Snapdragon

“‘Their mama’s dead and you helped Good Boy—I thought maybe…I thought maybe you could help them.’ ‘Well, c’mon. Bring ‘em on inside. They look a few weeks old…that’s lucky…They’ll be ready to be on their own in a month or so…Keep ‘em warm, feed ‘em…they’ll likely survive.’”

These lines characterize how Jacks defies the town’s assumptions of her. The town imagines her to be a creature-eating witch. She is actually a compassionate caretaker of animals and she helps Snap with the possum babies without a second thought.

“‘Then how’d you escape?’ ‘Easy! I walked backward off her property with my eyes shut! That’s the only way to escape a witch!’ ‘Oh, really? And did you do it with a rosemary sprig in your pocket? Everyone knows that’s the secret!’ ‘Wait a second…No! Because rosemary only works during dream sequences!’ ‘I knew that! It was a test! What you really need to carry with you angelica root—’ ‘Bound with the witch’s hair!’ ‘I never met someone my age who likes the Witch’s Hill movies!’”

This moment solidifies Snap and Lulu’s friendship. Both are perceived as different for various reasons. Snap is a girl who doesn’t like girly things. Lulu is a trans girl who, at this point, is not yet out and is judged for liking girly things. As she and Snap find that they are passionate about the same movie series, this demonstrates The Strength of Found Family. Though both feel judged by their peers at various times, they feel safe and secure with each other.

“‘I sell ‘em on the internets.’ ‘Wow. I never met an old person who could use the internet.’”

This quotation characterizes Snap. She is an outgoing and outspoken girl. Sometimes she says things that come people might perceive as offensive, but she is always earnest and non-judgmental in ways that subvert the reader’s assumptions. After Jacks describes how she buries roadkill and articulates their skeletons once they decay so she can sell them online to educators, Snap is shocked. Readers might expect Snap to be disgusted by the process. However, she is only shocked that an “old person” can use the internet.

“‘Oh honey…this isn’t a nice book for little girls. We have a lot of cute books about animals!’ ‘Actually, she’ll take this one. Thank you.’”

Though the main and side characters of the graphic novel embrace the mutability of identity and reject stereotypical gender norms, smaller side characters provide moments of antagonism that remind them that a lot of people adhere to traditional gender stereotypes. The bookseller reveals what she thinks about which types of objects are suitable for different people. This quotation also characterizes Violet, who always stands up for her daughter.

“‘I’ll have to tell ‘em to you another time.’ ‘Promise?! Next time we hang out?’ ‘Next time. Sure. I promise!’

This exchange is a pivotal moment in both Snap and Lulu’s relationship and their individual character growth. Lulu asking for the story “next” time guarantees they’ll hang out again. They realize that they have found allies and are beginning to understand The Strength of Found Family.

“I ain’t disrespectin’ these critters. Critters die all the time, but it ought to be for a reason. That’s what even the least of us deserve. But roadkill’s a lousy way to end up. Lotsa folks don’t even notice when they hit something. So I notice ‘em.”

Jacks is clear about both the intention and effect of her actions. She also establishes the idea that everyone is deserving of attention and special consideration, especially the creatures or people society forgets or mistreats.

“‘If you wanted a girly-girl friend you shoulda picked like…literally any other girl at our school.’ ‘Nah, I don’t care if you don’t like girly things. You don’t make fun of me for liking them.’”

Snap and Lulu’s relationship becomes more dynamic as they learn more about one another. As Lulu says, it is less important to have shared interests than it is to accept your friends and loved ones’ interests, especially if they are related to identities that are marginalized.

“They didn’t much mind a woman racin’ with ‘em…weren’t crazy about us winnin’ though!—But! I was tall, gangly, covered in dirt, and I didn’t talk much…everyone just assumed I was a fella.”

This story provides important background history and characterization for both Jessie and Jacks, but it also provides context on how people perceive Jacks. She is accepted as a winning motorcycle racer because society’s learned association between physical traits and a gender binary convinced people she was a man despite being a cisgender woman.

“‘We wouldn’t even be the only…unconventional family! That widower next town over’s raisin’ his lot with another fella…an’...an’ that couple in Virginia, the Lovings, they—’ ‘That’s not why I don’t want kids, Jessie…I’m afraid I’ll turn out like my parents.’ ‘Your parents were awful, Jacks, worse than awful, but you wouldn’t be like them!’ ‘I bet they thought they’d be great parents…bet they never thought they’d throw out their own kid.’”

Jacks and Jessie are in an interracial lesbian relationship in the mid-20th-century Southern United States, where both the “interracial” and “lesbian” aspects of their relationship were stigmatized. Jessie alludes to Mildred and Richard Loving, a Black woman and a white man who were each sentenced to prison for breaking Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which made interracial marriage illegal. They appealed their case up to the US Supreme Court, and in 1967, Loving v. Virginia ruled that laws banning interracial marriage violated people’s civil rights. Even after Loving v. Virginia officially made interracial marriage legal, interracial couples still dealt with racist attitudes, actions, and opinions.

“‘But you loved each other!’ ‘Yes, well…if we’d stayed together, you wouldn’t exist. And that’d be a shame.’”

This exchange marks an important moment in Jacks’s character development. Despite her earlier rejection of family, Jacks is won over by Snap. Her words show Snap how Jacks is coming to care for her.

“‘Hey, Louis! What gives? You used to be cool before you caught freak from this one!’ ‘It’s Lulu. And Snap’s cooler than you are, Travis.’ ‘Really?! ‘Cause she got you wearing skirts and nail polish.’”

