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A review by howlinglibraries
Slip by Marika McCoola
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Slip follows Jade's summer at an art camp immediately following her best friend's attempted suicide, and Jade must try to juggle her goal of winning a college scholarship alongside realizing her best friend is in terrible pain. Through all of this, there's an unexpected romance with another girl at camp, and Jade finds herself understandably overwhelmed with the variety of feelings happening at once.
Unfortunately, while this graphic novel sounded great in theory, almost nothing about it worked for me. The art is beautiful, but primarily in black-and-white, and I agree with a lot of other reviewers that it would have been improved tremendously by being a full-color graphic novel. It's an entire story revolving around art and taking place at an art camp, so choosing not to colorize the book feels like a massive missed opportunity!
While I loved the queer rep, Jade and Mary (and all of the other characters, too) are so flat that I could not possibly bring myself to feel invested in the romance forming between them. There's a bit of back-and-forth "will they, won't they", but it doesn't carry any weight, and when the two of them get into a tiff over miscommunication, it doesn't cast Mary in a good light (multiple panels of her throwing items in Jade's direction out of anger — something we don't need to normalize in arguments, even among teens).
And finally, as far as the representation of Phoebe's suicide attempts and how it affects Jade, I was uncomfortable with a lot of the commentary. Phoebe's suicide attempts only served as a prop for Jade's own pain, and I kept feeling like Jade cared less about how her best friend was doing and more about how it affected her, or how she had "missed the signs". There are a few moments where it felt that Jade was vilifying Phoebe and blaming her, and while there is a side character who makes great points about mental illness, I don't think we ever got to see Jade fully actualize those realizations for herself. Obviously, she's a teenager and I'm not expecting her to be the most emotionally mature character I've ever read, but it's hard to root for her.
All in all, Slip is a classic case of great theory, poor execution. I would have loved to have given this a higher rating, but I was disappointed and uncomfortable with too many elements to justify it.
✨ Representation: Jade and Mary are queer; multiple characters are BIPOC (no specific representation is mentioned for any of them)
Unfortunately, while this graphic novel sounded great in theory, almost nothing about it worked for me. The art is beautiful, but primarily in black-and-white, and I agree with a lot of other reviewers that it would have been improved tremendously by being a full-color graphic novel. It's an entire story revolving around art and taking place at an art camp, so choosing not to colorize the book feels like a massive missed opportunity!
While I loved the queer rep, Jade and Mary (and all of the other characters, too) are so flat that I could not possibly bring myself to feel invested in the romance forming between them. There's a bit of back-and-forth "will they, won't they", but it doesn't carry any weight, and when the two of them get into a tiff over miscommunication, it doesn't cast Mary in a good light (multiple panels of her throwing items in Jade's direction out of anger — something we don't need to normalize in arguments, even among teens).
And finally, as far as the representation of Phoebe's suicide attempts and how it affects Jade, I was uncomfortable with a lot of the commentary. Phoebe's suicide attempts only served as a prop for Jade's own pain, and I kept feeling like Jade cared less about how her best friend was doing and more about how it affected her, or how she had "missed the signs". There are a few moments where it felt that Jade was vilifying Phoebe and blaming her, and while there is a side character who makes great points about mental illness, I don't think we ever got to see Jade fully actualize those realizations for herself. Obviously, she's a teenager and I'm not expecting her to be the most emotionally mature character I've ever read, but it's hard to root for her.
All in all, Slip is a classic case of great theory, poor execution. I would have loved to have given this a higher rating, but I was disappointed and uncomfortable with too many elements to justify it.
✨ Representation: Jade and Mary are queer; multiple characters are BIPOC (no specific representation is mentioned for any of them)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide attempt