Etched on Me Paperback - 2014

Girl, Interrupted meets Best Kept Secret in this riveting, redemptive coming-of-age story about a young woman who overcomes a troubled adolescence, only to lose custody of her daughter when her mental health history is used against her.

On the surface, sixteen-year-old Lesley Holloway is just another bright new student at Hawthorn Hill, a posh all-girls prep school north of London. Little do her classmates know that she recently ran away from homeâÈ'where her father had spent years sexually abusing herâÈ'and that she now spends her afternoons working in a fish and chip shop and her nights in a dingy hostel. Nor does anyone know that she's secretly cutting herself as a coping mechanismâÈöuntil the day she goes too far and ends up in the hospital.

Lesley spends the next two years in and out of psychiatric facilities; overcoming her traumatic memories, finding the support of a surrogate family and a pioneering therapist, even falling in love with a fellow patient. Eventually completing university and earning her degree, she is a social services success storyâÈ'until she becomes unexpectedly pregnant in her early twenties. Despite the many gains she has made and the overwhelming odds she has overcome, the same team that saved her as an adolescent will now question whether Lesley is fit to be a mother. And so she embarks upon her biggest battle yet: the fight for her unborn daughter.

Fusing compelling social drama, page-turning storytelling, and an unforgettable narrator, Etched on Me "will steal your heart" (Randy Susan Meyers, bestselling author).

Details

• Title Etched on Me
• Author Jenn Crowell
• Binding Paperback
• Pages 321
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Washington Square Press
• Date 2014-02-04
• ISBN 9781476739069 / 1476739064
• Weight 0.65 lbs (0.29 kg)
• Dimensions 8.2 x 5.3 x 1 in (20.83 x 13.46 x 2.54 cm)
• Library of Congress subjects London (England), Bildungsromans
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013014712
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC

"In Lesley Holloway, Crowell has created a protagonist whom I wish I could meet off the page. Confronted with abuse, stigma, and shame, Lesley takes real risks to do more than survive her circumstances: she changes them.  Along the way, Lesley draws strength from a small but hardy cast of supporting characters we'd also all benefit from knowing in everyday life. In the hands of an author lacking CrowellâÈçs skill, the novel might risk falling into stereotype and caricature. But Crowell deftly maintains controlâÈ'unflinching, authentic, and empathicâÈ'throughout."