This is an excellent book about finding your way back to yourself in the wake of tragedy. The author doesn't shy away from the heartbreak that Jade suffers at losing her best friend, but I thought that the way in which it was handled is appropriate for the audience. I'm excited to recommend this to my students.

[2.5 Stars]

This was cute but needed to be edited through a couple more times. I found that the story bounced around a lot, with a couple of the relationships being unbelievable. The ending also needed a bit more building up to. However, the art style was cute and the overall themes were quite powerful

Slip is a touching story of a girl who learns to process her emotions through art at a summer camp after a traumatic event. Beautiful art and excellent use of colors help to bring the character’s feelings to life. It’s a solid, emotional summer read with a positive ending. Trigger warning for mentions of attempted suicide.

Sometimes all you want is a graphic novel to sate your needs so, if that’s you, let me gently push Marika McCoola & Aatmaja Pandya’s Slip (out today!) in your direction. Its blurb calls it for fans of Bloom and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and that couldn’t be truer.

A coming of age story, following Jade as she joins a summer art intensive, just days after her best friend attempted suicide, this is a book with themes of mental health, first loves, and finding yourself and your place in the world. Basically, the perfect book for you to read this Pride month.

Not only is it well-written, but Pandya’s art leaps off the page. The best graphic novels, I think, are ones where the art brings to life the story, and this one does so very well. It’s quite simply coloured, in a way that you’ll see when you read it, but that only adds to the emphatic nature of it.

Really, then, one not to be missed!

It’s book tour day!! Thank you so much to Algonquin Young Readers for the free e-ARC for review and book release hype!
I went into SLIP blind – truthfully, I only requested it because I was a teen ceramicist and related to the cover—and was thrust into a deeply locked away memory: that of a childhood friend harming themselves, and having to “go away for a bit.” In Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya’s YA graphic novel SLIP (which releases on Monday, June 7!!), readers first meet main character Jade in this exact critical, devastating, formative moment. Her best friend Phoebe calls to let Jade know that she won’t be coming over as planned. She is in the hospital, she’s tried to un-alive herself, and she will be there for a while. What follows is a summer of Jade endeavoring to stay afloat and tuned into her art while grief ricochets through her inner person. What’s the point of continuing in the art program without the friend who built your confidence to apply? How can you focus on learning new things, when what you want to know is barricaded behind no-contact rules and patient confidentiality? SLIP has excellent pacing with an incredible use of image to drive it home. A few frames in, the artists zoom in on a pencil tip snapping under the weight of Jade’s internal collapse as she processes Phoebe’s fearful news. The pencil snapped, and I was hooked.

The story follows Jade as she embarks on an intensive summer residency at The Art Farm. She is shaken by the incomprehensible, new Phoebe. She grapples with relentless mental tailspins of unanswered questions and fears, wondering if she in some way failed her friend or pushed her over the edge. Struggling to hone the vision for her artwork due to her anguish, Jade must confront her codependence with Phoebe, her unexamined expectations of their friendship, her emotional formation, and a fair amount of survivor’s guilt.

James, her art farm mentor, greets her with an ages old pottery proverb: “But I think that beauty comes from the unpredictability of the firing. We spend so much of our time controlling what a piece will look like…but these artists have also proven their ability to relinquish control, and it’s that balance that’s beautiful.” Jade does not so much relinquish control as it is taken from her by way of trauma-induced hallucinations…or is it actually art camp magic? For me as a reader, this blurring of intent—am I intended to perceive this as magic realism or grief?—was the best aspect of this book. In the overall hero’s journey, I felt like the other main relationship arc was a little lost at times. Jade feels some interest in another camper, Mary, and while they find contentment, it seemed like Jade was going through too much for her involvement with Mary to be genuine and not done out of fear of letting another friend down. I’m not sure if my interpretation of this other story arc aligns with the author’s goal for the characters, so I encourage you to still peruse this new graphic novel when it releases on Monday if you are curious about how these stories play out!

SLIP felt personal, and the art historian / former art school nerd in me loved the young artist conversations and trials and I think the authors did an incredible job conveying the power of art as an arena for contending with your demons.

thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for gifting me this early copy in exchange for an honest review!!

sometimes I tend to wait until I read some books so I forget what the synopsis says and I can enjoy them more. and that was the case with this graphic novel. I had totally forgotten that it dealt with suicide of a close friend so trigger warning for that in case someone can't read about it. but it was such a nice take about how a friends deals with her friend's suicide attempts, trying to understand why she would do it at the same time she needs to figure out how to live her life. the importance of art is central in this story and I loved reading about someone working with clay, since there are always painters and it was a change. it's also a queer book, which was super surprising and loved since it was something nobody did a lot of fuss about and sometimes we need that. I truly loved how the mc evolved in her thoughts and so did her art, this was a such a beautiful detail... but the sad thing was how the text was written, the letters were so close with each other it was kind of hard to discover what it said. hopefully the final version will have that improved because it is a really nice graphic novel 😍

