2/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: dragons, Gods, wind magic, spells and eager apprentices.

Perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli and The Tea Dragon Society, this is a magically heartwarming graphic novel about self-acceptance and friendship.

Sophie is a young witch whose mother and grandmother pressure her to attend the Royal Magic Academy—the best magic school in the realm—even though her magic is shaky at best. To train for her entrance exams, Sophie is sent to relatives she’s never met.

Cousin Sage and Great-Aunt Lan seem more interested in giving Sophie chores than in teaching her magic. Frustrated, Sophie attempts magic on her own, but the spell goes wrong, and she accidentally entangles her magic with the magic of a young water dragon named Lir.

Lir is trapped on land and can’t remember where he came from. Even so, he’s everything Sophie isn’t—beloved by Sophie’s family and skilled at magic. With his help, Sophie might just ace her entrance exams, but that means standing in the way of Lir’s attempts to regain his memories. Sophie knows what she’s doing is wrong, but without Lir’s help, can she prove herself?

I read “Mooncakes” a few months ago and I was very disappointed. The illustrations were pretty but the story made no sense and nothing actually happened. I thought this was probably an isolated situation, so I decided to pick up “Tidesong”. Even though the plot was a little better this time, the reading experiences were very similar.

Let me start with what I liked: the illustrations were beautiful! The art is very similar to “Mooncakes” and you can obviously tell the illustrator is the same person because the style was exactly the same. I really liked how the dragons were illustrated, because it reminded me a lot of Ghibli’s stories – in particular the movie “Spirited Away” that also has a little girl, a dragon and water scenes!  And… that’s pretty much it. That’s all I liked about this book.

The story itself was weak, the pacing was weird, and the timing between the frames felt super off sometimes – and I had the exact same experience with “Mooncakes”. It felt like everything happened in two or three pages, and then nothing happened for a longer time.

I think the author is extremely talented when it comes to illustrating, so if they worked with a talented storyteller the books would be magical (in all senses!). These books lack structure and a solid plot to shine.

If I had to choose between “Mooncakes” and “Tidesong”, I would definitely pick “Tidesong” because the story wasn’t as confusing and the plot was better defined.

At the end of the day, I don’t think Wendy Xu’s books are for me.