Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, 9/10

There’s something really beautiful and relatable about a story of a high strung girl who takes such a transformative journey to find herself. 

This year I've been making an effort to read only books written by women and femmes. So far so good, this has been my 30th read this year written by a woman. Morgan Rogers created a pretty moving read that kept my attention, in spite of its length. Her lead is a character named Grace Porter, a 28 year old woman with a PHD in astronomy. Seeing how we as queer women have a special connection to the sun and stars, this makes a lot of sense. Grace goes through a pretty jarring moment of self-discovery when she gets drunk in Vegas and ends up marrying a woman she was flirting with at a bar. This is so far out of the ordinary for the nose-to-the-grindstone straight A student that she is, that she ends up in a tailspin which upends her life completely. Though on the whole, this change ends up being for the better. 

This book almost jokingly plays with the old lesbian stereotype of moving in with your lover after knowing her for five minutes. Although Rogers strays from the usual uhaul jokes, she does explore some stereotypes (quick attachment, obsession with astrology, and a fascination with cryptids/mythology) in a way that sees the tropes for what they are: rooted in some authenticity for the culture of queer women and femmes. Rogers' characters are well developed, and interesting. Most importantly, they are flawed. There’s a whole scene in which Grace Porter and one of her friends drunkenly take out their issues on one another when they should be getting rest for an early flight in the morning. If this isn’t a scene out of real life I don’t know what is. 

The love story between Grace Porter and Yuki Yamamoto is decentralized from the main point of the plot. Because of this, the work feels all the more real and honest. I always get annoyed when relationships in books work out just because the author really wanted them to. Instead the main point is that Grace finds the courage to stand up to her ex-military father, and to choose to explore the parts of herself which he doesn’t approve of. Grace makes the choice at 28 years old to find balance in her life (something we all struggle with in a capitalist society), and to put her needs, emotions, and wants if not first then at least equal with her goals. For a woman who has never done anything with her life besides work hard, this is a radical change. 

There’s something really comforting about a story of a 28 year old woman who is still figuring herself out. There’s so much pressure in your twenties to know yourself. I think it’s good to have a reminder that this is an ongoing process. You don’t make one decision about yourself and live with it forever. We evolve as we go, no matter the stage of life.