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Flip: A Graphic Novel
SENIOR YEAR BUCKET LIST? SWITCH BODIES WITH YOUR CRUSH.
Chi-Chi Ekeh has one huge problem: She keeps having crushes on rich white boys who have no idea she exists. Enter Flip Henderson, the most popular boy at school, who receives Chi-Chi’s private video proposal to go to senior prom.
But when Flip rejects Chi-Chi in front of their entire class, what happens next is completely unexpected: Chi-Chi―shy nerd and scholarship student―switches bodies with Flip. Suddenly Chi-Chi is 6’1” and cool, while Flip gets a crash course on Chi-Chi’s life―that is, k-pop, hair-braiding, and being a poor kid of color at a rich white private school.
With graduation looming and their body swaps lasting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip must form the most unlikely friendship their school has ever seen. But will they survive senior year? And, most importantly, can they find a way back to themselves?
From bestselling author of Check, Please! comes Flip, a thrilling and fantastical tale about self-acceptance, black girlhood, and how walking a mile in someone else’s shoes can teach you how to finally see yourself.
Chi-Chi Ekeh has one huge problem: She keeps having crushes on rich white boys who have no idea she exists. Enter Flip Henderson, the most popular boy at school, who receives Chi-Chi’s private video proposal to go to senior prom.
But when Flip rejects Chi-Chi in front of their entire class, what happens next is completely unexpected: Chi-Chi―shy nerd and scholarship student―switches bodies with Flip. Suddenly Chi-Chi is 6’1” and cool, while Flip gets a crash course on Chi-Chi’s life―that is, k-pop, hair-braiding, and being a poor kid of color at a rich white private school.
With graduation looming and their body swaps lasting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip must form the most unlikely friendship their school has ever seen. But will they survive senior year? And, most importantly, can they find a way back to themselves?
From bestselling author of Check, Please! comes Flip, a thrilling and fantastical tale about self-acceptance, black girlhood, and how walking a mile in someone else’s shoes can teach you how to finally see yourself.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2025
25 people are currently reading
5326 people want to read
About the author
Ngozi Ukazu
20 books1,322 followersNgozi Ukazu is an American cartoonist and graphic novelist. She is the author of the online graphic novel series Check, Please!. She studied at Yale University and the Savannah College of Art and Design.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
July 28, 2025
Bodyswap stories have been done in film and they are certainly done in fanfiction but I had not read one in comics before this! Chi-Chi is a high school scholarship student at a fancy Texas boarding school who loves kpop, video editing, her best friends, and gets aching crushes on boys (usually white) who never acknowledge her existence. That changes when a wish or curse causes Chi-Chi and her latest crush, swim team athlete Flip Henderson, to switch bodies. Then the two are forced to get to know each other well enough to imitate each other in front of the other's families and attend class in each other's shoes. With a small set of friends who they bring in on the secret, they work to understand what has happened to them and how they could reverse it. I found the first chapter introducing the concept of the switches a little clunky, but as soon as the story really got underway I settled in and enjoyed the hell out of the ride. I loved watching these two face their inner demons and build trust and connection across a stark divide. The cartooning is smart and the humor is as snappy and pop culture savvy as I've come to expect from Ngozi Ukazu!
September 22, 2025
E-ARC generously provided by First Second in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!
4.5 stars. Combining Ngozi Ukazu's signature heart, humor, and adorable art style with a story in the vein of Freaky Friday meets Toni Morrison, Flip hit me in a place that I wasn't entirely expecting but I'm glad that it did.
4.5 stars. Combining Ngozi Ukazu's signature heart, humor, and adorable art style with a story in the vein of Freaky Friday meets Toni Morrison, Flip hit me in a place that I wasn't entirely expecting but I'm glad that it did.
April 30, 2025
"The Bluest Eye" meets "Freaky Friday" in graphic novel format! This was a blast to read, despite the disheartening feelings both Flip and Chi Chi experience throughout the book. I appreciated the author's choice to illustrate not just the struggle that Chi-Chi goes through as a young black woman, but also the struggle that Flip goes through even as others see him as living the perfect privileged life. I found the rich development of the main characters, and most of the side characters as well the often hilarious quest to fix the unexplained "curse" that forces them into each others' bodies, to be engaging enough to speed through this one. But by the end, after many laughs, the reader arrives at a powerful message: as Ukazu writes in the author's note at the end, "Some do not have access to their own self-worth". The power of friendship gives us perspective about ourselves. We just need to borrow the eyes of another to see ourselves for who we truly are.
