Contemporary – Page 20 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel

Title: Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel
Author: Amanda Quain
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Retelling
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley, Raincoast Books
Format: Paperback arc, Ebook
Release Date: July 26, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Georgiana Darcy gets the Pride & Prejudice retelling she deserves in Accomplished, a sparkling contemporary YA featuring a healthy dose of marching band romance, endless banter, and Charles Bingley as a ripped frat boy.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Georgiana Darcy should have been expelled after The Incident with Wickham Foster last year – at least if you ask any of her Pemberley Academy classmates. She may have escaped expulsion because of her family name, but she didn’t escape the disappointment of her big brother Fitz, the scorn of the entire school, or, it turns out, Wickham’s influence.
But she’s back for her junior year, and she needs to prove to everyone—Fitz, Wickham, her former friends, and maybe even herself—that she’s more than just an embarrassment to the family name. How hard can it be to become the Perfect Darcy? All she has to do is:
– Rebuild her reputation with the marching band (even if it kills her)
– Forget about Wickham and his lies (no matter how tempting they still are), and
– Distract Fitz Darcy—helicopter-sibling extraordinaire—by getting him to fall in love with his classmate, Lizzie Bennet (this one might be difficult…)
Sure, it’s a complicated plan, but so is being a Darcy. With the help of her fellow bandmate, Avery, matchmaking ideas lifted straight from her favorite fanfics, and a whole lot of pancakes, Georgie is going to see every one of her plans through. But when the weight of being the Perfect Darcy comes crashing down, Georgie will have to find her own way before she loses everything permanently—including the one guy who sees her for who she really is.

Review:

Georgiana Darcy should have been expelled from Pemberley Academy last year, after her boyfriend Wickham was caught selling drugs out of her dorm room, but she wasn’t because she’s a Darcy. Now everyone at Pemberley hates Georgie because she’s responsible for getting Wickham expelled. Georgie wants to gain back her friends and reputation by becoming the perfect Darcy. She changes all of her classes to AP, focuses on playing trombone in band, and even tries to match her brother Fitz with his classmate Lizzie. With the help of her friend Avery, Georgie attempts to be the perfect Darcy, until she can’t handle the pressure.

This was a great retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I haven’t read an adaptation that focuses solely on Georgiana. She’s an interesting character who wasn’t featured much in the original story, but she’s important to the end of the plot.

While Georgie’s story was happening, the romance between Fitz and Lizzie was brewing at SUNY Meryton. I liked that this story was happening simultaneously. If you know the story of Pride and Prejudice, you can figure out what was happening between Fitz and Lizzie, with some help from Georgie.

I appreciated the discussion of privilege in this novel. Georgie and Fitz had a lot of privilege because of their name and money. One benefit of their privilege was that Georgie didn’t get expelled when anyone else would have. Their privilege wasn’t a fault of theirs, but it did give them opportunities that they wouldn’t have without it.

Accomplished is a great contemporary Pride and Prejudice retelling!

Thank you Raincoast Books and Wednesday Books for sending me a copy!

Review: Gouda Friends (Ponto Beach Reunion #2)

Title: Gouda Friends (Ponto Beach Reunion #2)
Author: Cathy Yardley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Montlake
Source: Thomas Allen and Son
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 22, 2022
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two high school BFFs reunite and endeavor to fix each other’s lives in this geeky romance from the author of Love, Comment, Subscribe.
Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word—goldfish. Next thing she knows, she’s on a plane back home.
Josh O’Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he’s the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd Herd friend group, was instrumental in building his self-esteem. When she calls him out of the blue, he jumps at the chance to return the favor.
Josh and Tam immediately get to work fixing her life—but again, it’s complicated. Their close friendship was always a lifeline between them; a blooming romance might confuse things. Still, at least one thing is for certain: their chemistry is un-brie-lievable.