I would like to start this book review by pointing out my limited experience with graphic novels, so please bear with me. 𝓢𝓛𝓘𝓟 is written by Marika McCoola and it is illustrated by Aatmaja Pandya; it is a coming-of-age story of Jade and the graphic novel genre provided a different perspective of bildungsromans. Here, I will focus on two aspects of the graphic novel: the illustrations and the plot

𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝑰𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔

The panels are all in black and white, but the images are soft that capture the young adult aspect of these characters. In addition to this aspect, the illustrations capture the light-hearted, summery vibes of the Art Farm and the overall story. However, there are certain illustrations that are in red and white. These images are some times limited to frames or not bound to these frames, which I interpreted as representations of intense emotions that the protagonist feels. These emotions include shock and love and the red color portrays the strength of these emotions perfectly. Furthermore, the red white images also represent the protagonist’s memories of the past, which highlights the people and things that Jade cherishes the most. The red and white images also represent what I assume to be visions; the ambiguity around these images mystify these events and raises the question of how these experiences will influence Jade’s stay at the Art Farm and her art. I find that these magical or fantastical elements to show a different way of coping with psychological struggles.

𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕-𝑻𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒍𝒐𝒕

The plot is a mix of coming-of-age and a summer teenage romance. First, the author conveys psychological struggles with a hint of fantastical elements, which shows how Jade struggles with Phoebe’s absence. As a reader, I found it to be an interesting take on how the protagonist overcomes her struggles; this magical element blends with the forest-setting of the story and it also intensifies and foregrounds Jade’s struggle with her mental health. Second, the subject of art is very efficiently conveyed, especially Jade’s relationship with it. Jade’s struggle to create her art pieces as well as the other character’s artistic ventures- it highlights the difficulties that arise with artists’ creativity. Third, the romance was sweet, however it needed to be well-paced. It could have been more slowly developed because I did not understand Jade’s attraction to Mary; it felt like Mary was the only one moving the relationship forward, which could have been different if the development of the relationship would have been given more space. Although, there are other characters, I did not feel like they have much depth, so I could not connect with them, but I feel like these characters could have been given more space as well, which would have highlighted the socially active atmosphere of the Art Farm. Nonetheless, 𝓢𝓛𝓘𝓟 is 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒄 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕-𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑, 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓.

Slip is the story of Jade, a sculptor with immense promise who’s getting ready for a summer art intensive, but the day before she leaves her whole world falls apart; Jade’s best friend, Phoebe, is hospitalized after a suicide attempt.
Jade isn’t sure how she’s supposed to just keep living her life after this, but she goes to the Art Farm where she makes new friends, and rivals, and even develops feelings for a fellow artist. As the summer goes on Jade must learn how to accept these new developments in her life and figure out how to keep on living without letting her best friend feel forgotten or left behind; she must do all this while building her art portfolio, which has its own set of problems when her best pieces come to life and and confront Jade with everything she’s been trying to avoid. Jade’s story is an important one because we’ve all gone through in some way, to some degree; when it feels like everything is just turning to dust all around you and you have to figure out how to keep going because you’re still here and somehow life keeps moving forward.
Slip a beautiful story about love in its many forms and how that love makes itself known when nobody knows how to handle it anymore.
The writing is a clear and accurate depiction of life as a teenage girl; how much strength and passion are behind every emotion and the intense devotion to the things that are important. The artist’s brilliant use of monochromatic color schemes supports this perspective and really jolts the reader between Jade’s varied emotional states throughout the summer and the story.
I highly recommend this graphic novel to readers of all ages who enjoy coming of age stories about friendship and finding yourself and learning the difference between moving forward and simply moving on.
Thank you to Algonquin Young Readers for sending me this review copy of Slip by Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya.
CW: su*cide attempt

In order to get a scholarship in arts, it's very important for Jade to be a while at Art Farm, but she gets there super shaken knowing that her best friend is in the hospital for having tried to commit suicide, so at first she can't take advantage of the opportunities of this experience, for being worried about her friend and being lost in relation to what she is doing with her art.

I understand why the internal colors of the story are few to match the more melancholy tone of the story, but I wish there were at least more details of the setting of this graphic novel, as the story takes place in a barn that is the headquarters of Art Farm, the program that Jade participates in to compete for a scholarship in the arts, was that the vivacity of the art that her colleagues produced was lost.

I liked the relationship between the art that the protagonist produces at Art Farm with the state of her mental health, in which she feels a lack of confidence in her own work and the anguish of not knowing how her best friend is doing, with interesting reflections when she finds, as she uses the animals around her a lot to convey a message about the various human emotions.

