First published 2018
Terese Marie Mailhot was raised on the Seabird Island Reservation, surrounded by the wreckage of her family's cycle of abuse and addiction. Hospitalized as an adult with PTSD and bipolar II, she's given a notebook and begins to reckon with her past. Mailhot's searing memoir traces her path from a childhood of violence to the hard-won stability of adulthood, as she learns to embrace her heritage and the sacred "heart berries" that nourish her wounded spirit.
Genres: addiction, abuse, autobiography, mental-illness, contemporary, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-journey
Setting: Pacific Northwest, Seabird Island Reservation
125 pages · Kindle Edition · Counterpoint
Content warnings: abuse, addiction, mental-illness