September 30, 2025
Wow!!! I devoured this in one sitting. This author's comics are just so readable, and this one's probably the most conceptually ambitious, and my new favourite. The acknowledgements talk about the ways the story is semi-autobiographical, and to me that comes through strongly not just in the more obvious ways, but in that it really HITS emotionally.
I particularly liked how much the bodyswap does NOT fix the characters’ personal problems in any immediate intrinsic way, and how messy and difficult things get interpersonally. It has scenes with layers of nuance that leave it to the reader to unpack fully, and I loved that it goes to dark places you might not expect - even with the overall tone being funny and upbeat, the emotional grounding feels so deep.
Doing a bodyswap story and drawing on The Bluest Eye are both big challenging things to tackle in the comics form, let alone together. It’s a book that requires the reader to pay a little attention - once I was, the bodyswap masks and eye colours techniques really worked for me. But the thing that stood out to me most was seeing the weight of Chi-Chi’s self-doubt and self-scrutiny. It feels so tangible and heartbreaking. Watching her wrestle with seeing her body from the outside - and working to love what she sees - is such a powerful way of exploring the depths of the concept to the full.
I particularly liked how much the bodyswap does NOT fix the characters’ personal problems in any immediate intrinsic way, and how messy and difficult things get interpersonally. It has scenes with layers of nuance that leave it to the reader to unpack fully, and I loved that it goes to dark places you might not expect - even with the overall tone being funny and upbeat, the emotional grounding feels so deep.
Doing a bodyswap story and drawing on The Bluest Eye are both big challenging things to tackle in the comics form, let alone together. It’s a book that requires the reader to pay a little attention - once I was, the bodyswap masks and eye colours techniques really worked for me. But the thing that stood out to me most was seeing the weight of Chi-Chi’s self-doubt and self-scrutiny. It feels so tangible and heartbreaking. Watching her wrestle with seeing her body from the outside - and working to love what she sees - is such a powerful way of exploring the depths of the concept to the full.
June 29, 2025
RTC 🩷
November 5, 2025
This is not a love story, but a self love story, and I like that Ukazu used the body-swap trope to get a character to better understand herself moreso than another person. The main crux of the plot is Chi-Chi, who is from a low income family, swaps bodies with her crush Flip, a white boy from a wealthy family, and chaos ensues as she tries to get Flip to understand periods and hair care while also trying to figure out a way to still attend her favorite K-Pop concert. It blows my mind that Ukazu found a way to visually depict body swaps, especially when the two main characters are constantly shifting back and forth between one another. Eye color and cute little masks are used to help the reader remember who is who, but even with this cleverness I got a little confused at times. Still, this book was hilarious and a good time capsule of the anxieties contained within a last year of high school before college.
November 29, 2025
A body swap book with an interesting angle.
High school senior Chinasa "Chi-Chi" Ekeh is an insecure Black girl with a huge crush on her boarding school's perfect white boy, Raymond "Flip" Henderson. Things get complicated of course when the two end up switching bodies and start really learning about themselves, each other, and big topics like race, privilege, hair, and self-acceptance.
A balanced mix of fun and thoughtful that doesn't get as campy and schmaltzy as those Freaky Friday movies.
High school senior Chinasa "Chi-Chi" Ekeh is an insecure Black girl with a huge crush on her boarding school's perfect white boy, Raymond "Flip" Henderson. Things get complicated of course when the two end up switching bodies and start really learning about themselves, each other, and big topics like race, privilege, hair, and self-acceptance.
A balanced mix of fun and thoughtful that doesn't get as campy and schmaltzy as those Freaky Friday movies.
October 7, 2025
Which adds to my point of how much I hated the racial dynamics of this story.
...I got such bad second hand embarrassment from this book
March 31, 2025
The Bluest Eye meets Freaky Friday in this YA graphic novel.
👧🏾
Chi-Chi attends a wealthy private school outside of Houston as a scholarship kid and she keeps getting crushes on rich, white boys. When her promposal video is seen by her crush and the class, her wish has her and crush, Flip Henderson, switching bodies. Their switch doesn’t last long, but then it happens again. As the switches keep getting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip realize that soon they will become the other person. They spend time trying to figure out a way to flip out of each other once and for all, while also learning a lot about the other person and themselves.
