Chiara is gliding through her senior year with ease, with a great babysitting job, a loyal best friend, a loving Indian-Italian immigrant family, and a shot at the summer ice-skating camp of her dreams. Then, out of nowhere, she starts having violent and unwanted thoughts and obsessions. The thoughts won’t leave Chiara alone, making her wonder if she’s a bad, violent person. Chiara decides to get help through therapy, but the idea of talking about her disturbing thoughts out loud is unthinkable. As Chiara opens up to therapy, she sees a glimmer of hope that she can have her life back. But her dark thoughts lie just beneath the surface, threatening to take it all away.
“A sympathetic and ultimately hopeful story of strength.” — Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW
Maya Chhabra is a current student in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and a graduate of Georgetown University. Her first novel, Stranger on the Home Front, was released in 2021. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in anthologies and magazines, including Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and PodCastle. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife.