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Honor girl
278 pages
A humid, bittersweet plunge into the dizzying confusion of a first queer crush at a traditional Southern summer camp.
What it feels like
Reading this graphic memoir feels like unearthing a time capsule from a deeply specific, humid Southern summer. It perfectly captures the languid, sun-drenched boredom of camp life before shattering it with the gut-twisting, all-consuming arrival of a first queer crush. The pacing is steady and reflective, mirroring the slow, sticky days of July, while the tone balances wry humor with a raw, vulnerable earnestness. The deceptively simple, unpolished art style works in tandem with the dry narration to evoke the messy, awkward reality of being fifteen and entirely unsure of yourself. It is a deeply nostalgic, quietly angsty experience that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt the isolating, transformative weight of first love in a place where you aren't supposed to feel it.
- Mood
- sun-drenched
- melancholic
- humid
- quietly angsty
- Tone
- wry
- earnest
- nostalgic
- vulnerable
- awkward
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- queer awakening · first heartbreak · summer camp isolation · adolescent confusion
- The writing
- Dry, conversational, and disarmingly honest, paired with deceptively simple, expressive illustrations that capture the messy reality of being fifteen.
- The arc
- Moves from the comfortable boredom of childhood summers into the dizzying, gut-twisting intensity of first queer love, settling into a bittersweet acceptance.
- Who it's for
- Anyone who remembers the all-consuming, confusing weight of a teenage crush and loves a nostalgic, bittersweet coming-of-age memoir.
Content notes
- homophobia
- underage drinking
- mild emotional distress
About the book
Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She's from Atlanta, she's never kissed a guy, she's into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing... until one confounding moment.
A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie's savant-like proficiency at the camp's rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it's too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.
Description from Open Library.
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