🧒🏼
I adore Ukazu’s work and had the honor of moderating a panel she was on at NTTBF. This book includes Ukazu’s signature artwork style and a unique story that I was immediately invested in. Loving who you are can be difficult growing up so I’m thrilled that a title like this will exist for our students struggling with their own identity and self-worth. Flip releases September 23 from @01second
CW: microaggressions, racism, depression, alcohol, alcoholism, prison, classism, suicide ideation
👧🏾
Chi-Chi attends a wealthy private school outside of Houston as a scholarship kid and she keeps getting crushes on rich, white boys. When her promposal video is seen by her crush and the class, her wish has her and crush, Flip Henderson, switching bodies. Their switch doesn’t last long, but then it happens again. As the switches keep getting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip realize that soon they will become the other person. They spend time trying to figure out a way to flip out of each other once and for all, while also learning a lot about the other person and themselves.
🧒🏼
I adore Ukazu’s work and had the honor of moderating a panel she was on at NTTBF. This book includes Ukazu’s signature artwork style and a unique story that I was immediately invested in. Loving who you are can be difficult growing up so I’m thrilled that a title like this will exist for our students struggling with their own identity and self-worth. Flip releases September 23 from @01second
CW: microaggressions, racism, depression, alcohol, alcoholism, prison, classism, suicide ideation
November 1, 2025
ukazu is a brilliant graphic novelist and she did it again with this one. this is maybe the most heartbreaking of her work but it’s also filled with so much joy and love. literally so found family. i love both characters (all?) development, but chi chi’s is especially great. really cool concept executed very smart and well. just brilliant and i laughed SO loudly at points. just wow!
also i rlly enjoyed the kpop stuff haha that was great. it’s a little queer (there’s a side lesbian character but also chi chi is kinda having a trans narrative going on, ngl!!!) but it’s fs the most about race that ukazu has written so far. really interesting stuff about race tho and i liked the navigation of “what does it mean to be a Black girl in a white boy’s body?”
also i rlly enjoyed the kpop stuff haha that was great. it’s a little queer (there’s a side lesbian character but also chi chi is kinda having a trans narrative going on, ngl!!!) but it’s fs the most about race that ukazu has written so far. really interesting stuff about race tho and i liked the navigation of “what does it mean to be a Black girl in a white boy’s body?”
September 22, 2025
layered, humorous and heartfelt story about self-love, identity, friendship and also bodyswapping! ngozi is such a special author/illustrator - her books stand out for all the right reasons. i laughed, i cried, etc etc
thank you to first second for the earc!!
thank you to first second for the earc!!
July 7, 2025
I’ll read anything by Ngozi Ukazu, I loved Check, Please! back in the day and I just finished Flip and I loved it too! There’s something about the way she tells stories that makes them so fun to read, while still pulling you in with real emotional depth.
I loved all the characters, genuinely. Chi Chi and Flip were both so fully fleshed out, with rich backstories and real motivations that made their journeys feel grounded and meaningful. The story touches on gender, race, and inequality in ways that feel natural and current, not preachy, just real. It’s exactly the kind of stuff teens are talking about nowadays.
And the side characters? So good. Chi Chi’s relationships with her friends and family felt so warm and real. I appreciated how this story showed that even when you’re surrounded by love, it can still be hard to love yourself.
Visually, the art style is pretty simple, but super clean and consistent. I especially appreciated how easy it was to tell who was who during the bodyswap scenes.
Strong storytelling paired with a very powerful message.
I loved all the characters, genuinely. Chi Chi and Flip were both so fully fleshed out, with rich backstories and real motivations that made their journeys feel grounded and meaningful. The story touches on gender, race, and inequality in ways that feel natural and current, not preachy, just real. It’s exactly the kind of stuff teens are talking about nowadays.
And the side characters? So good. Chi Chi’s relationships with her friends and family felt so warm and real. I appreciated how this story showed that even when you’re surrounded by love, it can still be hard to love yourself.
Visually, the art style is pretty simple, but super clean and consistent. I especially appreciated how easy it was to tell who was who during the bodyswap scenes.
Strong storytelling paired with a very powerful message.
