I Felt Myself Slipping

by Ray Nadine

Former competitive gymnast and cartoonist Ray Nadine (Light Carries On, Raise Hell!, Messenger) tells a touching coming-of-age story about coping with anxiety and loss and forging friendship along the way in an inspired young adult graphic novel for fans of Spinning, Heartstopper, and Check, Please!.

When level-ten gymnast Riley Glass joins the team at Station Six Gymnastics, she finds unexpected friendship in fellow gymnast Kota Iwamoto as the pair strive toward their Olympian dreams together.

After losing her dad in a car accident, Riley moves to Stephon, Illinois, where she struggles to fit in with the other gymnasts. She misses her friends back home and is cautious of making new friendships at Station Six, which is made all the more difficult as she's hard of hearing and none of her new teammates know ASL. When she meets Kota, Riley is surprised by Kota’s effort in learning ASL in order to communicate with her. Kota is determined to make Riley feel more at home, even though she struggles with her own fears and anxieties. Kota wants to be the best gymnast and make it all the way to the Olympics, but her fears of getting injured could stand in the way of achieving her goals. As they make their way to the prestigious U.S. Classic gymnastics event, their future as friends and as gymnasts will be put to the test.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Young Adult, LGBT, Comics, Sports, Realistic Fiction, Disability

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2024

About the author

Ray was born and raised in central Illinois, and was drawing as soon as they could hold a pencil. They knew from a young age that they wanted to tell stories, and after years of growing up on manga and webcomics, they began creating their own stories. They've self published a handful of their books, and Light Carries On is their debut graphic novel published by Dark Horse.

Ray lives in Chicago. They work all day and night as a comic artist, colorist, and letterer.
They love the city, and in their free time they love making music playlists, collecting skulls, and playing video games (currently playing: Final Fantasy XIV).

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartfelt YA graphic novel about two teen gymnasts, Riley and Kota who both dream of going to the Olympics. I really enjoyed the disability rep in this book (Riley is hard of hearing and Kota has anxiety). The friendship between the two is heartwarming and I loved how they found a unique way to communicate with one another that was all their own and help each other with their worries and grief. Riley is feeling lonely having moved from California and is also still grieving the death of one of her fathers. Highly recommended with good illustrations too! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1990s Illinois, a couple of teenage gymnasts slowly form a friendship and help each other cope with some emotional problems. Riley Glass is the transfer student with a hearing impairment, a recently deceased parent, and some abandonment issues. Dakota "Kota" Iwamoto tries to be welcoming -- learning sign language, for instance -- but is having her own anxiety issues, especially in regard to her gymnastics routine.

All the set-up seems promising, but the low-key story plays out in a fairly bland and generic fashion. I might have still given it a thumbs up but I have a pet peeve about stories that are stretched to play out over the course of a year or school year (as you'll see below, all the chapter titles are seasons). I was also a bit confused that hints at romantic feelings are dropped in awkwardly a few times but basically go nowhere.

It's not bad, but I ultimately walk away from it with nothing valuable to hold onto.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Summer -- Autumn -- Winter -- Spring

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC!

2.5 rounding up because representation matters.

The story is ok. I wanted a little more... meat? A little more emotion? This has a great foundation, but I needed a little more connection.
I did not care for the art style. The color use was great. But the drawing themselves were lack luster.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I really enjoyed this book but there is one thing I have to point out because it is just glaring at me. This book takes place between the summer of 1996 to the Spring of 1997. In a city in IL (The population being why of 66K). Now, okay. That's a decent sized city, but in 1996, would a gaggle of girls really be casually chatting about two boys going on a date and teasing a teammate about having a crush on a girl?? Also, seemed really odd that Riley having 2 days was never mentioned as being "unusual".

This book doesn't hit as blatantly LGBTQ+, even with those particular inclusions. It really is a book more about friendship and those feelings of "more" are thrust onto Kota by her teammates. I never really got a sense of what Riley thought one way or another.

