Amber Sparks, Rae Cline, and Sara Lippmann - Secrets and Lies and The Harms that Haunt Us

Clementine is a girl in trouble. She's homeless, living in a conversion van at a campground tucked into a little stretch of riverfront on the Potomac. She's hungry, craving Pop-Tarts while forced to eat fried snake for supper. And she's pregnant. Daddy says he'll fix it. But unlike Mama and the folks who believe he can walk on water, Clem knows better than to trust Daddy.

In Precious Ugly, Rae Clinedraws us into thestory of a thirteen-year-old girl seeking to escape her abusive, alcoholic, charismatic father and desperate to protect her mother. Set in 1985 in Harpers Ferry and Jolo, West Virginia, it's a story anchored in the promise of Reagan, the fear of AIDS, the songs of Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, and Tina Turner heard through a Walkman, and other signs of its time and place. It's also a universal and ongoing story about poverty, addiction, religious charlatans, sexual predators, and how children are made to suffer for the sins of their parents. As told through the eyes of its remarkable young heroine, Precious Uglyis ultimately a story about the everyday marvels of tenacity and resourcefulness, the kindness of strangers, and the possibility of breaking the cycle of domestic violence and generational trauma.

Thirty-five year old Cassandra (aka Cass, Cassie, Cassidy, and Cassiopeia) Trout is going nowhere fast. Stuck in her hometown of Philadelphia, she spends her lackluster days working retail and running, and then rinse, repeat. But a surprise wedding invitation from an estranged childhood friend is set to change all that.

Sally Sellers has made it big in London and is eager to flesh out her guest list. Cass and Sally were once inseparable, sharing everything from boys to beds. But secrets polluted their friendship—particularly Cass's illicit entanglement with Sally's father, Len, which began in adolescence, and ended with his untimely death. Will the wedding finally force Cass to reckon with her painful, hidden past? Can she heal well enough to truly grow into her own adulthood? And what does healing look like when the most damaging memories are also the ones that last?

Sara Lippmann’s Hidden River is an unforgettable masterwork by a writer at the top of her game. With a timeline that toggles between the summer of 2008 and the late 80s/early 90s, this lean but bold novel casts an intimate look at grooming in the era before #metoo. A fascinating blend of tragedy and dark comedy, a work of brutal emotional truths unearthed with lightness and grace, this exquisitely charged story, at once private and political, will linger in your mind—and earn a place in your heart.