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The cover and title is intensely misleading, to start: this has nothing to do with magical baking.
I'm not the biggest fan of the artwork--it feels flat and underwhelming to me, and many of the expressions read as stiff. The poses are worse, somehow. The eyes and mouths should encourage emotion but they don't. The coloring is nice, especially when the softer marker lines read through, but the linework I could really do without.
The fall aesthetic is pleasing, but the world that surrounds the look feels superficial. I do really like the diversity of the characters and how accepting everyone (even the villain, surprisingly) is for Tam, but the action around Tam and Nova is rushed and unclear and there's no real sense of tension. The strength of magic is unclear, and characters have melodramatic meltdowns that don't seem warranted by what the reader is allowed to see. There's a history here, but it all feels paint by numbers, so the meltdowns read as unnecessary.
Also, moments that are meant to be cool read as real weird, like the whole "we understand technology" thing--what, and the villain doesn't? Why doesn't she? And is what you did really all that techy?
I don't much care for the scientist friend, and I don't feel like I know anyone by the end of this, nor actually care. I wish it had been about magical baking after all, not a strange secret society evil dad cult in the woods summoning demons.
I'm not the biggest fan of the artwork--it feels flat and underwhelming to me, and many of the expressions read as stiff. The poses are worse, somehow. The eyes and mouths should encourage emotion but they don't. The coloring is nice, especially when the softer marker lines read through, but the linework I could really do without.
The fall aesthetic is pleasing, but the world that surrounds the look feels superficial. I do really like the diversity of the characters and how accepting everyone (even the villain, surprisingly) is for Tam, but the action around Tam and Nova is rushed and unclear and there's no real sense of tension. The strength of magic is unclear, and characters have melodramatic meltdowns that don't seem warranted by what the reader is allowed to see. There's a history here, but it all feels paint by numbers, so the meltdowns read as unnecessary.
Also, moments that are meant to be cool read as real weird, like the whole "we understand technology" thing--what, and the villain doesn't? Why doesn't she? And is what you did really all that techy?
I don't much care for the scientist friend, and I don't feel like I know anyone by the end of this, nor actually care. I wish it had been about magical baking after all, not a strange secret society evil dad cult in the woods summoning demons.