Oh, as an aside: Some of the formatting choices were...choices. Flat panels led to dialog being swapped on the page, because of where the characters were standing, for instance, with arrows to direct. I noticed this most in a panel where they were signing, and there was a guide to the bubble next to the person reading the sign rather than to the person signing... I'm describing it poorly. But I'm sure SOMEONE else had to read a few panels twice to make sense of it.

Otherwise, I loved everything else. Gymnasts, deaf culture and ASL, dealing with grief, self-doubt. With Kota's issues on the beam, I almost expected a "Twisties" explanation. The art is wonderful and a great use of a simple color palette.

[Paz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

Riley is a new member in a gymnastics team. She's recently moved, and with no friends and homeschooled she's feeling a little isolated. She's hard of hearing and she takes out her hearing aids when she practices gymnastics so she's having a hard time making friends at Station Six, especially when no teammate but the teacher know sign language.
Kota is a long time gymnast at Station Six. She loves the sport, and she's really vibrant but lately she's been having a lot of anxiety regarding one specific part of her routine. When Riley joins the team, Kota is excited to meet the new member of Station Six. However, communication is a little difficult at practice. After the first session, she immediately asks their coach to teach her ASL and that's the first step in Riley and Kota's beautiful friendship.

This is a lovely story of two girls who love gymnastics becoming best friends and each other's support. Riley has suffered from a big loss in her family, and Kota is having issues with her self-confidence and anxiety. They both begin their friendship writing and sharing their thoughts on a journal while Kota learns to sign.

I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel. There's not much dialog, so it's a very fast reading experience. The illustrations are quite simple, the art style is very plain, with blue, green and gray being mostly the only colors used throughout the entire novel.

Though the summary classifies this as a young adult novel, I'd recommend it more to a middle grade audience. Although there are themes like grief, loneliness and anxiety explored in these pages, the story is quite straightforward and simple so I think a younger audience would really like I Felt Myself Slipping.
Also, though I've seen this marketed as LGBTQ+, the relationship between Riley and Kota is pretty much platonic. There are hints about Kota having romantic feelings, however their relationship stays just a friendship. It pretty much reads like an innocent first crush.

If you are looking for a heartwarming story about friendship I think you will enjoy this one. It was very uplifting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for the advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[J MaK · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.4) Heartwarming story about two gymnasts overcoming personal obstacles within friendships and learning how to be supportive. The ASL artwork was well drawn and balanced with written notes between Kota and Riley. The only downside were the pages that were dominated by panels where dialogue to further connect with other characters.

[Emma Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a cute graphic novel. I love how Kota overcomes her fear of the balance beam and tries to make it to the Olympics, as well as her journey of learning American Sign Language so that she can communicate with Riley. I loved the connection between the two of them and how they grew to really lean on one another and help each other through their own struggles. I did think the book moved very fast with the pacing but I have to admit it didn't deter me from the book because I found the story and the characters to be absolutely adorable. I also love the artwork, I love graphic novels that are all grey, black, and white, with a few select colors being picked to add a pop to the art. I'm a fan of the green and blue colors because they tend to represent Riley and Kota, and I loved it.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have such a soft spot for graphic novels, especially if they have LGBTQIA+ rep in them and this one definitely hit that mood reader spot as I had been fancying this type of book so much recently! Let’s just start by saying the representation in this book is amazing! It’s not often you find hard of hearing representation so I loved seeing that and the different methods of communication they used whilst Kota learnt sign language. I found it so unusual that the colouring was a mix of black and white alongside blues and greens but I found it quite eye catching. This book was so cute and like a hug in a book! The friendship between Riley and Kota was so complex but heartwarming!

Thank you to the publishers Oni Press and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute 5 out of 5. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The art style is classic and clean in a beautiful way and the story is just heartwarming. It is nice to see a story of two (presumed) queer characters who don't necessarily have a romantic relationship, but develop a deep and special friendship.

The representation of the deaf community and of trauma/PTSD in sports is also spot on.

[Lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you netgalley for giving me an arc of this graphic novel

this was a cute read but it didn't quite captured me, i felt like it was rushed and something was missing. I liked the color and the art style was cute

[Michela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely! 😍

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

When new girl Riley joints the town's gymnastics team, everyone thinks she's standoffish and cold -- but she's Deaf and tired of trying to fit into a world that is not made for her. All it takes is a little effort on the part of her teammates, especially the focus character Dakota (Kota) to show that maybe this time she won't be left behind again. All this on the heels of trying to get into a national competition, and Kota's own nagging fears about her routine and intrusive thoughts on her own life.

Mixed feelings but overall positive! The story is easy to understand and you want to root for the characters who work on things like grief, the yips, fear, loneliness, and friendship. It definitely could have gone farther with things like Kota's intrusive thoughts and what that means for her life in general instead of just, "I talked to my bffsy and now I'm fine it looks like," etc.

Also this is probably a fault of me but I very much assumed the cover characters were boys until they were called girls in-story, and while the book is not marketed as LGBTQIA+, Kota and Riley's friendship could very much be interpreted as romantic in a very teenage young love way!

The choice to set it in the mid-90s but give Riley two dads and also good natured teasing about the girls' relationship was confusing as someone who graduated high school in 2001 but I just reset my brain "In a world where queer stuff is more normalized, thank goodness..."

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for the eARC in exchange for review!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.75⭐

This was a quick comic with a great deal of diversity from many perspectives, which I really enjoyed. The graphics had an interesting style and the story was wholesome. The final part was a bit abrupt for me, though, maybe as I am not a big fan of open endings.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet story of friendship. The story is told from the point of view of Riley, who is hard of hearing, and Kota, who wants to be her friend, and learns sign language so they can communicate.


Riley has lost her father, and her other dad has had to move out to Illinois, far from her friends. She thinks by not making friends, she can keep her heart from breaking again, should they ever leave.


Kota doesn’t get this. She desperately wants to be friends, and does everything she can to break through to Riley.


It is a sweet opening of friendship and competitiveness. A quick read with use of color limited to blues and greens, unless there is a major breakthrough, and then we get more. I liked that real ASL is used in the story, as well as the alphabet.


I’m going to say that although this is a friendship story, and not a romance, the same dynamics are there, of feeling less or feeling more, and wondering if they can both find happiness with each other.


This book is coming out on the 10th of September. Thanks to Netgalley for making this novel available for an honest review.

[Lost in Book Land · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome Back!

Last week, I tried really hard to focus on my reading and make it through the week. Each night wrapping up work and spending time reading in my favorite cozy space in my home. I also set up my wax melter and put in some fun fall scents (I know it is summer but I love fall scents so much)! Sitting in this spot each night I was able to read quite a bit over the week. I am not sure if I was just in the reading zone last week or if the books were just really bringing it but either way, I am excited to chat about what I read! One of the first things I picked up was a graphic novel E-ARC of I Felt Myself Slipping (thank you so much to the publishers for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions).

SPOILERS AHEAD

The gymnasts at Station Six gymnastics are hard-working and driven but they also all support one another. Kota a long-time gymnast at Station Six has been working hard to try to make their Olympic dreams come true. This year as Kota is running to gymnastics one day, Kota sees another person on the path ahead of them. Which is highly unusual, Kota is the only one who takes this pathway to Station Six. Once at practice, Kota learns they have a new team member named Riley. Riley and her dad have just moved here but she has been in gymnastics for a long time. On top of being new to the area, her dad works a lot and she recently lost her other father (which has been devasting for her and her dad). Riley is also feeling isolated because she does not really have any friends here not even at gymnastics. Riley has hearing problems and speaks ASL, during gymnastics Riley takes her hearing aides out. The coach has told everyone on the team and has offered to teach ASL to anyone interested. Kota really wants to talk to Riley so Kota takes the initiative and begins to learn ASL and eventually begins to try to talk to Riley. Riley and Kota strike up a friendship and begin to really bond, even sharing their dreams and secrets for their lives and for gymnastics!