Review:

Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend when she found him in bed with his ex, and then discovered that he threw out her favourite cheese. She immediately called her childhood best friend, Josh O’Malley. Josh got her on a plane to his home in Ponto Beach, where he runs a successful ghost kitchen. Tam and Josh had always been best friends, but sparks start flying when they’re reunited. Josh wants to help Tam fix the problems in her life, but his love for her is so strong that he wants her to be with him too. They have to figure out how to balance their work lives and their undeniable chemistry.

I don’t read many friends-to-lovers story but I think I should. Tam and Josh had such a beautiful friendship. They would drop everything to help each other no matter what. It was destiny that they had to be together. They made such a sweet and heartwarming couple.

I didn’t like Tam’s ex-boyfriend at all. He didn’t have any redeeming qualities, and it didn’t make sense that they were together for so long when they had nothing in common.

Partway through the story I started to guess who the couple would be in the next book in the series. I looked it up and I’m so excited to be right! Ex Appeal is scheduled to come out in November and I can’t wait to read it!

Thank you Thomas Allen and Son for providing a copy of this book.

Other books in the series:

Love, Comment, Subscribe (Ponto Beach Reunion #1)

Have you read Gouda Friends? What did you think of it?

Review: The It Girl

Title: The It Girl
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Gallery
Source: Publisher
Format: Ebook, paperback arc
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.
April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

Review:

April Clarke-Cliveden was the “It Girl” on the Oxford campus, who seemed to have it all. Her roommate, Hannah Jones, was dazzled by her. They had a close group of friends (Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily) who did everything together, but by the end of their first year, April was dead. Hannah’s testimony that the creepy porter, John Neville, was the last person seen leaving their room, is what convicted him for murder. Now, ten years later, Hannah is expecting her first child with April’s ex-boyfriend, Will. When they get the news that John Neville has died in prison, it brings the case back into the spotlight. Journalists start asking questions about the case, which makes Hannah question if she was correct in her assumption that John killed April. She does her own investigation, digging up everyone’s secrets, and discovering things that should have stayed hidden.

I was looking forward to reading this book but I found it disappointing. I was certain that I knew who the murderer was from the beginning. The twist that I predicted is one that I’ve read a few times in similar thrillers so it wasn’t original. I seemed to be right, but the story took a strange turn at the end that felt forced. There were also a couple of red herring clues that went nowhere and didn’t actually have anything to do with the story.

I’ve rated this book three stars because I did finish it, and I’m sure some readers could enjoy it. I just found it disappointing because it was like other thrillers I’ve read in the past.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book.

Have you read The It Girl? What did you think of it?

Review: No Rings Attached (Ms. Right #2)

Title: No Rings Attached (Ms. Right #2)
Author: Rachel Lacey
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ
Publisher: Montlake
Source: Thomas Allen and Son
Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 12, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From award-winning author Rachel Lacey comes the second installment in the Ms. Right series: a captivating romance about a reluctant bookseller finding love in unexpected places.
Lia Harris is tired of being the odd one out. She’s never quite fit in with her uptight family, and now that her roommates have all found love, she’s starting to feel like a third wheel in her own apartment. Fed up with her mother’s constant meddling in her love life, Lia drops hints about a girlfriend she doesn’t have. But with her brother’s London nuptials approaching, she needs to find a date to save face. Lia turns to her best friend, Rosie, for help, and Rosie delivers—with the fun, gorgeous Grace Poston.
Grace loves to have a good time, hiding her insecurities behind a sunny smile. Her recent move to London has provided her with a much-needed fresh start. Grace isn’t looking for love, and she hates weddings, having weathered more than her fair share of heartache. Friendships are different, though, so for Rosie’s sake, she reluctantly agrees to pose as Lia’s adoring girlfriend for the wedding festivities.
Both Grace and Lia are prepared for an awkward weekend, complete with prying family members and a guest room with only one bed. As it turns out, they get along well—spectacularly, in fact. Before they know it, the chemistry they’re faking feels all too real. But is their wedding weekend a fleeting performance or the rehearsal for a love that’s meant to last?

Review:

Since Lia’s best friend and roommate, Rosie, started dating Jane, Lia has felt like a third wheel in their New York apartment. Lia’s led her family in London to believe that she still has a girlfriend, but when she has to go home for her brother’s wedding, she doesn’t have a girlfriend to bring. Rosie suggests that Lia bring Rosie’s childhood best friend, Grace, who lives in London, as a date. Grace has just moved to London from Spain. She’s looking for a fresh start in a new city but she doesn’t want a relationship. She’s still upset about what she found out about her parents’ marriage after they died in a car accident years ago, so she isn’t looking for a relationship. However, when Lia and Grace meet and go to the wedding together, their chemistry is undeniable. They have to decide if they will give this relationship a chance, even though they live on different continents.

This rom com had some of my favourite tropes. Fake dating/relationship is my favourite scenario. This story had a bit of enemies to lovers, because Lia and Grace both shared Rosie as a best friend, so they considered each other competition before they met. There was also “only one bed” and a “found family” in the group of friends.

There was a lot of tension in this story, despite it being a rom com. One of the characters finds a relative that they didn’t know through an online DNA site. There were a lot of conflicted feelings about this discovery. In one way, it was good to find a relative, but it also introduced a lot of questions about how they came to be related. This was an intense subplot that ended up playing an important role in the main storyline.

No Rings Attached is a great sequel to Read Between the Lines!

Thank you Thomas Allen and Son for sending me a copy of this book.

Other books in the series:

Read Between the Lines (Ms. Right #1)

Have you read No Rings Attached? What did you think of it?

Review: Katzenjammer

Title: Katzenjammer
Author: Francesca Zappia
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Contemporary
Publisher: HCC Frenzy
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cat lives in her high school. She never leaves, and for a long time her school has provided her with everything she needs. But now things are changing. The hallways contract and expand along with the school’s breathing, and the showers in the bathroom run a bloody red. Cat’s best friend is slowly turning into cardboard, and instead of a face, Cat has a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh.
Cat doesn’t remember why she is trapped in her school or why half of them—Cat included—are slowly transforming. Escaping has always been the one impossibility in her school’s upside-down world. But to save herself from the eventual self-destruction all the students face, Cat must find the way out. And to do that, she’ll have to remember what put her there in the first place.

Review:

Cat lives in her high school along with a bunch of other students. None of them are able to leave. The school expands and contracts like it’s breathing, and the showers pour with blood. Cat wears a cat mask that she can’t remove, and her best friend, Jeffrey, is turning into cardboard. Many of them are transforming into animals or inanimate objects. The problem is that Cat doesn’t know why or how they got there. As she slowly regains her memories, she discovers the events that led them there.

This story was very good but also very unusual. It was inspired by the story Metamorphosis by Kafka, in which the main character wakes up to discover he has turned into an insect. This story was complex and disturbing. It’s one of those stories that I can’t say much about without spoiling it.

There were some disturbing scenes, but that’s expected with a horror. There was a lot of trauma experienced in the present story, along with bullying in Cat’s memories of the before time. The one thing that I didn’t like at the end was that there were a lot of questions left with open ended answers. I prefer it when everything is answered at the end, but that’s just my preference.

Katzenjammer is a suspenseful, high school horror story!

Thank you HCCFrenzy for sending me a copy of this book.

Review: Out of the Blue

Title: Out of the Blue
Author: Jason June
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder–or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They’ve pollluted the planet so much that there’s a floating island of trash that’s literally the size of a country.
In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest’s pespective on humans begins to change, they’ll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings…
This instant New York Times bestselling novel from Jason June dives into the many definitions of the world home and shows how love can help us find the truest versions of ourselves.

Review:

Crest is a mer, who lives in the Blue, and must go on the journey that all of the merfolk do, which is go on land and help a human. When Crest goes on land, they go by the name Ross, and meet Sean. Sean is a lifeguard, whose boyfriend has just dumped him for another swimmer. When Sean’s ex boyfriend sees him with Ross and looks jealous, Sean realizes he can use Ross to make his ex jealous and want to get back together. Ross agrees to it since that will fulfill their journey by helping Sean. As Sean and Ross fulfill all their tasks for their fake dating plan, they end up developing real feelings for each other, which makes them wonder what will happen when Ross’s journey is finished and it’s time to return to the Blue.

This story was set in contemporary Los Angeles, but it was a world where fantasy creatures exist. Mer can go on land, losing their tails and taking on a human appearance. There were other supernatural creatures mentioned, like vampires and elves, so hopefully more of this world will be described in other novels.

I enjoyed the gendered exploration in this novel. Mer were a gender neutral species, so Ross went by the pronoun “they.” It’s ironic, since we usually talk about “mermaids” as being female, and don’t usually mention a male equivalent. Making all mer gender neutral meant there were no mermaids or mermen. They were all mer.

Out of the Blue is a great original story!

Review: Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun (Onyeka #1)

Title: Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun
Author: Tọlá Okogwu
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary, Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: June 14, 2022
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Black Panther meets X-Men in this action-packed and empowering middle grade adventure about a British Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers—perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers, The Marvellers, and Rick Riordan!
Onyeka has a lot of hair—the kind that makes strangers stop in the street and her peers whisper behind her back. At least she has Cheyenne, her best friend, who couldn’t care less what other people think. Still, Onyeka has always felt insecure about her vibrant curls…until the day Cheyenne almost drowns and Onyeka’s hair takes on a life of its own, inexplicably pulling Cheyenne from the water.
At home, Onyeka’s mother tells her the shocking truth: Onyeka’s psycho-kinetic powers make her a Solari, one of a secret group of people with super powers unique to Nigeria. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies…

Review:

Onyeka has a lot of hair that is out of control most of the time. One day, when her friend begins to drown, Onyeka swims after her, and her hair somehow pulls them both out. Onyeka’s mother tells her that she’s inherited these special powers from her father, who was a Solari. The Solari are a group of people with super powers in Nigeria. Her mother brings her to Nigeria to find her father and get answers on how to control her newfound power at the Academy of the Sun.

This book is described as Black Panther meets X-Men and that’s the perfect comparison! Most of the story was set in Nigeria, in an advanced school filled with kids who have various super powers. The school was divided in four groups, by the type of power students had. The groups had to compete against each other and all the students had to compete against one another with grades and challenges.

I loved the message that something that was perceived as a weakness is actually strength. Onyeka’s mom had strict rules for how she had to treat her hair. It was often a mess and going in every direction, until she learned how to control it. What she thought was her weakness ended up being the source of her super power.

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun is a great start to a middle school adventure series.

Thank you Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book.

Review: Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #1)

Title: Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #1)
Author: Juno Dawson
Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft in this the first installment of this epic fantasy trilogy about a group of childhood friends who are also witches.
If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.

At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she’s a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.
Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.

Review:

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven was established by Queen Elizabeth I to protect her. Now, centuries later, Helena is the High Priestess, leader of the coven. Her friends are: Niamh, a vet who uses her powers to heal animals, Elle, a housewife leading a secret life as a witch, and Leona, who left to create her own intersectional coven. After Helena discovers a young warlock with extraordinary powers they’ve never seen before, she brings him to be trained and examined by Niamh. However, the warlock holds a lot of secrets which threaten to turn the coven upside down.

As soon as I saw this title I knew I needed to read this book, but I went into the story without knowing what it was about. It was a fantastic witchy story that we need right now.

This story explores gender and gender stereotypes. This witch world was divided into female witches and male warlocks with nothing in between. However, when a transgender character entered the novel, it threw some of them off. There was a lot of transphobia which was disturbing to read, but that’s the point. The real world and fictional fantasy worlds have not been nice to transgender people, especially in recent years. This intersectional look at witches was such an important and powerful read.

The final few chapters of this book were completely shocking and unpredictable. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

Thank you Penguin Books for sending me a copy of this book.

