Stephanie Stalvey's viral comics are in print for the first time as a tender, unflinchingly honest, and beautifully drawn memoir about faith, first love, and the courage to be your whole self. Perfect for fans of Blankets by Craig Thompson and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. “Everything was either black or white. Pure or impure.” Stephanie grew up in an evangelical community where love and obedience were overlapping themes. In this world, sin was inevitable, her body was a temptation, and desire was dangerous. Her own thoughts could not be trusted, because she was only saved if she believed the "right things" about God. But as she grew, built a life of her own, and fell in love with a young seminarian named James, the complexities of the human experience became impossible to ignore.
Was God truly so exacting and judgmental? Could faith exist beyond these rigid borders? Could love be both passionate and pure? Her connection to James—honest, caring and sensual—became a safe place for her worldview to expand. And when their son was born, she understood love in a whole new way… suddenly, everything was sacred, everything was in colour. Through striking prose and beautiful mixed media illustrations, Stalvey takes us on an emotional journey of faith, romance, motherhood and loss. With tenderness and honesty, she unravels the fear and guilt woven into her past, reclaims her sense of self, and shows us how to embrace a love that is healing, transformative, and wholly one's own.
