by Karie Fugett
First published 2025
Karie Fugett chronicles her journey from homelessness to military wife to caregiver in this raw memoir. At twenty, living in her car, she marries Marine boyfriend Cleve partly for love, partly for survival. When his unit deploys to Iraq, an IED explosion leaves Cleve severely injured. Karie rushes to Walter Reed hospital, where doctors call his survival miraculous. The "Alive Day" becomes their new reality marker. Fugett documents her struggle to navigate veterans affairs bureaucracy while watching Cleve battle both physical trauma and growing opioid dependency. She catches his first overdose but fears she cannot prevent another. The author exposes how military conflicts create a hidden population of young, poor caregivers, mostly women, whose lives fracture under the weight of wars fought overseas and addiction battles at home. Through concrete details and dark humor, Fugett reveals the overlooked experiences of military spouses while examining her own resilience and limits.
Genres: american-fiction, military-fiction, social-issues, non-fiction, biography-memoir, disability
Vibes: dark, emotional, gritty, intimate, raw, thought-provoking
Tropes: hidden-population, survival-story, systemic-failure
Setting: Iraq, Walter Reed Hospital
Period: 21st-century
336 pages · Hardcover · The Dial Press
Content warnings: addiction, medical-trauma, substance-abuse, war