Graphic Novel Review: Navigating With You
Author: Jeremy Whitley-writer, Cassio Ribeiro-art, Nikki Foxrobot Letterer
Format: Paperback
Pages: 220
Publish Date: August 2024
Publisher: Maverick (imprint of Mad Cave Studios)
Catalog ID: ISBN: 978-1952303609
Where to buy: https://bookshop.org/lists/recently-reviewed-on-graphicmedicine-org
Author website: https://jeremywhitley.com/
Review
by Soph Myers-Kelley
The fictional story Navigating With You centers around two new students entering Durham Western High School. Neesha Sparks has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and is a vocal disability activist with a knack for costume design and love of the (fabricated) manga, Super Navigator Nozomi. Gabby Graciana is a bubbly surfer type who also happens to love the same manga. Both are BIPOC, young teenagers, and stand out (though for different reasons), leading to an immediate clash with the school principal. The principal, having been made aware of Neesha’s accessibility needs via her mother, still incorrectly says Neesha’s name and her disability, acts surprised when she is standing and not in a wheelchair, and, against their desires, switches Neesha from her honors classes to special ed classes. Recognizing the huge breach of her rights, Neesha stands up for herself, stating that she only needs access to a disability parking spot and the elevator, NOT special education courses. Gabby, on the other hand, is told off by the principal for her short board shorts (shorts designed for surfing or other water-intensive sports) and even veers into homophobic comments- stating that “you can’t just roll in here begging every boy to stare at you! Or God forbid a GIRL [unpaginated].” While Neesha has no intentions of getting friendly with the chipper and highly energetic Gabby, they bond over this terrible introduction to the school administration and become fast friends.
It’s not long before they discover their shared interest in the sci-fi futuristic manga about spaceship racing, Super Navigator Nozomi, and start to look for all the books to finish the series together since neither has completed it. The two teenagers travel all across North Carolina, getting to know each other better and perhaps finding love…? In this sweet, sensational slice of life graphic novel. There are sections of the manga they are reading together embedded in Navigating With You; so we can read it ourselves and feel involved in their two-person book club where they discuss it. One of the characters has a robotic right hand and right leg from a spaceship accident! It is very cool to see the differences in artistic style from the color art showcasing Neesha and Gabby’s lives versus the black & white emotionally & physically exaggerated manga that they read together.
As a disabled individual myself, I related to several of the scenes highlighting the extra steps Neesha needs to take to accommodate her body, or the barriers embedded into the most benign situations. For example, one classroom Neesha goes into (it looks like a science lab) has hard metal stools to sit on. She thinks to herself how uncomfortable seating is for her when they don’t include back support and her feet don’t reach the ground. As a short-disabled individual, I relate to difficulty with seating! When my feet don’t touch the floor, my pelvic floor gets tense, and the unforgiving nature of a metal or wooden chair can hurt my bones.
Because Neesha also wears long skirts and long boots, many students and staff don’t see her leg braces and miss her disability entirely. This results in a gym teacher yelling at Neesha and Gabby for using the school elevator that is for “handicapable” students. Neesha forces herself to use the stairs rather than disclosing her disability. My disability is invisible and having received some hate in the past for using my disability placard or the elevator, I know too well the internal debate of choosing to disclose or not disclose—to use aids and having to explain myself or to suffer silently and remain undetected.
But even before that, we are introduced to Neesha driving into the parking lot of her new school. She decides whether to use her parking permit and be seen from the get-go as disabled, or to walk a bit more and avoid being seen as different. She chooses to put her disability permit in her glove compartment and to walk the additional steps. We immediately learn Neesha chooses to hide her disability from other people, when possible, in order to avoid judgment. Once others know and potentially judge her, she can’t control what they think regarding her disability.
Neesha loses her balance pretty regularly as part of her condition. Several times when it happens around Gabby, Neesha is self-conscious and concerned that Gabby will make a deal out of it, panic, or help above and beyond what is necessary. Time and time again, Gabby proves to Neesha that she respects boundaries and only helps or discusses what Neesha feels comfortable discussing. It’s a breath of fresh air, and one of the many traits that makes Neesha wonder if she could have a crush…
While Neesha is, at first seemingly the primary representation of disability in this text, we also learn that Gabby and her father experience panic attacks, and later in the book we see Neesha helping Gabby move through a PTSD flashback related to a traumatic car accident where her mother died. One of her most relatable moments for me is when she has gotten to know Neesha and discloses how good she is at hiding how badly she’s feeling. Gabby is yet another highly relatable representation of what disability can look like, and how it can affect every aspect of life. Even more importantly, we see Gabby and Neesha treating each other with respect, curiosity, and kindness, making their development from friendship into romance highly nuanced, complex, and enjoyable.
As Neesha and Gabby’s relationship develops and Gabby feels less and less interested in her own emotionally abusive long-distance boyfriend in Florida, the manga’s story develops, too. The manga’s protagonist, Nozomi, begins to feel dissuaded by the toxic pilot she fell for and becomes more interested in a mysterious renegade femme fatale. The series, little did they know, was a yuri manga all along! (Yuri manga’s focus on intimate relationships between women; not necessarily sexual, though they can be). Seeing two beautiful people falling in love while they learn their favorite manga is about two women falling in love is the icing on the cake that is Navigating With You.
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Soph Myers-Kelley is a medical librarian, herbalist, and activist living in North Carolina. They can be contacted at https://www.smyerskelley.com/ and followed at https://www.instagram.com/thesofakingofficial/
Originally posted on graphicmedicine.org here: https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/navigating-with-you-2/