Daddy’s Girl is a collection of short stories which deal with the frank subject matter of a girl’s sexual abuse at the hands of her father. These individual stories — mostly centering around a young girl named Lily, though another follows a different young girl named Fran — add up to create a fictionalized account of Drechsler’s own experiences. Each of these stories is told intimately through first person narration, leaving the reader wondering if they are reading a story or a memoir.
The abuse in the stories is treated matter-of-factly, which makes it all the more shocking. The abuse itself is usually not central to the stories in this collection, which mainly deal with the girl’s attempts to cope with this abuse.
Throughout each of these stories, Drechsler’s art is thick with detail, both in the characters and in the backgrounds and scenery around them. The ominous darkness of the artwork makes each scene even more wrought with tension.
Daddy’s Girl is not an easy read or a fun read. Its subject matter is as heavy and dark as the artwork, and the two combine to make the reader exceedingly uncomfortable. But it is a worthwhile read, for it portrays the subject so brilliantly and elegantly that the reader cannot help but empathize.