I really enjoyed my time with this graphic novel. Getting to know both Riley and Kota as well as their families, gave a small peak into the world of gymnastics and how tough it can be to make your gymnast dreams come true. I also really loved seeing Kota, want to learn ASL and want to be friends with Riley. Kota preserved and even spoke with their family about how they communicated in the past when they had their own barriers. I definitely recommend picking up this graphic novel when it hits shelves on September 10th, 2024!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

****Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

[Melissa Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW: I Felt Myself Slipping

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*

The Gist
After hard-of-hearing, teenage gymnast Riley Glass moves to a new town after her father’s death, she is not only forced to deal with her grief but figure out where she belongs in a new town, amongst new people.

*
What I Enjoyed
I appreciated how visual the story was. Sometimes graphic novels still let the words do all the talking, but Nadine knows how to present the character’s body language to convey their emotions without lengthy conversations.

There are a lot of relatable coming-of-age themes that teen readers will resonate with, regardless of whether they participate in competitive sports. Kota, in particular, is someone readers will root for due to her determination, willingness to learn and grow, and compassion.

The disability and queer representation were also nice to see.


Thoughts & Critiques
To me, this graphic novel felt more middle grade and less young adult in its simplicity. Also, while I appreciate the life lessons the author is going for in this graphic novel, the simplicity and ease with which Riley and Koto overcome obstacles feels very hollow. So much of the graphic novel revolves around Koto getting to know Riley, learning ASL and making her feel welcome, and then Riley learning how to deal with her grief. Koto’s issues - which are still huge - aren’t discussed until the last quarter or so of the book. The turnaround time between Koto finally talking about her issues and overcoming them is honestly nonexistent. I think this graphic would have benefitted from just focusing on one character’s issues instead of trying to introduce new ones each season (or threading Koto’s issues into a greater portion of the book).

*

Other Thing(s)
*I love that the ASL alphabet is presented at the beginning.
*I’m kind of surprised that the Coach isn’t more observant to see how the other gymnasts (aside from Koto) don’t respect Riley’s needs in the beginning?
*I love how Riley’s photographs are a motif that comes back throughout the seasons.
*This book takes place in the 90s. I don’t believe it’s ever actually stated; you just have to use context clues to figure it out.


*

Final Thoughts
3 stars. While I wasn’t crazy about this book, I do think this will resonate with younger teens looking for a graphic novel that speaks to themes of finding yourself and your balance (no pun intended) amongst big life changes.

[Dione Basseri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oooo, interesting! A queer graphic novel where the love interests don’t end the book together, and not because they break up or something tragic happens. They just haven’t got there yet by the end of the book, and yet the book wraps up nicely. The point of the book isn’t romance! It’s human connection. Friendship. And thus, you end the book really rooting for the characters to connect deeper in their lives after what we read. A sequel, perhaps?

Kota is a gymnast with great ambitions, and she is super impressed with the new member of her team, Riley. Riley is hard to connect with, partially because she is avoiding people, but also partially because she is Hard of Hearing. Kota, though, wants to make that connection, and so begins attending ASL lessons. Eventually, Riley warms up to Kota, and a large portion of the book becomes them communicating via ASL (we see a few signs, but whole conversations aren’t drawn out; instead there’s English translations), writing, and spoken English (Riley has a hearing aid).

I’ve studied ASL (not consistently enough), and love to see it represented in comics. As I said, not everything is drawn, and I do wish we’d seen a few more panels for signs. This story could be really cool to watch as a short TV series.

I’d love to see a volume 2, but the story wraps up pretty nicely. Obstacles are overcome, connections are made, and the characters have grown significantly. It’s the lack of mushy that makes me want volume 2, and not loose ends. So, I’ll be keeping an eye out, and hope to see more from this artist!

