Float Vol 1

In Float, Volume 1, Waverly is spending her summer away from Alaska, in Florida with her aunt. Waverly plans on being an entirely different person during the summer, she will be cool, fun, and have a ton of friends, but there seems to be one thing holding her back from being this person, Waverly can’t swim. This shouldn’t be a problem though since the boy next door, Blake, who Waverly is sure hates her, offers to teach her to swim when he discovers that she doesn’t know how to.

What I Liked: The tension between Waverly and Blake is drawn out and well done. Throughout the story you do believe that Blake hates Waverly for no apparent reason but are also curious if he is hiding something as Waverly suspects. The feelings that Waverly has for Blake do come on suddenly which did come as a surprise even if the description of the book hints at this happening. The relationship that develops between Waverly and Blake is one that keeps you reading as you want to see where this friendship goes and also see if Waverly’s secret is going to get revealed to her new friends.

The illustrations in this book do a great job of transporting you into the places that Waverly visits throughout her time in Florida. It’s fascinating to see the stark contrast between Waverly and her new friends when it comes to the clothes they wear, their hobbies, and the shades of their skin. The skin shades make it very apparent that Waverly doesn’t spend much time outdoors and is not from Florida as this distinction is something you also see between Waverly and her aunt.

What left me wanting more: There were times that I had to double back and re-read because the sequence didn't make much sense. The layout of the panels was a bit confusing and I wasn’t always sure in which direction to read and it didn’t follow the same sequence throughout the book. While this was difficult, since there is not a lot of text it wasn’t too much of a hassle to double back and reread some portions of the page.

Final Verdict: Float Volume 1 is a great summer read for those of you enjoy enemies to lovers romance, slice of life, and/or are looking for a book that has beach themes. This book is great for young adults ages 12 and up who may be struggling to fit in or are trying to change themselves for the sake of others.

This summer vacation is Waverly's chance to be a cool, normal girl - chill with her aunt, maybe get a job, make friends (okay, maybe not with the grumpy neighbor), not let anyone find out she can't swim, and think as little as possible about her parents' divorce. Her ensuing joys and mistakes candidly express fears and social anxieties that are modern and relatable, and leave you rooting for this girl far from home to find her confidence.

This first volume has two major sources of drama - Waverly's swimming ability (or, inability) and wanting to fit in, and the tangled relationships within her newfound friend group. Crushes, breakups, rebounds, you name it, someone's doing it. While it's not my favorite thing in a story (angst is stressful!), I appreciated the candid portrayal of how people can lash out when hurt, or make impulsive decisions driven by emotions that might blow up in order to cover an internal void or insecurity. Everyone in Waverly's circle has some secret that I look forward to unpacking in future volumes.

But there's also laughs in between the drama. The depictions of Waverly's overimagination are cute and funny, and I particularly liked the baby-sitting experience (what happens when two impulsive teens watch an infant? chaos).

For some reason, I found the panel layouts a little confusing. Read left right? Top down? Some mix of the two? The way this webtoon got transferred to page format just didn't always click for me.