[Graphic Novel Review] Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

Helloooo, Internet Land. Bitty here!

Y’all... I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There’s checking. And then, there is Jack—our very attractive but moody captain.

A collection of the first half of the megapopular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: #Hockey is the first book of a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.

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This graphic novel has been all over my social media platforms for a while now, and I finally recently caved and borrowed it from my library and now I'm in love. This is one of the most pure and heartwarming graphic novels. During and after reading, I couldn't help but recommend it to everyone who I talked to in that time because I felt like everyone needed to read this cute story. 

Eric Bittle (a.k.a. Bitty) is our main character, and he's the sweetest cinnamon roll of a character. The story starts with him entering college as a freshman. He's a vlogger and talks to the reader as if he's talking to his camera and fans online.Seeing his confidence as he gets into a groove at school and on the hockey team was so cute to read. Also, seeing his friendships grow with the teammates warmed my heart. For someone who doesn't play sports, I love watching sport anime shows and this felt incredibly similar to that. It is really easy to fall in love with the teammates and the people in Bitty's life at college because of how they all interact with each other. I love the relationship between the boys on the team. It makes you feel good to see the way they all care and keep an eye on each other. There are so many examples of the boys being charming goofs, but there are also sweet moments too. One in particular between Shitty and Bitty regarding Bitty coming out as gay to his teammates really gives you all the fuzzies. Shitty is great because he's hilarious and a leader but he's also secretly deep and soft. 

A subpot that I wish was more prominent in the story is Bitty's crush on Jack and how that plays out. I bet it'll be a bigger focus in the next volume, and that makes me excited, but I felt a little disappointed that it was such a small section of the story. Especially because the jacket cover synopsis focuses so much on Bitty's crush on him, even if it is incredibly subtle. I'm okay with the romance being slow burning, I even prefer it, but my problem was that we don't get enough moments between Bitty and Jack to see their connection form. Sure, the chemistry is there, but the scenes of them together are so short it made it hard to enjoy the angst and romance. However, after the way the first volume ended I don't doubt that we will get more romance in the second volume so I am very excited.

The only other issue I had with the volume was that there was little focus in the story. There's so much happening, and I think it's because the story originally is a webcomic so it doesn't flow as well as a completed collection. I wish we had more of a focus on the important moments so we could get to know the team more. We get to know a handful of the boys, mostly  Bitty, Jack, Shitty, Holster, & Ransom. I think if maybe we saw them more on the ice or in games working together it would be really cool to see them work together and be a team. I know nothing about hockey, but I do wish it played a bigger role. Maybe seeing Bitty and Jack in more of those 'behind the scenes' moments would make the reader see their relationship grow more. 

I love the art style so much. I really love that it has this combination of this cute aesthetic, but at the same time the boys look like college students, which can be hard to portray with such a cute style. I also really loved seeing the subtle aging of Bitty between the way he looks as a freshman versus a sophomore. His baby face thins a little bit and he looks a little older. It's subtle, but it's a nice touch. 

Overall, I cannot recommend this graphic novel enough! I recently found out that it was originally a webcomic, so I found the website and plan on continuing reading there until the second volume is published. Once it's published I'll re-read it as the second volume and review it that way! If you're interested in reading it as a webcomic, I'll link the website here! It's absolutely worth the read. 

Thanks for reading!