Heck stands alone in an empty apartment. His mother has left him again, this time for good. At thirteen, he faces a choice between the foster system and the streets. He chooses the streets. Reality becomes unbearable, so Heck retreats into his mind where he transforms into a powerful superhero. In this imagined world, he possesses strength and control that his real life lacks completely. He fights villains and saves people while his actual body grows thinner and dirtier. The superhero fantasy becomes his shield against hunger, cold, and the constant fear of being caught. But the two worlds begin to blur dangerously. Heck struggles to distinguish between his heroic adventures and the concrete threats surrounding him. Other homeless people become allies or enemies in his mental narrative. Social workers turn into government agents hunting him down. His mother's mental illness echoes in his own fractured thinking. The city streets demand survival skills he never learned, while his superhero identity demands victories he cannot achieve. This is a story about a boy who must choose between the safety of delusion and the pain of accepting help.
Genres: fiction, coming-of-age, mental-illness, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: City Streets
Period: Contemporary
Hardcover · Nagel + Kimche Verlag Ag
Content warnings: mental-illness