Book Review #2: Honor Girl

This is the first book I have ever read that has made me want a homophobe to read it.

No seriously.

Image credit Goodreads

This graphic memoir is so perfectly natural, so sweet, so heartbreaking, so realistic, I really truly want to see how someone who believes homosexuality is "wrong" would handle it. Maggie Thrash - church kid at a church camp - is shocked when she starts having feelings for another girl. Is this a sign? Is she broken or evil or is this normal? It's everything scary about growing up with a dose of Maybe You're Not Straight, Honey.

I think what I liked most about this memoir is her blossoming feelings aren't the whole story. Yeah, she's worried she's gay, but she is also worried she has hurt another girl's feelings on the rifle range. She's obsessed with the Backstreet Boys. Nothing fits into the traditional "I always knew I was different, I was born this way" narrative and I am so pleased. She doesn't label herself at the end, there's no clear resolution. It's beautifully human and I want to get a beer with her sometime to learn more about where she is now.

Now that I'm a little farther in and some of you have dropped off, here's my camp experience - somehow getting to snuggle in with a gorgeous girl (oh my gosh!), her confessing to me that she likes the ladies (is this happening?), and just as my shirt is about to come off (metaphorically, I'm shy as hell) she follows up with "but it's ok, Jesus has cured me!"

Oh and the art! It's not bad. It's not stunning Art, but it's clear who's who and it doesn't distract from the story. I think it's exactly the right tone.

Overall, I highly recommend it. I read this book two months ago and it's only grown on me in retrospect. And really, it's a graphic novel, it will take you about 30 seconds to read, you can't go wrong.

Also, Thrash has a book coming out next month: We Know It Was You. I'm working on tracking down a copy....