July 21, 2025
I was looking forward to reading new original graphic novel from Ngozi Ukazu - and Flip is an interesting read! The author's note at the end confirms my feeling that a lot of the story and themes in it must have been autobiographical - and transformed into a funny, easy read by application of Ngozi Ukazu's trademark humor and ability to inject levity even in darker themes. She adds that she gave Chi-Chi things she didn't have herself at the time, and it moves my heart because those additions really shone in the story, both giving the protagonist a real fleshed out feeling, a great support system and the story a bright cast and dynamism. Imagining Chi-Chi's life without her gang.. Yeah that's a much tougher life. And regarding the "white boy crush" character, I was wondering what angle this would take, and I'm pleased with the road the author chose, friendship and a mutually supportive connection rather than a straightforward romance, it suits the themes much better.
The reason I didn't give this higher score is because the magical elements were quite a lot over the place: it seemed to try and swerve the story in other directions and then it backtracked again. Seems a bit unusual to say this may have suffered from attempts to explain it or ground in precedents, but that's what it felt like. May have been easier to handwave it entirely.
Thank you to Netgalley and First Second Books for an advance review copy.
The reason I didn't give this higher score is because the magical elements were quite a lot over the place: it seemed to try and swerve the story in other directions and then it backtracked again. Seems a bit unusual to say this may have suffered from attempts to explain it or ground in precedents, but that's what it felt like. May have been easier to handwave it entirely.
Thank you to Netgalley and First Second Books for an advance review copy.
July 2, 2025
Chi Chi has a crush on a rich white boy, who doesn’t even see her. She decides to do a promposal to him, but he accidentally opens it during a presentation he is making in class, and before she can stop him, he has not only seen it, but the rest of the class has too. And then he turns her down.
She runs off, and wishes that Flip liked her.
And then she wakes up the next day, and they’ve switched bodies. And they keep switching back and forth, for longer and longer periods, as the two have to adjust to living in each other’s bodies.
When I first heard about this book, I thought it would be funnier, having read other books by the author, but this, while funny, is also serious, because the wish was to have Flip like her, and what she learns, as she goes along, that it isn’t so much that he likes her, but that he sees her, and she sees him. Because, to live in each other’s lives allows you to see how the other half lives, so to speak.
And perhaps because it takes the long route to teaching the lesson, it allows you to see it, without being hit over the head with it.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 23rd of September 2025.
She runs off, and wishes that Flip liked her.
And then she wakes up the next day, and they’ve switched bodies. And they keep switching back and forth, for longer and longer periods, as the two have to adjust to living in each other’s bodies.
When I first heard about this book, I thought it would be funnier, having read other books by the author, but this, while funny, is also serious, because the wish was to have Flip like her, and what she learns, as she goes along, that it isn’t so much that he likes her, but that he sees her, and she sees him. Because, to live in each other’s lives allows you to see how the other half lives, so to speak.
And perhaps because it takes the long route to teaching the lesson, it allows you to see it, without being hit over the head with it.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 23rd of September 2025.
August 14, 2025
This body swap story gives Freaky Friday vibes, but with a twist: swapping across both gender and race. It’s a true “walk in my shoes” tale, with each character gaining a deeper understanding of the other’s life and challenges. Beneath the fun premise, it tackles real and relatable themes like depression and self-hate. My heart ached whenever Chi Chi spoke negatively about herself, especially about her hair.
The art is bright and charming, like something that could easily be turned into a Disney cartoon. All in all, it’s about recognizing your worth, loving yourself as you are, and resisting the pressure to fit into a mold. My only criticism is the ending. I just wish the it offered a little more closure.
The art is bright and charming, like something that could easily be turned into a Disney cartoon. All in all, it’s about recognizing your worth, loving yourself as you are, and resisting the pressure to fit into a mold. My only criticism is the ending. I just wish the it offered a little more closure.
June 5, 2025
I seem to be an outlier here based on the reviews so far, but as soon as Chi-Chi started messaging an AI bot, it was over for me. While the concept is cool, I could not connect with Chi-Chi or Flip and was not rooting for them (together or separately). This bummed me out because I love to see a swimmer in books! The art in this graphic novel was well done but the story was a miss for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
April 3, 2025
A thoughtful and funny graphic novel with a body-swapping twist. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!
