First published 2026
Eva Benefield recounts her transformation from grief-stricken teenager to survivor of a media sensation. After losing her mother to a heart attack in high school, Eva watches her father marry Ashley Byers, a former bikini model half his age whom he barely knows. Ashley persuades him to fund an international ballet company in Charleston, but when the money disappears, she shoots him dead. The killing becomes the notorious Black Swan Murder, thrusting Eva into tabloid headlines while she struggles to pay rent and finish college as an orphan. Benefield examines how she navigated losing friends who couldn't grasp her reality, processed rage and sorrow, and rebuilt her life after violence destroyed her family. Her memoir combines dark humor with hard-won insights about choices made by others that reshape your world without warning.
Genres: crime, memoir, biography-memoir, true-crime, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: grief, orphan, survivor
Setting: Charleston
Period: High School
272 pages · Hardcover · Gallery Books
Content warnings: death, murder, violence