Our Little Secret

By Emily Carrington. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

Hardcover, 240 pages, B&W, 2022.

A memoir about trauma and writing yourself to a place of healing.

At 15, Emily is a relatively typical teenage girl living in the Maritimes. She lives with her eccentric dad as he prepares to build a log cabin. She rides her beloved horse and spends all her free time taking in the fresh air. But things aren t perfect, the winters are harsh and her dad s place is cold and draughty. Enter their neighbour who sees a girl in need and offers to lend a hand. Three words: Our Little Secret, and Emily's fate is sealed. Twenty five years later, Emily is adrift and depressed when she spots her neighbour again on a ferry. The events of that long-ago winter come rushing back, and she is forced to reckon with the past anew. She vows that she will bring him to justice, tell her secret, and come to terms with the wounds that defined so many years of her life. Inept lawyers, expensive therapy, and a broken justice system block Emily s path to peace. Only when she rediscovers her youthful artistic talent by putting pen to paper does she see a way out. Now in her fifties, Carrington has crafted a compulsively readable debut that shows a powerful command of the comics medium. Our Little Secret is a testament to survival and to the importance of telling your story your way.