October 20, 2025
I can find it hard to keep my head straight during freaky-friday body swapping plots (heightened horribly in this case since they keep swapping back and forth), so I had to go back over the panels a few times, but this book actually made me laugh out loud at certain points and was generally just a very enjoyable time. :)))
November 6, 2025
Emotionally and logistically complex and high-stakes. I feel like the Kpop angle showed up and disappeared kind of randomly throughout, in a way that felt sort of off-kilter. But it's a really good read overall.
October 18, 2025
No book has ever made me more relieved that I went to public school.
But fr, it’s a Ngozi book. It slaps.
But fr, it’s a Ngozi book. It slaps.
September 29, 2025
I laughed so much and cried so much. a beautifully written and stunningly drawn graphic novel
June 25, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!
I love this creators art and stories so much. This one felt a little different but still hit as hard as their other ones have. Chichi and Flip felt like polar opposites but you see how much they have in common as time goes on. I really liked Chichi. She’s a nerd who’s into kpop and fandom and I could really relate to her. She feels like nobody likes her and has some struggles with her self image. She imagines herself being someone else. I could really see the parallels between this and The Bluest Eye in some ways. Flip has issues too that nobody really sees. Chichi being in his body helped her understand him better instead of him just being a hot white guy. Chichi’s friends were so cute too. Like the group was so understanding and ready to help. This was a really good look at self imagine and helping to better love yourself.
I love this creators art and stories so much. This one felt a little different but still hit as hard as their other ones have. Chichi and Flip felt like polar opposites but you see how much they have in common as time goes on. I really liked Chichi. She’s a nerd who’s into kpop and fandom and I could really relate to her. She feels like nobody likes her and has some struggles with her self image. She imagines herself being someone else. I could really see the parallels between this and The Bluest Eye in some ways. Flip has issues too that nobody really sees. Chichi being in his body helped her understand him better instead of him just being a hot white guy. Chichi’s friends were so cute too. Like the group was so understanding and ready to help. This was a really good look at self imagine and helping to better love yourself.
November 12, 2025
i thought they were going to crack each others eggs ngl
May 23, 2025
Thank you to Netgalley and First Second Books for the ARC. Flip by Ngozi Ukazu is a sweet, funny tale of body swapping. Chi-Chi Ekeh is a great student experiencing her senior year with her two best friends. Unfortunately, she has a major crush on Flip, one of the most popular boys in school. When her promposal video accidentally gets played, and she nearly (literally) dies of embarrassment, she finds herself bodyswapped with Flip, Tons of hijinks ensue, but at its heart, both Chi-Chi and Flip experience a lot of personal growth. This was laugh out loud funny at parts and also tugged on my heartstrings as I related to both characters. A very fun read.
March 10, 2025
I loved Check Please but haven't picked up anything else by Ngozi Ukazu. What a mistake I've been making! This made me smile, laugh out loud, and tear up. I wish I could push this into the hands of my teen self, but I'll settle on pushing to my teen patrons.
Thanks to NetGalley & First Second Books for the ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley & First Second Books for the ARC!
December 5, 2025
Read through some reviews after finishing this to see if how I felt about it was reflected. To be fair, the glowing reviews I'd seen prior to reading were the ones shared by the author, so that's naturally going to be pretty biased. But this story, while setting up a lot of interesting, complex topics, simply didn't resolve any of them?
Chi-Chi is a Black girl on a scholarship to a school largely populated by rich, privileged white people. She has pretty intense self-hatred, based on her race, her family, her social and economic status, and her overall appearance and awkwardness. She uses fandom and crushes as a way to escape from herself - which, honestly, I did understand a bit. During my formative years, I'd say most of the guys I had crushes on weren't people I actually wanted to date - they were a nice fantasy and escape and talking point to connect with friends.
Chi-Chi's latest crush, in a line of popular, rich, mostly white boys, is blue-eyed athlete "Flip," nickname not explained but which works nicely with the Freaky Friday bodyswap title. She asks him out through a video promposal, which he accidentally opens during a presentation in one of their classes, and promptly rejects her.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why he got all the flack he did from both Chi-Chi's friends and their teacher; he wasn't rude about it, and why was it his responsibility to take the rejection to a private venue when she sent him a very public video? I get that she hadn't really meant it to be, but he didn't know that. A lot of promposals are intentionally very public, especially the elaborate ones like hers.
Flip generally seems like a pretty decent guy, although like he points out himself, not all that crushworthy. He's just a generic dude. Chi-Chi never really has anything specific that she actually likes about him, and they don't know each other very well, which is what he says when he apologizes and turns her down.
He's also still in love with his ex-girlfriend, who's set up to be A Terrible Person because she's rich, white, popular, touches Chi-Chi's hair without asking, and breaks up with Flip. Although it turns out that she did so because he hadn't communicated with her for a full summer - one of the many storylines that wasn't explained or resolved. And which we only find out about during one of Chi-Chi's worst moments, rejecting Madison and lying to Flip about it later on.
It was petty and cruel of her, and honestly Madison never seemed like an outright bad person; she wasn't engaging in bullying or anything like that. So Chi-Chi trying to reassure herself that it was fair play, making sure Madison finally didn't get everything she wanted...all it did was make Chi-Chi come off worse.
Flip was actually kind of interesting, because after the initial hubbub, he was a pretty chill dude who looped his also very chill best friend into Chi-Chi's friend group. There was zero actual romantic chemistry between him and Chi-Chi - this isn't a romance at all - but they built a nice friendship, getting to know each other as actual people, along with plenty of difficult fights along the way.
Another unexplored storyline: Flip's intense depression, accompanied by serious suicidal ideation, which he never got any treatment for. He "talked" about his feelings in his mandated therapy session, one time, when it was actually Chi-Chi in his body, talking through her own feelings of self-hatred. Flip never got any actual therapy himself. And is that why he hadn't talked to Madison for a full summer? Severe depression he didn't know he was experiencing and didn't know how to deal with?
Flip's ending is honestly...nothing. When they do finally succeed at their mostly-full-curse-break (they still blip into each other's bodies for brief moments for the rest of their lives, for some reason), all that happens to him is that he falls into the school fountain for unexplained reasons, nearly drowns, then spends weeks lying in bed with exhaustion that's implied to all be tied to that intense depression he still isn't getting treatment for. And then we don't even see what happened with his life after...he's friends with Chi-Chi and texting her while she's at parties with her friends, who are married and with babies and everything, and Flip is...who knows? Doesn't matter to the narrative.
It just felt a bit unfair. Why make this a bodyswap story with two people impacted by the curse, and then just kinda ditch the journey for one of them?
Chi-Chi's wish was for Flip to love her. (She just wanted someone to love her, because she thought external validation would make her care about herself.) Flip's wish, on the same night - on his birthday - was to just stop existing at all. Again...extreme suicidal ideation that was never resolved.
The twist for the curse, which was pretty clearly telegraphed, was that the only way to break the curse was for Chi-Chi to learn to love herself. That's something the pair from decades earlier had never learned, which was this weird horror story sidebar where we find out that this exact curse happened to a couple of girls in the past, who never switched back, and one of them literally died from cancer in the wrong body. Meaning the one who's left is terrified of what will happen to her the next time she's due to switch back...which would put her in a corpse.
Wildly dark for kinda uh. No reason.
Anyway, Chi-Chi does solve this by realizing she's a little bit in love with herself. Which is a great message. Except.
The person she was falling in love with was actually Flip in her body. So it didn't really work as self-love for me? It was a very confusing message. The things she loved about "herself" were finally seeing how vibrant and pretty and fashionable she could be, which yes was absolutely a part of herself she hadn't been able to see before, but a lot of that charisma and popularity and winning the prom king vote was kinda...due to Flip...?
I did like the scene at the kpop concert where Chi-Chi in Flip's body was sobbing in her seat because her boyband bias was talking on stage about self-worth and self-love. There were good themes in here. It just didn't feel like they were drawn out properly.
The author's note at the end explained a lot of her reasoning behind the story, and how it was semi-auto-biographical, with things added that she'd wished she'd had when she was Chi-Chi's age: like an inspirational and supportive Black teacher, and a couple of brilliant Black friends who showed there are many ways to be amazing.
I do get the value of the story, and what it was trying to convey. It just felt like it was still a muddled story that didn't quite reach the message it was intending to.
Chi-Chi is a Black girl on a scholarship to a school largely populated by rich, privileged white people. She has pretty intense self-hatred, based on her race, her family, her social and economic status, and her overall appearance and awkwardness. She uses fandom and crushes as a way to escape from herself - which, honestly, I did understand a bit. During my formative years, I'd say most of the guys I had crushes on weren't people I actually wanted to date - they were a nice fantasy and escape and talking point to connect with friends.