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Sarah Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel is gorgeously written and illustrated. I am always looking for disability representation and have not encountered many books with good deaf representation. As a hearing person, I felt that the initiative to learn ASL, encouragement of others to learn, and tough love in holding others accountable to have a more accessible space was authentic. I also loved the many ways to communicate (like the notes, sharing music/vibrations of music, signing, lip-reading, use of hearing aids, etc.) as ASL is being learned and practiced was realistic and great to see. The striking art style in greyscale with mostly blues and greens stood out and using some other colors to shift the mood or highlight a specific moment made for a cool effect. Any athlete will relate to fear of injury beyond just being injured— I felt the anxiety of the risk in competition as I read. Beyond the deaf representation, there is seamless queer representation in both adults and teens. It heals my inner baby bi every time I read a story where queerness is just a fact of life and not necessarily a huge deal in the storyline. The connection of the language barriers for the deaf character and the biracial main character’s dad’s family was also a highlight. This graphic novel somehow covers the loss of a parent and the fading of friendships due to growing up and moving away in addition to all of the previously mentioned topics and it never feels like anything is being thrown in just because. I highly recommend this one for teens and adults alike. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely and sweet graphic novel. A coming-of-age story centred around friendship and figuring out who one is within the world. It also touches on anxiety and fear and how to overcome those barriers.

When Riley moves to a new town and starts a new gymnastics team she’s vulnerable, especially with still dealing with the grief of her father. Being Deaf poses a new challenge by being surrounded by people she doesn’t know and who don’t know her yet. Upon meeting Riley, Kota sets out to learn ASL to be able to communicate better with Riley, but at first because she isn’t very experienced she instead uses written communication to talk to Riley through the form of notes in a notebook they both share. They each open up to one another about their fears and form a wholesome friendship.

What I really loved about this graphic novel was the continuous use of sign language and other forms of communication to verbal interactions. There was a quick guide illustration of ASL within the graphic novel which I found to be very useful—a great way to normalise the use of sign language through media such as GNs.

The representation—of both deafness and the foreshadowing of queerness—here was so well written and give the dignity it deserves. A quick and enjoyable read, i just wish the ending wasn’t so abruptly and we could have gotten a bit more on Riley and Kota.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and Publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Andreea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Felt Myself Slipping is a heartwarming tale of gymnastics, disability and young friendship (or maybe more?)

The story tries to do a lot in the span of a typical length graphic novel, but it does it all surprisingly well. To give you an idea of what to expect, it manages to have authentic disability representation with a character who is Hard of Hearing and much of the dialogue happening in ASL, another character has anxiety and possibly panic attacks, there is trauma, LGBTQ representation aplenty and all this on top of elite gymnastics and typical teen lives. As I said, a lot going on, but the narrative makes sense, our main characters show real progress and there's so much wholesome interaction and healthy communication that I could read this all day long.

And let's talk about the art because I loved how clever it was, and it carried so much meaning alongside storytelling. The book mainly has a limited blue/green color palette, which is absolutely lovely to look at and works so well. But once things start shifting in the story, so do the colors. I was giddy to realize this at the right moment - I won't spoil it for you - but it was beautiful and added to my enjoyment.

In short, if you're into sweet and wholesome stories of young people finding themselves such as Heartstopper, you might really enjoy this one.

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this wholesome middle grades/YA graphic novel, I Felt Myself Slipping, focused on two girls, gymnastics, disability and friendship. Da(Kota) welcomes Riley to their gymnastic team. She’s quiet, subdued, so seems to others initially as aloof, but it turns out she is deaf. Kota decides to reach out to her and also learn ASL, though they initially communicate through a notebook. They become friends, though it is possible Kota wants it to be more, though it doesn’t come to that. Yet. Though this looks like a stand-alone book.

The gymnastics aspect will appeal to sports fans, as the girls are good enough to compete for Nationals and maybe even the Olympics. Riley seems the superior one, and Kota is also great , but has some anxiety in one of her areas that needs to be addressed (See title, which I thought was deliberately NOT titled It Feels Like I Am Falling to avoid the natural assumption of falling in love, which this book is not quite about, I think).

Riley had two dads, and one died, and the living one is black, which I’ll admit surprised me for a book set in the nineties, but hey, they came to the midwest from California, so it could have happened, and at any rate I still like it. Cute sweet book!

PS Since I have hearing aids I liked this aspect of the book, one reason I decided to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Oni Press, and Ray Nadine for the opportunity to read this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Nes🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riley just moved from California and joined a new gymnastics team. She’s struggling with feeling lonely, her old friends have seemed to forget about her and she’s weary about making new friends. To make matters a bit more difficult, Riley is hard of hearing and no one on her team knows ASL. Kota is determined to make Riley feel comfortable,she asks the coach to teach her ASL so she can communicate with Riley. Soon the two spark a friendship, learning more about each other and how to conquer their fears.

First I just wanted to thank NetGalley and to Oni Press for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The art wasn’t my favorite,it kind of reminded me of older webcomics I read when I was a teenager. Which is totally fine but for me the style along with the colors weren’t that pleasing to my eyes.

The story itself was cute, I can understand why Riley was guarded with the team at first because I’d be the same. I think it was super sweet of Kota to learn ASL for her new teammate,it shows the kind of person she is. I was frustrated with Kota taking a while to open up about her anxieties with Riley, especially since Riley opened up about everything. The ending felt sudden, I honestly wasn’t sure where this story was going and when it ended I felt underwhelmed.

🌟Representation🌟
-Deaf MC
-LGBTQ+

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute story, but it felt much too simplistic for my tastes. Not a lot happens in this story, and what does happen feels a little lackluster? It's hard to explain, it has almost Life is Strange vibes to it, but is somehow very bland as well. I also didn't know the story was meant to be happening during the 1990s until I noticed one of the photos had 1996 written on it. Nothing about the story nor the fashion say the 90s. It all felt fairly modern to me, though I admit 1990s and 2000s fashion is slowly coming back right now, so that might be influencing my opinion on that factor a little bit. The characters themselves were very cute and fairly believable. I just didn't really connect to any of the characters, though I mildly enjoyed their dynamics. This would honestly feels like it was meant to be a Disney Channel movie from the early 2000s, and I mean that in a positive way. The art style I personally didn't care for, but there was nothing wrong with it on a technical level. The way the gymnastic action scenes were drawn felt a bit weird, but hey, it's really hard to show things like gymnastics or dance in a drawn format.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

[ashes ➷ · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

Very cute YA graphic novel, albeit one where problems just kind of... crop up, without any seeming through-line and large sense-making arcs for our protagonists. The representation (especially for our HoH protagonist) is lovely, but often comes across as if the author is shouting SEE THIS CHARACTER IS HALF-JAPANESE! or SEE THIS ONE HAS TWO DADS! and, as some pointed out, the queer representation in particular can feel a little anachronistic for a late '90s story-- everyone is purely positive about Kota possibly having a gay crush (which never goes anywhere?) and nothing is mentioned about any difficulties Riley's two dads may have had, especially seeing as one died in an accident-- was there any difficulty getting into the hospital room for his undoubtedly not legally married husband/boyfriend, or his daughter whom he might have struggled to adopt for the same reason? Of course, I always feel like YA graphic novels are too short, but this one had so much it could have built out. Even the gymnastics felt like it all went very quickly and was merely an excuse to draw a visually lovely sport... where were the big struggles, the tensions, the PLOT?!

Ah well. A perfectly sweet book that I simply couldn't get as into as I wanted to. Someday I have to grow up from YA.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Oni Press, and Ray Nadine for the opportunity to read this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

I Felt Myself Slipping is a one-off wholesome graphic novel about two girls and their growing friendship. When Riley joins Kota's gymnastics team, she feels a bit out of place. She misses her old friends and still linger on the loss of her Papa. She is also hard of hearing and prefers not to wear her hearing aides during practice. Kota goes above and beyond to learn sign language to better communicate with Riley. Not really feeling it at first, Riley does eventually warm up to Kota, and they become friends in a way they never would have expected.

I adore the American Sign Language in this graphic novel. The alphabet is present and I learned some other signs as well that I didn't previously know. The character diversity is excellent and the story is more than just friendship. It also features lessons about coping with loss, overcoming fears, and following the determination that is needed for one to follow their dreams.

