First published 2014
Luke has survived his childhood through cruelty and neglect. Born into abandonment, he knows only the daily certainty of harassment and abuse from those meant to care for him. Love and happiness remain foreign concepts in his world of isolation and pain. Then the dreams begin. Luke sees faces he has never known but somehow recognizes. A mother's gentle touch. A father's protective embrace. Siblings who welcome him home. In sleep, he experiences the warmth of belonging to people who actually want him. These visions of family life become more vivid each night. Luke starts to question which world feels more real. The dreams offer everything his waking hours lack, but they also pull him deeper into confusion. As the boundary between sleeping and waking dissolves, Luke must navigate a reality that no longer holds firm edges. His desperate need for connection drives him toward a breaking point where paranoia takes hold and truth becomes impossible to distinguish from wishful thinking.
Genres: literary-fiction, family-life, abuse, contemporary, psychological-thriller, realistic-fiction
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
126 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Content warnings: abuse, mental-illness