First published 2014
Lt. Kitty McCulley serves as an army nurse at the China Beach medical facilities during the Vietnam War. The young and inexperienced nurse struggles to reconcile her mission to heal with the racism of her colleagues and the severely wounded soldiers and Vietnamese civilians she treats daily. An elderly Vietnamese holy man, one of her dying patients, gives her a mysterious amulet. The gift transforms her perception, allowing her to see the auras of others and understand them in new ways. This supernatural ability leads McCulley on a surreal journey through the Vietnamese jungle. She travels with two unlikely companions: a one-legged boy and a battle-hardened soldier whose mind has been shattered by war. As she navigates the chaos and violence surrounding her, McCulley searches for her own identity and a path to survival in a world gone mad.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, supernatural
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: China Beach, Vietnam
Period: Vietnam War
358 pages · ebook · Open Road Media Sci-Fi Fantasy
Content warnings: racism, violence