I can’t remember where or when I ran across this book: It was either an online review or a recommendation from someone I saw on social media.

Whatever. It was the type of books that I don’t normally follow (graphic non-fiction book, about a just barely post-college woman), but it looked fascinating. Stuck it in an Amazon list, and finally got around to buying & reading it recently.

Fascination for many reasons:

• First, it IS like a graphic novel, but its a first-person memoir.
• The book is a door-stopper – 400+ pages, most with a dozen or so panels. And the spreads – chapter leads – are often incredibly detailed. She must buy India ink by the barrel.
• Despite its length, it is a quick read: it is like a comic book, not a lot of descriptive detail – not necessary, as there are drawings!

Basically, the story is: the author, a Nova Scotia resident, graduates from college in the early 2000s with a non-viable degree and lots of student debt.

As Beaton notes, Nova Scotia, and the eastern Canadian maritime provinces in general, were first known for exporting coal. And then the coal ran out.

Then they were known for exporting seafood. And then that industry was depleted.

At the time she graduated (2005-ish), the area was known for a new export: People. Exiles who would help power industries in other provinces, such as the Ontario auto assembly plants.

After reflection, she took a different path: Working at the then fairly new Albertan tar sands, joining a variety of camp jobs in frozen (-50 in the winter) Northern Alberta, helping extract the oil trapped in those sands.

A young woman – in the middle of nowhere – in what was decidedly a man’s club.

I won’t give away her adventures, misadventures or other experiences except to say I wish she included more than the 400+ pages of panels held. It’s a high-level yet tightly detailed account of her roughly 2005-2008 time there that reads almost like a novel.

A highly unusual and very compelling work of graphic non-fiction. Well done!