Chi-Chi's latest crush, in a line of popular, rich, mostly white boys, is blue-eyed athlete "Flip," nickname not explained but which works nicely with the Freaky Friday bodyswap title. She asks him out through a video promposal, which he accidentally opens during a presentation in one of their classes, and promptly rejects her.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why he got all the flack he did from both Chi-Chi's friends and their teacher; he wasn't rude about it, and why was it his responsibility to take the rejection to a private venue when she sent him a very public video? I get that she hadn't really meant it to be, but he didn't know that. A lot of promposals are intentionally very public, especially the elaborate ones like hers.
Flip generally seems like a pretty decent guy, although like he points out himself, not all that crushworthy. He's just a generic dude. Chi-Chi never really has anything specific that she actually likes about him, and they don't know each other very well, which is what he says when he apologizes and turns her down.
He's also still in love with his ex-girlfriend, who's set up to be A Terrible Person because she's rich, white, popular, touches Chi-Chi's hair without asking, and breaks up with Flip. Although it turns out that she did so because he hadn't communicated with her for a full summer - one of the many storylines that wasn't explained or resolved. And which we only find out about during one of Chi-Chi's worst moments, rejecting Madison and lying to Flip about it later on.
It was petty and cruel of her, and honestly Madison never seemed like an outright bad person; she wasn't engaging in bullying or anything like that. So Chi-Chi trying to reassure herself that it was fair play, making sure Madison finally didn't get everything she wanted...all it did was make Chi-Chi come off worse.
Flip was actually kind of interesting, because after the initial hubbub, he was a pretty chill dude who looped his also very chill best friend into Chi-Chi's friend group. There was zero actual romantic chemistry between him and Chi-Chi - this isn't a romance at all - but they built a nice friendship, getting to know each other as actual people, along with plenty of difficult fights along the way.
Another unexplored storyline: Flip's intense depression, accompanied by serious suicidal ideation, which he never got any treatment for. He "talked" about his feelings in his mandated therapy session, one time, when it was actually Chi-Chi in his body, talking through her own feelings of self-hatred. Flip never got any actual therapy himself. And is that why he hadn't talked to Madison for a full summer? Severe depression he didn't know he was experiencing and didn't know how to deal with?
Flip's ending is honestly...nothing. When they do finally succeed at their mostly-full-curse-break (they still blip into each other's bodies for brief moments for the rest of their lives, for some reason), all that happens to him is that he falls into the school fountain for unexplained reasons, nearly drowns, then spends weeks lying in bed with exhaustion that's implied to all be tied to that intense depression he still isn't getting treatment for. And then we don't even see what happened with his life after...he's friends with Chi-Chi and texting her while she's at parties with her friends, who are married and with babies and everything, and Flip is...who knows? Doesn't matter to the narrative.
It just felt a bit unfair. Why make this a bodyswap story with two people impacted by the curse, and then just kinda ditch the journey for one of them?
Chi-Chi's wish was for Flip to love her. (She just wanted someone to love her, because she thought external validation would make her care about herself.) Flip's wish, on the same night - on his birthday - was to just stop existing at all. Again...extreme suicidal ideation that was never resolved.
The twist for the curse, which was pretty clearly telegraphed, was that the only way to break the curse was for Chi-Chi to learn to love herself. That's something the pair from decades earlier had never learned, which was this weird horror story sidebar where we find out that this exact curse happened to a couple of girls in the past, who never switched back, and one of them literally died from cancer in the wrong body. Meaning the one who's left is terrified of what will happen to her the next time she's due to switch back...which would put her in a corpse.
Wildly dark for kinda uh. No reason.
Anyway, Chi-Chi does solve this by realizing she's a little bit in love with herself. Which is a great message. Except.
The person she was falling in love with was actually Flip in her body. So it didn't really work as self-love for me? It was a very confusing message. The things she loved about "herself" were finally seeing how vibrant and pretty and fashionable she could be, which yes was absolutely a part of herself she hadn't been able to see before, but a lot of that charisma and popularity and winning the prom king vote was kinda...due to Flip...?