Lulu shows The Strength of Found Family by standing up for herself; asserting her lived name and defending Snap against Travis’s mean comments. Travis is using transphobic and sexist rhetoric. Stereotypical binary gender norms dictate certain types of clothes for “men” or “women.” In reality, anyone can wear things like skirts and nail polish if they want to, no matter their gender.

“‘Do you feel like you’re a boy? Like the way Lu’s a girl?’ ‘No, Mama.’ ‘You can talk to me about these things—’ ‘I’m just…not like other girls! I wondered if maybe I was really a boy, like Lu’s a girl…but that don’t feel right, either…I feel like a girl…I just don’t act right.’”

Violet notices how Snap feels different than her peers and gently asks about her identity so she can better help her. Violet makes sure she is creating a safe space for Snap to divulge information in if she wishes. While Snap tells Violet she does not identify as trans, she still feels penned in by the gender norms and expectations society has for young girls.

“Oh. You can see her, huh? Yeeep, ghosts is real. I been sayin’ as much. They day you brung them babies to me…you carried mama here, too.” 

This moment marks when Snap learns about The Intersection of Magic and Reality. At this point, she can simply see magic, but it is enough to teach her about the type of magic that exists in the world. All living things have energy within them, and that energy exists as a ghostly spirit after their death.

“Witches don’t fit into the roles we’re supposed to. So we’re always on the outside. And so, witches got made into scary things to be feared. To excuse the cruel things done to us. That’s what scared folks did. Still do.”

Jacks tells Snap about how witches have historically been treated by social groups who perceive them as scary and different. Using an identity group as a scapegoat is a common tool to reinforce perceived normativity and discourage diversity, which in turn challenges hegemonic power structures. Jacks makes it clear that this sort of treatment continues into the present day.

“You can already see it—that’s good. A good first step…but connectin’ with it and usin’ it how you wish…That’s the finicky bit—that’s magic.—And magic is a matter of will. No words…no props…you need nothing but yourself.”

Jacks explains how magic works. Even though people have stereotypical beliefs about witches, who are historically persecuted, the magic that witches use is not unnatural or scary. It is based in attributes everyone has, like the “will” to do something.

“‘What if you showed me other magic I could do! Y’know, not just glowin’ hands and seein’ ghosts! There’s gotta be loads more you can do!!’ ‘I told you this has to be done a certain way. I’m teachin’ you the basics. You can’t be doin’ nothin’ else ‘til you learn ‘em!’ ‘But if you just showed me—’ ‘It’d only be a distraction!’”

Jacks tries to be a good teacher of magic to Snap but her teaching is affected by how her past experiences with trauma shape her actions and personality. Being rejected due to her parents’ stereotypical beliefs and knowing how society has historically treated people perceived as witches makes Jacks avoid the flashier types of magic. She argues that they are a distraction to Snap or could cause her to make a mistake that might confirm people’s stereotypical beliefs about magic users.

“‘There would have been a reason!’ ‘A reason for what?’ ‘For why I feel so different! Why I don’t fit in! And it’d be an awesome reason! I’d be a witch!’ ‘You need a reason?’”

Snap is disappointed about not being able to use magic because she thought being a witch might be the reason she feels different from her peers. Learning about magic makes her think she might be acting like a witch instead, validating her differences in her mind. Lulu models how to be a supportive friend who questions why Snap is searching for reasons to explain away her behavior rather than accepting who she is.

“‘My mom can’t get new clothes all at once…but I do get to pick out my own from now on! And my dad got all these books from the library and has been reading and reading…My brothers are the same as always…’ ‘Ha! Too bad!’ ‘Now if my hair would only grow faster so I could do something cute with it!’”

Though Lulu got bullied at school, her parents are accepting of the fact that she is trans. Having a Black couple who accepts their trans daughter is an important model of support for Black trans youth, a demographic of queer youth who are overrepresented in unhoused populations. Lulu’s father is doing the work of educating himself rather than asking her to educate him.

“‘Why didn’t you tell me you could fly?!?’ ‘I don’t often. But there are certain times charged with energy—like Halloween—when it’s easier.’”

Jacks provides more details about how magic is interwoven with the real world. The idea that there are certain days where the spiritual or magical world and the “real” world are more closely linked is present in a variety of time periods and cultures.

“‘Y’know, we went Halloween shopping last week…and she got all grouchy, ‘cause all the skeleton decorations were “anatomically incorrect”!’ ‘Ha! Precocious!’ ‘She is! She always has been. Also responsible, independent…but…because of that…I worry I’ve been relying on her to take care of herself too much.’”

Violet recognizes that Snap’s characteristics make it too easy to think that she can take care of herself. Violet is a round character who is realistic and has her own problems, personality, and character growth.

“I believe I owe you an apology…Just because you weren’t doing things my way…doesn’t mean your way was wrong.”

Jacks’s main conflict is the test of whether or not she will replicate the trauma and rejection her parents showed her. Jacks proves that she can choose to act differently than her parents did by apologizing to Snap and admitting her mistakes.

“‘Snap, that don’t seem like a great idea.’ ‘Why not!? Grandpa died a long time ago! You could—’ ‘It’d just be dredging up the past.’ ‘I think she’d be happy to see you.’”

Snap crafts a plan during the falling action to reunite Jacks and Jessie. Jacks thinks that it is too late to reforge their connection, but Snap shows her that it is never too late to find your family.

“‘You, uh, your family…You made a great one…’ ‘…Oh, Jacks…I have missed you.’ ‘Me, too, Jessie…Me too.’”

This moment provides resolution to the question of what will happen to Jacks and Jessie’s romance. After they split, Jessie had the large family that Jacks didn’t think she wanted. Now, Jacks is accepted into that family again.