Early Graphic Novel Review – Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Graphic Novel
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Candlewick
Release Date: September 8, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0763673826
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley through NetGalley.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This was a well done autobiography about a young girl’s stay at summer camp and her discovery that she is gay. It was well written and easy to read. I enjoyed it and thought the illustration was okay.

Maggie Thrash writes about her summer at an all girls’ summer camp, her struggles with her sexuality, and with the other girls there. It’s an interesting look into the life of lesbian pre-teen and into the politics of summer camp.

This book reminded me a bit of This One Summer, it has that same somewhat wandering story quality and is just telling about the day to day life of a girl in the summer. This story is supposed to be non-fiction. Maggie is dealing with the realization that she likes girls, one girl in particular, in a more than friendly way.

The drawing is pretty rough; it’s full color but it done in a very sketchy type of style which isn’t my favorite. You can follow the drawings just fine and see character expression fine; so it’s not hard to follow…it’s just not my favorite type of illustration style.

The story has some closure but is a bit open-ended just like real life. It was a good read and well done.

Overall a decent graphic novel biography about one girl’s summer struggling with her sexuality. I would recommend to those who are interested in “day of the life” type of graphic novels or interested in GLBT graphic novels. I thought it was okay but didn’t enjoy the illustration that much.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge