight how they’re Strong Independent Women, and are allowed to be independent within a realistic image of how a woman in their era might achieve that. And in addition to that, Margaret is just really sweet, really positive and optimistic, and an interesting character in and of herself! I love her.

The art is gorgeous. It’s #bright, colourful but with more moody tones when needed, with a lot of soft curves and clean lines. Every character’s face is unique and distinctive, and easy to distinguish from each other, which is very much welcome given that all of the nuns have their hair and most of their bodies covered. I absolutely love this style, it’s very welcoming.

This graphic novel is very much made to be accessible to kids, what with the child protagonist and colourful art style and casual tone. However, it’s in no way dumbed down for that audience. It touches on serious themes and political machinations in a very accessible way that can be understood and enjoyed both by children and adults. Part of this is the coming-of-age aspect of Margaret’s life - she’s being introduced to a lot of the harsh truths about the world beyond her island, and has to grow up fast and come into the political sphere when she never assumed that would be part of her life. It’s very much welcome, though, and makes for an interesting, historically grounded narrative. Final note, though - while I’ve talked about the historical influences on this story, the world of it is not Tudor England, it’s a non-real world inspired heavily by Tudor England, so some artistic license and fabrication is absolutely fine because this is not depicting real history, which makes the places where it is historically attested and draws from reality all the more impressive to me. You didn’t have to put this degree of work in, but you did, and I appreciate it!