Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Comics are a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. Comics and graphic novels are increasingly recognised as a legitimate, sophisticated form of literature in Australia, and not just for collectors or those with reduced reading skills. They are acknowledged for their unique ability to blend visual art with narrative, addressing complex themes.
Graphic novels are now frequently shortlisted for major Australian literary awards, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awards, signalling their acceptance into the literary canon.
The Friendship Paradox, a graphic novel by Aśka, fits this form. The storyline follows Dash, a science nerd who found friendships hard to make at school, as she embarks on a gap year before going on to university. During this time, she discovers that the science she loves so much also has lessons for her regarding friendships.
Dash likes order and for her rules are important. At her job with the local science museum, she meets Kay who does not think the way Dash does, yet she is also a science nerd. Kay is clumsy and often unfocused which annoys Dash. Their job is to travel to schools in various districts in Western Australia to present science workshops.
Through their adventures Dash learns about Kepler’s Law of Relationships where each person in your life can be seen as a planet orbiting around you. This law helps visualise the shape or behaviour patterns in your relationships. The Law of Ellipses helps a person predict what to expect from existing relationships (198).
Before the storyline begins a warning is given, ‘This book contains references to alcoholism and suicide. Some readers might find this content triggering and are advised to proceed with caution.’ The story and illustrations are presented on a white background with the separate blocks featuring pink, purple and aqua colours which are soothing to the eyes. Some pages display many individual blocks of information while on others there is a one-page illustration.
This graphic novel certainly shows a fun way of presenting science information, quite different from the way I learnt science in the classroom. There is an explanation for the working of our mind when it comes to depression. It is explained like this – events or emotional experiences could act like a black hole. Density could stretch the fabric of the mind to its extreme until it rips to form a black hole (depression) which may lead to suicide. However, black holes can change over time. This could also apply to alcohol addiction.
This novel also tells the reader that to love is to take chances, to love is to get hurt, but it’s what makes life fun and exhilarating.
Aśka, the author of this book, is an award-winning graphic novelist, visual storyteller and science communicator and has published more than a dozen books and comics. The contents of this book found inspiration from Aśka’s own life experiences when joining Western Australia’s interactive science museum and travelling as a science communicator. Among the titles to each segment, which often coincide with the weeks of their field work are, Absolute Zero: Law of the Socially Pressured Introvert; Springs, Slings and the Escapement and The Fog of Uncertainty.
This is a beautifully presented work which is easy to follow, although the links to specific scientific phenomena may take a little working on if the reader is not this way inclined.
The Friendship Paradox
(2026)
by Aśka
Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 978 1 7611 8168 9
$22.99; 256pp