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Book Review: Clash
Feb. 17th, 2022 08:02 amKayla Miller’s latest graphic novel, Clash, kicks off when Olive volunteers to show new girl Natasha around at school. Olive, wildly friendly child that she is, introduces Natasha to all her friends, by which I mean basically everyone at school - and Natasha responds with outward cordiality that barely masks an insidious desire to supplant Olive in all her friends’ affections.
NATASHA WHY. We never do learn exactly why, which I think is a strength of the book, actually. Sometimes people do things like this and you never DO learn where they picked up this bizarre and counterproductive way of relating to the world!
Anyway. Natasha’s attempted All about Eveing of Olive’s life culminates at Olive’s Halloween party, where Natasha absconds with half the guests for a little impromptu trick-or-treating. (To be fair, what did Olive expect when she planned a Halloween party on Halloween? She had her reasons, but still.) But then Natasha attempts to egg Olive’s house.
I’m not sure how Natasha expected THAT to go. Did she envision rallying all of Olive’s former friends to egg Olive’s house too, thus turning them into her own minions henceforth? But what actually happens is that Olive’s friends, still very much Olive’s friends even though they really like Natasha too, recoil in horror, and Olive sends Natasha home.
Readers, I cheered! Olive has been so nice to Natasha for so long, to an almost doormat-ty degree, I think not from lack of spunk but because she’s naturally a warm, friendly, easy-going person, and in the past this has always won people over so she’s just not sure what to do when she’s faced with someone on whom that strategy doesn’t work. Especially given that Natasha’s not in-your-face mean. She’s steadily, stealthily, just-below-the-surface mean, the kind of mean you think maybe you’re imagining, or maybe you’re not imagining it but she doesn’t mean it the way it comes across? And Olive has really been trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But in the aftermath everyone cold-shoulders Natasha at school, and when Olive sees Natasha sitting alone at her Lunch Table of Shame, Olive feels bad for her and goes to sit with her, and of course where Olive goes others follow. It’s very mature and generous of her I GUESS.
Afterward Olive and Natasha have a talk, and Olive is like “We don’t have to LIKE each other but we have a lot of the same friends so let’s at least be CIVIL,” and Natasha’s like, Sure, fine.
The reason I keep reading Miller’s graphic novels is that she’s really good at setting up these thorny interpersonal dilemmas… and the reason I keep getting frustrated is that I often think her books resolve these situations too easily. In this book, there’s an author’s note where Miller comments that she’s been in similar situations, and didn’t handle it as gracefully as Olive does, and wanted to model a healthy way to deal with such a situation…
And that’s great and all, and maybe! Perhaps! Natasha has seen the light and will keep her end of the bargain and NOT continue trying to undermine Olive with all her friends. But I have my doubts. She was planning to egg Olive’s house! She may not have the emotional maturity or the social skills or, perhaps most crucially, the desire to deal with this in a healthy manner. Was she chastened by her brief shunning, or did it just make her hate Olive more? What’s the next step if Olive does her darndest to deal with this situation in a healthy manner and Natasha refuses to play ball?
NATASHA WHY. We never do learn exactly why, which I think is a strength of the book, actually. Sometimes people do things like this and you never DO learn where they picked up this bizarre and counterproductive way of relating to the world!
Anyway. Natasha’s attempted All about Eveing of Olive’s life culminates at Olive’s Halloween party, where Natasha absconds with half the guests for a little impromptu trick-or-treating. (To be fair, what did Olive expect when she planned a Halloween party on Halloween? She had her reasons, but still.) But then Natasha attempts to egg Olive’s house.
I’m not sure how Natasha expected THAT to go. Did she envision rallying all of Olive’s former friends to egg Olive’s house too, thus turning them into her own minions henceforth? But what actually happens is that Olive’s friends, still very much Olive’s friends even though they really like Natasha too, recoil in horror, and Olive sends Natasha home.
Readers, I cheered! Olive has been so nice to Natasha for so long, to an almost doormat-ty degree, I think not from lack of spunk but because she’s naturally a warm, friendly, easy-going person, and in the past this has always won people over so she’s just not sure what to do when she’s faced with someone on whom that strategy doesn’t work. Especially given that Natasha’s not in-your-face mean. She’s steadily, stealthily, just-below-the-surface mean, the kind of mean you think maybe you’re imagining, or maybe you’re not imagining it but she doesn’t mean it the way it comes across? And Olive has really been trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But in the aftermath everyone cold-shoulders Natasha at school, and when Olive sees Natasha sitting alone at her Lunch Table of Shame, Olive feels bad for her and goes to sit with her, and of course where Olive goes others follow. It’s very mature and generous of her I GUESS.
Afterward Olive and Natasha have a talk, and Olive is like “We don’t have to LIKE each other but we have a lot of the same friends so let’s at least be CIVIL,” and Natasha’s like, Sure, fine.
The reason I keep reading Miller’s graphic novels is that she’s really good at setting up these thorny interpersonal dilemmas… and the reason I keep getting frustrated is that I often think her books resolve these situations too easily. In this book, there’s an author’s note where Miller comments that she’s been in similar situations, and didn’t handle it as gracefully as Olive does, and wanted to model a healthy way to deal with such a situation…
And that’s great and all, and maybe! Perhaps! Natasha has seen the light and will keep her end of the bargain and NOT continue trying to undermine Olive with all her friends. But I have my doubts. She was planning to egg Olive’s house! She may not have the emotional maturity or the social skills or, perhaps most crucially, the desire to deal with this in a healthy manner. Was she chastened by her brief shunning, or did it just make her hate Olive more? What’s the next step if Olive does her darndest to deal with this situation in a healthy manner and Natasha refuses to play ball?
