Honor Girl

In her young adult graphic memoir, Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash chronicles her first encounter with romance at the all-girls summer program, Camp Bellflower. The book takes place in the early 2000s when Thrash is 15 years old. She is a veteran of Camp Bellflower, a strange but welcoming haven for girls in the heart of Appalachian Kentucky. However, things become difficult when Thrash develops an unexpected crush on an older girl and has to reckon with her own sexuality, the acceptance of her friends, and the knowledge that nothing will be the same after this summer.

The book opens as Thrash, a native of Atlanta, returns to the countryside of rural Kentucky for yet another summer at Camp Bellflower. Bellflower is a strange place—each morning two girls reenact the Civil War, there are a number of odd traditions and superstitions, and the primary activities of the camp include sleeping in tents and partaking in competitive target shooting, at which Thrash is a reigning champion. In many ways, Bellflower is an empowering place for girls to live in the outdoors, learn to shoot, and participate in old Southern traditions.

Thrash's struggle begins when she meets Erin, a 19-year-old camp counselor. Their romance begins strangely enough, with Erin checking Thrash for lice in the health tent. Thrash feels an immediate attraction to this cool, beautiful, intelligent girl, who studies astronomy in college and knows how to play the guitar. As soon as she realizes what is happening, however, she begins to panic. While Camp Bellflower is a rural haven for girls, it is not a place where girls are supposed to fall in love.



Thrash remembers previous summers at camp when girls suspected of being lesbians were exiled. Their loneliness and pain haunt Thrash, who realizes how quickly she could be removed from a social circle she has cherished for nearly her entire life. Despite her feelings of fear, however, Thrash can't resist the romantic feelings she has for Erin. She often finds herself sneaking glances at her, hoping to catch her staring, and wondering all the while whether those feelings could ever be reciprocal.

Eventually, Thrash gathers the courage to tell her closest friends about her feelings. In a pleasant twist, her friends not only accept her, but encourage her to pursue the relationship with Erin. They promise to keep her secret, knowing the possibilities for bigotry among them, and Thrash feels loved and accepted, if only by her peers.

As the comic progresses, images and tension between Erin and Thrash indicate a burgeoning relationship. It becomes clear that Erin shares Thrash's romantic feelings. Nevertheless, Thrash makes it clear that Bellflower, though wonderful in many ways, will not alter its century-old values for anyone. A camp leader makes it clear that if Thrash pursues something with Erin, she will ruin the safety and peace of the camp for everyone.



As camp comes to an end, Thrash realizes that the bubble of love she has for Erin will likely burst once they leave the insular magic of the Appalachian countryside. The magic disappears, but Thrash is forever changed by the memory of that summer, of Erin, of her first love, and of the acceptance she found among her peers at Bellflower.

The daughter of federal Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., Maggie Thrash, an Atlanta native, lives in Delaware. A memoirist and young adult novelist, Thrash is best known for Honor Girl, which was a finalist for the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Graphic Novels. She wrote a follow-up graphic memoir, Lost Soul Be at Peace, about a period of teenaged depression. Thrash has also written a series of young adult mystery novels, Strange Truth and Strange Lies.