NYC, 1999: Street poetry. Beauty. Danger. Survival.
Street poetry. Beauty. Danger. Survival.
At the turn of the millennium in New York City, fresh from teenage homelessness and childhood abuse, Charmay—a street‑smart, velvet‑voiced singer-songwriter—develops a glittering alter ego, Cindy, to survive the PTSD she calls “skinless,” a raw vulnerability she drinks to numb and sings to soothe.
Over two turbulent years, chasing quick fixes and the American Dream, she’s pulled into a maze of small‑time hustles and crime that devolves into a dangerous game of secrets, lies, and power. Longing for her estranged father and the girl she once was, she clings to three men—and “Cindy”— for protection and hope, until hustles collide and masks ricochet into beats, bullets, and bedsheets, and it’s never clear who is really in control or who is using whom.
By the final chorus, Skinless becomes a strange evocation of turn‑of‑the‑century America—the times we live in and the forces we live by—as Charmay must choose between the mask that kept her alive and the honest voice that could make her whole.
Skinless is a psychological crime novel for readers of Milkman, Cherry, In the Cut, The Basketball Diaries, and dark, character‑driven literary noir.
"Skinless is an eloquent crime novel about a woman’s relentless desire to survive… Charmay vacillates between beauty and despair… her street poetry highlights the city’s colors and sensations in lush, sensual language.”"
- Foreword Reviews
"A humane, unsparing portrait—wringing hope from the drug-drenched, sex-soaked streets of 1990s New York City."
- Foreword Reviews