I did like the scene at the kpop concert where Chi-Chi in Flip's body was sobbing in her seat because her boyband bias was talking on stage about self-worth and self-love. There were good themes in here. It just didn't feel like they were drawn out properly.
The author's note at the end explained a lot of her reasoning behind the story, and how it was semi-auto-biographical, with things added that she'd wished she'd had when she was Chi-Chi's age: like an inspirational and supportive Black teacher, and a couple of brilliant Black friends who showed there are many ways to be amazing.
I do get the value of the story, and what it was trying to convey. It just felt like it was still a muddled story that didn't quite reach the message it was intending to.
July 6, 2025
4.5⭐
What a unique journey to self love actualization! There's nuanced commentary on class, race, and gender identity as well as effective mental health representation. While the premise is wrapped up in otherworldly circumstance, the core ideals of self worth and letting society influence you to an extreme extent are very relatable, especially for teens. Chi-Chi and Flip's arcs are stellar, both showing substantial, earned growth. Oh, if only the Flip from the first chapter could see how invested he becomes in a kpop group!
Engaging art style, but I did find that I was confused about who was in which body about a handful of times. I wish that we got more of a mental health update on Flip before the book ends. While Chi-Chi is the main character, I was invested in Flip as well and he was not doing great even towards the end. Even though he has a new support system I did wish we saw that he was more stable. I adored these characters so much that I'm left wanting more of them!
Thanks to NetGalley and First Second Books for the arc!
What a unique journey to self love actualization! There's nuanced commentary on class, race, and gender identity as well as effective mental health representation. While the premise is wrapped up in otherworldly circumstance, the core ideals of self worth and letting society influence you to an extreme extent are very relatable, especially for teens. Chi-Chi and Flip's arcs are stellar, both showing substantial, earned growth. Oh, if only the Flip from the first chapter could see how invested he becomes in a kpop group!
Engaging art style, but I did find that I was confused about who was in which body about a handful of times. I wish that we got more of a mental health update on Flip before the book ends. While Chi-Chi is the main character, I was invested in Flip as well and he was not doing great even towards the end. Even though he has a new support system I did wish we saw that he was more stable. I adored these characters so much that I'm left wanting more of them!
Thanks to NetGalley and First Second Books for the arc!
August 23, 2025
Boy does Ngozi Ukazu know how to create a brilliant graphic novel. Chi-Chi Ekeh has a bad habit of falling in love with athletic white boys who have no idea she even exists. When her most recent crush rejects her publicly after a prom-posal gone horribly wrong, they find themselves in each other's bodies. It's not the first weird thing to happen at their school, but it might be the last for Chi-Chi and Flip if they can't figure out how to reverse it. As they navigate life in each other's shoes, though, they begin to realize just how much they didn't know about each other. Will learning to see each other--and love themselves--be enough to stop the switches before they're stuck this way for good?
Flip takes a fun Freaky Fridayed premise to tell a serious story about self-love and mental health and privilege. I don't know if I'll ever love a graphic novel more than Check Please! but dang if Ukazu doesn't continue to surprise me with incredible new stories that touch my heart in different ways.
Flip takes a fun Freaky Fridayed premise to tell a serious story about self-love and mental health and privilege. I don't know if I'll ever love a graphic novel more than Check Please! but dang if Ukazu doesn't continue to surprise me with incredible new stories that touch my heart in different ways.
November 4, 2025
This graphic novel started out as a potential high school romance and ended up as a book about loving yourself. The premise is interesting- a twist on trading places. Chi-Chi is a girl of color on scholarship who crushes on blond-haired, blue-eyed Flip. After a cringe-inducing promposal rejection, Chi-Chi wishes things were different. Cue the body swap, which is artfully executed with contrasting eye color. Interestingly they swap back-and-forth multiple times over the course of the story, which takes into account bodily and social complications. This book feels like a mashup of the movie Freaky Friday, the play Twelfth Night and the TV show Never Have I Ever. Enjoy!
November 5, 2025
Although Flip delivers plenty of diversity in its story about a white teenage boy and a teenage girl of color who switch bodies, at times it felt a bit overdone. The concept itself is interesting, offering a fresh perspective on identity and empathy, but the execution left me wanting more cohesion. The scenes jumped around a lot, making the story hard to follow, and that scattered pacing hurt the overall impact. Still, the artwork was vibrant and full of energy. I just wish the storytelling matched its visual strength.
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