Honor Girl
Age 14+
Comic Strip Fiction / Graphic Novels
All-girl camp. First love. First heartbreak. At once romantic and devastating, brutally honest and full of humor, this graphic-novel memoir is a debut of the rarest sort.
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.
Creators
Maggie Thrash is a staff writer for Rookie, a popular online magazine for teenage girls. This is her first book. She lives in Delaware.
Reviews
4/5. A heartbreaking memoir interspersed with brief moments of aching sincerity and dry humor. Honor Girl paints a simple, but agonizingly real story about a young girl’s rocky journey of sexual self-discovery.
Brett Michael Orr
Maggie was a great character to read about. She’s sarcastic and laid back, and I wanted to jump inside the book and become instant best friends with her.
Books for a Delicate Eternity
This isn’t a book, but a graphic memoir, written by one of Rookie’s staff writers. Unsurprisingly, it comes highly recommended from Tavi Gevinson and Tavi’s pal Ira Glass (the host of the world’s greatest podcast This American Life). It’s about a girl who’s life is suddenly turned on its head when she realises she has a crush on her camp counsellor. Who is a girl.
Girlfriend
Overall, an excellent coming-of-age graphic memoir, which is something really unique that I’d love to see more of.
Loony Literate
A remarkable debut.
Newcastle Herald
This is a funny story. It’s also sweet and sad and completely relatable for anyone who has ever fallen in love, with someone of the same sex or not. Highly recommended.
Otago Daily Times
Honor Girl is realistic, and heartfelt. It’s a worthy addition to the growing range of diverse voices available for young adult readers. It offers a different perspective, and ultimately, it doesn’t matter the colour, race or gender of the protagonists, what matters is that they offer a vast range of experiences and struggles, so that teenagers can see themselves in literature, feel connected, and find their own worth. That’s what reading is all about.
Reading Time
I enjoyed Honor Girl. I can’t remember what made me want to read it when I first read the synopsis but I’m glad I found it. It wasn’t just about a girl struggling to figure out who she is, dealing with her feeling, sexuality and being bullied but it’s also funny and full of some real friendships.
My Life in Books
It has beautiful illustrations, and a beautiful and heartwarming story that you won’t be able to let go of. 4/5
Happy Indulgence
