Book Review: And Now i Spill The Family Secrets by Margret Kimball

April 29, 2024

Apparently I am going through a graphic novel memoir phase. I am really enjoying learning about peoples lives from their point of view and seeing their story brought to life by their own illustrations.

TW: thoughts and attempts of suicide, self harm, food restriction, emotional abuse and mental illness.

After looking through the reviews on GoodReads, this book was quite polarizing. There have been many readers who are completely shocked that she would air out her families dirty laundry this way, and tell the world about their private medical records, but I think this book, while very invasive, is important.

This memoir follows the life of the author, Margret Kimball, thought the struggles of growing up and watching your parents relationship fall apart. She touches on her parents divorce and mental illnesses, as well as new members being added to the family and the struggle with adapting to new things while everything feels new constantly. She talks about growing up and friendships that develop and fizzle out. She talks about sexuality and learning about her body.

Each page is laid out in way of kind of a scrapbook, almost as if you are looking through Margrets scrapbook and she is talking to you about each page. While it is not the most visually stimulating graphic novel I have ever picked up, it is nice to have little bits and pieces of visuals mixed in with her words.

I suggest this story of life, love and loss.