Falling Into Blue

By Barbara Bouchet

Falling into Blue is a darkly funny, deeply observant coming-of-age novel about a girl trying to make sense of a family-and a world-that rarely makes sense at all.

It is 1965, and twelve-year-old Tracie is determined to remember. She has grown up on the outskirts of a dusty small town, where her sprawling Catholic family lives in and operates a struggling motel, cows graze behind the property, and chaos is simply part of everyday life.

Tracie has questions no one seems willing-or able-to answer. Why was her mother sent away after a breakdown? Why does her grandmother fill her head with stories of Voodoo, spirits and secret powers? Why does religion promise certainty while leaving her terrified of sin? Why does her mother ignore the brother who hurts her? And what will happen when the atomic bomb finally falls?

Nothing escapes Tracie's fierce curiosity: death, sex, God, madness, cruelty, poverty, family loyalty and the strange workings of her own emerging body and mind. Adults offer rules, warnings and contradictions. Tracie keeps looking anyway.

Guided by vivid dreams and by the mysterious Rainbow Ghost who first appears in one of her loneliest moments, Tracie slowly begins to discover a source of strength that belongs to her alone.

By turns unsettling, hilarious and luminous, Falling into Blue captures childhood from the inside-the terror and absurdity, the fierce imagination, and the stubborn hope of a girl determined to understand the unfathomable.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0982456913
• ISBN13: 9780982456910
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: Blue Orb Publishing
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up