The Flip Side

After his best friend Evan dies of cancer, Theo feels completely alone. Overcome with negative thoughts following Evan’s funeral, Theo wakes up to his world literally flipped upside down. Now he’s being relentlessly stalked by an insidious, transmuting monster intent on consuming him. As he flees, he receives help from Emma, another teen stuck in what Theo learns is the Flip Side. Emma provides valuable survival tips while managing depression, anxiety, and more, and the pair work together to avoid their monsters. Theo believes that the movie he and Evan were working on before Evan’s death holds the key to escaping the Flip Side, but Emma, resigned to never getting out, proves difficult to convince. “Powerfully influenced” by a short story written by his late friend and creative partner, as addressed in an author’s note by Walz (the Last Pick series), this emotionally resonant graphic novel depicts vulnerable, bittersweet friendship against the backdrop of a high-concept, speculative premise. Walz balances heavy ruminations on death and mental illness with a tragicomic tone and earnest intention. Theo’s real world is rendered in muted tones, while the Flip Side bursts with poppy, surreal color. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)