There is a Sapphic romance that is worked out in a way that is far from the focus of the narrative, which at first gives you doubt as to whether it will happen or is it just platonic, but it is present and comes to fruition.

I had the feeling that this graphic novel could have a more rounded end, Jade's journey at art school is round with her meeting there, but it lacks a good ending to how much her friendship with Phoebe is going, one has evolved and matured and how was the other with her fragile health? Not having worked on it gave me the feeling that this Phoebe plot only served as a crutch for the protagonist.

Thank you to Algonquin Young Readers and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this book. This is a complex YA graphic novel addressing topics of finding oneself as well as suicide and its effects on those who are close to the victim. I enjoyed the illustrations and explanations about ceramics. The characters felt authentic and the book is well-written for the intended audience.

~Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review~
A heartbreaking read about a young girl whose best friend commits suicide right before she's scheduled to leave for a summer art intensive. Through its gorgeous art style, this graphic novel beautifully touches upon dark themes such as death, self-harm, suicide, self-doubt and friendship. I related to Jade's feelings of never being a good enough artist and seeing her process such difficult thoughts and emotions as she haphazardly produces art was such an excellent parallel. With that said, make no mistake that this book is about JADE and HER feelings surrounding her best friend's suicide attempt - by no means does this book aim to encapsulate Phoebe's state of mind during this time. While I wish we did get duel perspectives between the two friends, I appreciated seeing Jade grapple, however selfishly, with this awful news, a perspective we often don't get to see in these types of stories. One last critique I have is that I wish the art style incorporated more color as this story centers around an artist (we even get a scene where she mentions the color red in her peer's work and we! can't! see it!). All in all, however, this was a wonderful read and I highly recommend you pick this one up once it's published on June 7th!

Slip is a wonderful graphic novel that touches on a plethora of important topics for teens: suicide, friendship, the pressure to succeed. I loved how some of these manifested in magical ways through Jade's art as she develops into a stronger artist with a vision through the course of the story. The artwork is perfectly fitting for the story, and the panels helped everything move along smoothly. I hope this creator duo works together again, because the effect is phenomenal!

Thank you to Algonquin Young Readers and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

This YA graphic novel covered an intense topic in a short amount of time.

SLIP follows our main character, Jade, getting ready to go on an intensive art retreat in hopes she’ll get an art school scholarship for college. Just as she’s about to leave she gets a call from her best friend, Chloe, she’s in the hospital. Chloe has survived a suicide attempt and now Jade is just supposed to go away for the summer like nothing happened??

I really enjoyed the art style of this piece and their use of color during certain scenes. For once there’s a sapphic subplot that isn’t the cause of her mental turmoil. Her focus is to find out what she wants to base her art pieces around. While she learns to deal with her emotions of what happened to her friend, she learns how to love her art and what she needs to do to make it stronger. She learns to let go of the negative emotions that cause her to blame herself for her friend’s attempts on her life. Instead, she learns how she can support her, and try to help her through all of the emotions she’s feeling.

This is an intense read for someone in high school, in my opinion. I would recommend it to others though! It truly captures how an artist deals with trauma and how art can help heal you.


I will be making posts about this on 6/6 on Goodreads, Instagram, and twitter as per the book tour schedule!

I had an enjoyable time with this graphic novel. I loved the art style and how the main character has a love for art even with being unsure if she’s good enough. I understand her feelings towards the possibility of losing her best friend unexpectedly, but I wish she hadn’t dismissed mental health issues with a fellow artist in the camp in the way she did and I wish it would’ve be addressed more.

Thank you to Algonquin Young Readers for providing me with an early copy of Slip in exchange for an honest review

As someone who loves graphic novels, I'm always on the lookout for new ones. Especially when they are Queer.
While this story is Queer, it is also so much more than that.

Jade's best friend has attempted suicide, leaving her feeling every emotion a best friend can feel after an event like this has taken place: What could I have done? Was I not attentive enough? Was she telling me in her art, but I just wasn't listening?

Processing this while going to an art summer program where you can get a scholarship for college is a lot for someone. Feeling guilty while also trying to create an art piece that speaks volumes when you can't speak to the one person you want to has affected Jade. It won't allow her to do what she has always loved doing and lowering her chances of her dreams coming true.

During this time, she develops a crush on a fellow artist, but her pain pushes her away.

This is a heartbreaking story, it made me feel for both Jade and her bestie Phoenix. Feeling like you have failed as a best friend and trying to figure out how you can do better in both your friendship and your dreams... it's a lot, especially for a teen.

The last panels, though...yeah, there were a few tears that fell.

The art is simple, yet beautifully projects the story and emotions of the characters. While I wish the story was a tiny bit longer and the romance didn't feel as rushed, I do accept it and like it the way it is.

