I received this trade paperback (c. 2022) from the publisher, SFWP, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

It took me a while to get into this story. It is told by a young homeless woman, not really concerned about by her mother, often without a job, and who can be found in and out of hospitals, mental health facilities and homeless shelters. It’s not a pretty read, but it is an effective way of looking in on the life of someone who really has next to nothing. Sad. Moving.

This story is written in an interesting way—all in short, choppy sentences. I guess they reflect the “Nobody cares anyway” attitude of our protagonist Rosemary June Candwell, but sometimes it makes for harder reading. There is no nice flow of words. There is also no nice flow of life as Rosemary lives it each day. I understand. I’m so sorry, but she neither wants nor needs pity.

The story made me curious about what was left unsaid—Rosemary’s childhood, her family, friends growing up, her school experience as a child. Basically what led her to the situation she was in? Maybe that’s fodder for another book as Rosemary is an interesting character and one I’d like to get to know better.

This is a hard-hitting book—short on words, but packed with emotional turmoil. Raw. Visceral. A challenging read on several levels.

In addition, I felt compelled to read this book, a novel, because the back of the book said “drawn from the author’s experience of homelessness and trauma recovery”. That simple statement led me to want to read this book to better understand someone in psychological pain…if only to be more understanding to anyone in a similar situation in real life in the future. This was definitely not an easy read, but I think it was an important one.

In this story, I grew to love Elle, Rosemary’s shrink. She was the utter calm in the midst of a tempest.

I found that the best way to read this story was to not try to understand completely all the little parts of it, but to just let the prose carry me along. By the end of the book, I found it did just that.

I'm releasing this book at a BookCrossing meetup. These are always such fun!

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Now that you've "caught" this book, it is yours to do with as you like. Read it, keep it, or give it away. It's your choice!

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Enjoy the book!

I have enjoyed the other books from this publisher, and the blurb on this looks interesting, so I'm looking forward to reading this one too.

The stream of consciousness style of this narrative almost put me off as I struggled through the first few pages of this book. But if I had given up on this book, I would have missed a gem of a story. Once I settled into the narrative style, I found this story compelling as the narrator struggles with her suicidal ideations, substance abuse, and homelessness. The more I was drawn into the story, the more the narrative style seemed both appropriate and inevitable, a reflection of the mindset and lifestyle of the narrator. This story provides an intimate look into the obstacles faced by those struggling with these issues, and feels deeply authentic. And while the story ends on a hopeful note, it doesn't provide a complete closure, with all the problems solved and all loose ends tied off. But that happy ending wouldn't reflect reality, and in real life sometimes hope is all we have.

This will be available at today's BC-in-DC meeting.

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If you have not already done so, please make a journal entry so we know this book has found a new home. You don't need to join BookCrossing and you can remain completely anonymous. However, we encourage you to join so that you can follow this book's future travels. It's fun and free, and your personal information will never be shared or sold. If you decide to join, consider listing   ResQgeek (or any of the other journalers) as referring you.

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I hope you enjoy the book!

Picked up at today's BCinDC gathering. SqueakyChu handed it to me. It's a thin book so I'm hoping I can read it quickly and bring it back to another meet-up.

Update: I had some trouble getting into the narration, because it's deceptively dark and heavy for such a thin book. I did end up reading it all in one sitting, and I'm glad I picked it up. I copied down the following quote from close to the end of the book:

"Is this hope? Is that what this is? Hope, then, is for suckers because hope has to be replenished. What's required of me is faith. Some method that starts with the answer rather than the question: it will not get easier, no, but you will get better."

I also added some more BC stickers to this copy while I was batch-registering new books.

I'm bringing this back to today's BC in DC meetup.

Picked up at the BC-in-DC meeting today! I look forward to reading it.