NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A memoir in poetry by one of the most crucial activists for sexual assault survivors writing today.

“A captivating, powerful read about clawing your way out of trauma, reclaiming your body, and undoing lifetimes of lessons in order to use your voice as the weapon it is.”—Booklist, starred review

“Speak[s] for the still-silent among us, and forces all of us to acknowledge the real and painful truths that are too dangerous to ignore.”—The New York Times

When she was thirteen years old, Laurie Halse Anderson was a shy, bookish girl who was raped by a boy she trusted. Today, she’s known as the New York Times bestselling author of Speak and many other novels, a two-time National Book Award nominee, and an advocate and activist.

In this powerful and searing book of free verse, Anderson tells the story she’s never shared publicly before: what happened to her as a teenager, the path to recovery she built herself, and how she turned her pain into art that would go on to help millions of readers the world over.

This book is for anyone who has ever been lost, ignored, silenced, abused, assaulted, harassed, talked down to, made to feel small, or knows someone who has. It’s for the writers and the readers, the dreamers, story weavers, poem collectors, song traders, word eaters. It’s for the heartsick and the hope-filled, the furious and the fierce, the creators of call-outs, and anyone with the courage to say “#MeToo,” whether aloud, online, or only in your own heart.