Review: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Title: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Author: Jen Ferguson
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Heartdrum
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 10, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this complex and emotionally resonant novel, debut author Jen Ferguson serves up a powerful story about rage, secrets, and all the spectrums that make up a person—and the sweetness that can still live alongside the bitterest truth.
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.
But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.
While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.

Review:

Lou is spending her last summer before starting university working at her uncles’ ice cream shack on the prairies. Her best friend Florence is working with her, as well as her newly ex-boyfriend Wyatt, who she wasn’t physically attracted to, and her old friend King Nathan, who is visiting from Toronto. One day, she receives a threatening letter from her biological father, who is supposed to be in prison for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, her mother is away for the summer, and she doesn’t want to share her troubles with her uncles who are struggling to pay the bills. Lou finds comfort in reviving her friendship with King, while trying to figure out how to stop her father from destroying her and her family.

This was a very emotional read. Lou had a lot of trauma in her past, from what happened to her mother and generational trauma as a Native woman in Canada. I appreciated that the author had a note at the beginning that warned of some potential triggers that are in the book, and she said it was okay if you couldn’t read it at this time. I tend to avoid emotional reads but after reading that author’s note, I felt like I was in safe hands with this book.

This book dealt with serious issues, such as racism, rape, and sexual assault, but it was written in a beautiful way. Lou was half white and half Métis, so she could pass for white, which she did when she was in school. That was compared to her friend King Nathan, who was Black, and couldn’t pass for white. Lou’s biological father threatened to take her family’s land from them, which reflected the way the land was stolen from the Indigenous peoples in Canada. Though these were serious topics, this story was beautifully crafted.

Most of this book was difficult to read because of the trauma that Lou and her friends faced, and if it’s difficult to read on a page, I can’t imagine what it would feel like to experience these things. At the same time, I’m very glad that this story has been written for a younger generation, and I’m glad that I read it.

Blog Tour Review: Slip

Title: Slip
Author: Marika McCoola, Aatmaja Pandya
Genre: Young Adult, Graphic Novel, LGBTQ, Contemporary
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From Eisner-Award nominated writer Marika McCoola and debut artist Aatmaja Pandya, an emotional coming-of-age graphic novel for fans of Bloom and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me.
Right before Jade is about to leave for a summer art intensive, her best friend, Phoebe, attempts suicide. How is Jade supposed to focus on herself right now?
But at the Art Farm, Jade has artistic opportunities she’s been waiting for her whole life. And as she gets to know her classmates, she begins to fall for whimsical, upbeat, comfortable-in-her-own-skin Mary. Jade pours herself into making ceramic monsters that vent her stress and insecurities, but when she puts her creatures in the kiln, something unreal happens: they come to life. And they’re taking a stand: if Jade won’t confront her problems, her problems are going to confront her, including the scariest of them all—if Jade grows, prospers, and even falls in love this summer, is she leaving Phoebe behind?

Review:

Jade is a young artist who has the opportunity to go to an art camp and possibly get a scholarship to an art school. However, right before she leaves, her best friend, Phoebe, attempts suicide. Jade is reluctant to leave her, but Phoebe needs to go into treatment. Jade finds it hard to stop worrying about Phoebe and blaming herself for what happened, but when she reaches deep down for those strong emotions, she can make her best art yet.

Jade’s art form that she created was pottery. I took pottery classes for years, so I loved seeing all of the familiar tools. One tricky thing about pottery is that the creation is partly out of your control when it’s put in the kiln. Jade had to deal with one of her pieces ruining the work of another artist. It’s a tricky art form but can be beautiful.

I appreciated the portrayal of mental health in this graphic novel. Though it doesn’t show the perspective of the person who attempted suicide, we can see the way it affected people around her. Jade blamed herself for not being there for Phoebe and she didn’t want to enjoy her time at the art camp because of it. In this way, Phoebe’s mental health struggles were reflected in Jade.

Slip is a beautiful graphic novel with an important message.

Thank you Algonquin Young Readers for providing a digital copy of this book.

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