An excellent graphic novel for teen readers.

[Ethereal Amorist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Felt Myself Slipping by Ray Nadine
4.5⭐

Thank you Netgalley, Ray Nadine, and Oni Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Dakota is a curious gymnast who wants to befriend her new teammate Riley, who is deaf. But when communication becomes a barrier, she tries her best to overcome it by finding different means, such as learning ASL and writing in a book. And soon, they become best friends.

This is a lovely graphic novel highlighting the importance of family and friendship in a teenager's life.

I loved how the ASL was shown. Sometimes, I found myself trying out those signs too.

It showed how teenagers struggle to make and keep friends, and how small things can affect their impressionable minds.

I also liked how there was no discrimination in this book regarding people's sexuality. It was treated as normal as heterosexuality.

The gymnastic moves were also illustrated beautifully, along with the characters and the backgrounds.

Overall, it was a simple plot with a heartwarming story, cute characters, and amazing visuals. I only expected it to have something more extra, but I liked how it was so far.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a competitive gymnast until I was thirteen years old, and since then I’ve avoided pretty much anything gymnastics related (heh, trauma :D) but I’ve never seen a graphic novel about gymnastics before. Plus, it was compared to Spinning and Heartstopper in the synopsis, which are two of my favorite things, so I was very excited when I got the email that my request had been approved, and I read it in one sitting as soon as I got home.

This was a quick, easy read. My only drawback is that the plot felt a little lacking, but other than that it was really good! I loved the connection between Kota and Riley, and honestly just the friendship between all of the teammates. I also really appreciated the positivity of the coaches and the parents in the book. The depiction of Kota’s mental block about her beam series was very true to reality. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Riley is a homeschooler! I’m also homeschooled and it’s something I rarely see in media, so it was really nice to see it here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for the arc!

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Felt Myself Slipping is a beautifully written and illustrated young adult graphic novel. We follow Kota Iwamoto and the Station Six Gymnastics team as they welcome newcomer Riley Glass to the team. The team faces challenges with the incoming gymnast as she is deaf and they struggle to communicate. Kota, wanting to be welcoming, works to learn ASL and comes up with creative ways to communicate with Riley. A beautiful friendship forms and the girls become pillars for the other as they navigate grief and anxiety. It begs the question if their friendship developing a strong foundation for more?

I absolutely recommend this book to any age group! The main characters are so friendly, kind, and innocent and are great role models for readers. Additionally, the relationships between the two young girls and the parents, while maybe not perfect, is so wholesome. The comfort, warmth, and friendship are so tangible throughout this graphic novel it leaves you feelings so happy.

[Lucsbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel set in the 90s follows the blooming friendship between two teen gymnasts and I can honestly say that I recommend it to absolutely everyone.
The art and colour scheme are beautiful and perfectly suit the story and characters and I love that it features hard of hearing and ASL as well as some queer rep but that is not the focus of the story at all and that is completely fine.
The heart of the story is the friendship that forms between the two girls, and there is little to no romance so it makes it perfect for everyone from middle grade to full-grown adults, everyone will find something to relate to and connect with in this story.
I would love to see this adapted because it's amazing and it would be a comfort watch for teens and young girls for years and years to come. The sapphic, sportier Heartstopper ;)
Please let there be a sequel, even if this is already perfect.
Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for this DRC

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have received an eARC from the publisher via Netgalley. This does not influence my opinion.

This was a great graphic novel.
The art style was beautiful and told the story without much text, also the characters facial expressions and body language were really expressive.
I loved how sign language was a big, yet relatively casual part of the book, similar for the casual queerness in it.
I also liked that despite at least one of the characters having a crush on the other, this was a story about friendship and not a love story.
One of the MCs is deaf, the other one has intrusive thoughts and anxiety. Both of these disabilities were handled really well and shown to only be a part of what makes that person who they are, not their whole personality. We need more representation like that.
I also loved that not everything turns out perfect for the characters in the end, but it’s still a happy ending.
All in all, this was a great book, absolutely recommend.