My favorite part were the sections where it seemed that some sort of magic was involved. The panels changing color to reflect those moments– it cemented for me that I truly love when illustrators do that.

Like mentioned, please keep the trigger warning for attempted suicide and talk of said suicide in mind if you're looking to pick this up.

Will definitely look forward to owning a physical copy in the future.

⭐️ 4 STARS ⭐️

I really liked this graphic novel about difficult subjects and feelings, with a sprinkle of magic realism. Right before Jade goes to a coveted summer art intensive, she finds out that her best friend, Phoebe, has tried to commit suicide. This knowledge (and wondering why, or really any communication from her friend) pushes Jade into a vulnerable state in a new place, with new people and highly competitive "crit" sessions. Jade's distress seems very real to me, and finding solace through her art also makes sense. I do wish that we knew more about Phoebe, and learned more about her outside the lens of Jade and her feelings.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Slip follows a teen, Jade to an art camp immediately following the suicide attempt of her BFF, Phoebe.
Jade has a hard time at camp because she is so preoccupied with thoughts of her friend and trying to figure out how to create art in a cohesive manner and with a message. The pressure of creating art while thinking about her friend back home is enough to really stress a teen out. Add in a side of romance and Jade is all confused and doesn't know what to do with all her emotions.

Slip had an interesting concept and great bones for a story of a teen grappling with a lot, but the story fell a little short for me. I didn't get to connect with Phoebe and felt the beginning of the story just skimmed over Phoebe and her mental health. We really could've benefitted with more from her and/or her mother. I think an opportunity was lost to have Jade grow as a person with her knowledge of what was going on with her friend as opposed to making it all about herself.

Including LGBTQ rep was a great addition. I liked having Jade finding love with Mary at the camp. They had some great times, but also had a few toxic situations that were glossed over. We even get a memory of a conversation with Phoebe that was just thrown in there, but I wasn't sure why it was included. The camp itself was a little odd for a small group of teens, but I suspended my belief for that and for Jade's lively art. I enjoyed the creations that Jade came up with and how they came alive with their own emotions that paralleled what Jade was going through.

With that said, I enjoyed the drawings that went with the story. I liked when we got thoughts of Phoebe, the color changed from black and white to red. For graphic novels, the visuals must bring the words alive. But for this being a book about an artist at an art camp, wouldn't it have been cool for this to have been in full color to really wow us with the art??
Overall, there really were great ideas, but the execution fell a wee flat.
I shared my book with my young teen and will share their thoughts on the book below....

Kai's review (from a young teens perspective):
It seems like Slip is more like a 2nd book because it goes right into the suicide attempt at the beginning without explaining anything. I wish I got to know Phoebe's story a bit more because it seemed really important to Jade and how she was coping. I liked that Jade and Mary started a deeper friendship at the art camp, but I wanted to know more about them as a couple. The art that Jade began to make at the camp was really cool and I liked the meaning behind it. I think the emotional parts of the animals were very relatable. I liked that this graphic novel talks a little bit about mental health because that is very important to teenagers right now and that should be represented more in books. As with any graphic novel, the art has to go with the story. I liked the art style, but it made the characters seemed young, until we see the serious topics like suicide and including smoking by a teenager. If this were to become a series, I would definitely want to read more about these characters.

Overall, I'd say that this book was 4 star. I enjoyed it, but there were a few things things I would change. I would recommend it to teens that are struggling with mental health and/or a part of the LGBTQ community because of the representation in it. We need more books like this to make us feel included and this graphic novel really did that.

Looks like between my child and me, this would be a 3.5 stars read.

I wanted a little more from this in all aspects--character development and more with her clay creations coming alive. I appreciated the intense friendship in it and her struggle to define and see herself outside of her friendship with her best friend.

An utterly beautiful and heartfelt graphic novel with gorgeous, evocative artwork and imagery throughout.

Slip
Marika McCoola

I was able to read this advance copy thanks to Algonquin Young Readers.

What immediately caught my eye was the cover. The beautiful artwork, the tress the Art infused graphic novel and the symbolism captured in this cover images. I read the books synopsis of was taken aback by the delicate matter that it had planned to cover.

Slip follows Jade’s journey through an art summer camp following the attempted suicide of her best friend. The after story told from the friends POV was an interesting take and a new one for me.

But.

Given that this novel was based around the exploration of art, I truly do think it would have been elevated in full color. We do get some color pops for pinkish hues mixed with lots a muted tones.

The plot felt a bit selfish, which worked great because Jade was learning that this wasn’t about her, art camp wasn’t about her, her friend attempted suicide wasn’t about her.

Unfortunately though Slip didn’t work for me. Something felt off. The teased romance, the ah ha moment, even the pottery casualties felt as silenced as the colorless pages.

Book 33 of 2022
Rating ⭐️⭐️💫