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A review by blackmetalblackheart
Slip by Marika McCoola
3.0
Before picking it up, readers should be aware that Slip deals with attempted suicide.
Slip is a difficult book to rate. I thought the core story was great. It skillfully captures a time in life where so many things are beginning to change. The main character, Jade, is starting to figure out who she is outside of her family, her core friends, and her familiar environments. The conflicts are realistic, the events are grounded, and the feelings are relatable. The artwork is excellent. The characters feel unique and fleshed out. Even though the end is a little abrupt, I think it works well in defining this pivotal moment in Jade's life. It is telling a specific story and knows where it wants to leave the character and the reader.
My problem comes in with the magical realism elements. The whole time I was reading, I felt unclear about the rules of the world and what was happening. This was not helped by the color choices in the artwork. When Jade first runs into these magical elements it is presented in red. Subsequent similar events are also in red. But later on we start seeing panels and events in red that are actual things happening with other characters in the story. At first I was thinking that those pieces were simply being imagined, but that turned out to be wrong. It felt totally inconsistent and threw me off. I do not think any of the magical realism parts needed to be included. Flash backs and inner dialogue could have done the same thing without feeling jarring and inconsistent. The use of colors to indicate those things would have fit well.
That being said, I still think there is a lot of excellent stuff within the pages of Slip. It is a book that could have been great. As it stands, it is simply good.
Slip is a difficult book to rate. I thought the core story was great. It skillfully captures a time in life where so many things are beginning to change. The main character, Jade, is starting to figure out who she is outside of her family, her core friends, and her familiar environments. The conflicts are realistic, the events are grounded, and the feelings are relatable. The artwork is excellent. The characters feel unique and fleshed out. Even though the end is a little abrupt, I think it works well in defining this pivotal moment in Jade's life. It is telling a specific story and knows where it wants to leave the character and the reader.
My problem comes in with the magical realism elements. The whole time I was reading, I felt unclear about the rules of the world and what was happening. This was not helped by the color choices in the artwork. When Jade first runs into these magical elements it is presented in red. Subsequent similar events are also in red. But later on we start seeing panels and events in red that are actual things happening with other characters in the story. At first I was thinking that those pieces were simply being imagined, but that turned out to be wrong. It felt totally inconsistent and threw me off. I do not think any of the magical realism parts needed to be included. Flash backs and inner dialogue could have done the same thing without feeling jarring and inconsistent. The use of colors to indicate those things would have fit well.
That being said, I still think there is a lot of excellent stuff within the pages of Slip. It is a book that could have been great. As it stands, it is simply good.