Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis awakens in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt, her body scarred from years of self-harm. She remains mute, processing the loss of her father to suicide, her mother’s physical abuse, and her best friend's brain death. When insurance coverage ends, Charlie travels alone to Arizona. She secures a job washing dishes at a dive bar, attempts to establish a home in a makeshift apartment, and enters a volatile relationship with a local musician struggling with alcohol addiction.
This story serves readers interested in realistic depictions of trauma recovery and the daily mechanics of living with a mental health diagnosis. It provides a technical look at the cycle of relapse and the difficulty of maintaining sobriety while experiencing homelessness or instability. Readers walk away with a functional understanding of how art serves as a sensory grounding tool and how individual survival often depends on small, repetitive choices rather than sudden personal epiphanies.
- Published
- 2016
- Language
- EN
