Skinless: The Story of a Female Survivor

By Maggie Moor

Book Overview

"A deeply moving, deliciously weighty work of fiction... Those who surrender to the flow will be rewarded." - Kirkus Reviews

1999. NEW YORK CITY.

After childhood abuse and teenage homelessness, a singer hustling for the American Dream masks her trauma behind a glittering alter ego to navigate the margins of street life-until the persona begins to destroy her.

Skinless is a brutally raw thriller exploring art, identity, and the shadows we carry. It moves with the tension of crime noir and the raw interior intimacy of literary fiction-something fiercely human.

STREET POETRY. BEAUTY. DANGER. SURVIVAL.

Charmay, a survivor of childhood abuse and teenage homelessness, struggles to hold onto herself while trying to make it as a singer. She drinks to numb and sings to soothe the raw trauma she calls "skinless," slipping into Cindy-the smooth persona she has built on manipulation to navigate the dangerous margins of street life.

Pulled into a world of drugs, crime, sex, money, and ambition, Charmay clings to an increasingly violent marriage with a weed kingpin while navigating a Wall Street financier obsessed with Cindy and a music producer determined to cut her open to reach her honest voice.

Hustles on fire, Charmay blurs into Cindy. Beats. Bullets. Bedsheets. When her identities collide in a fever of flashbacks and betrayals, she is hurled into her most horrific reckoning yet.

FOR READERS OF:

In the Cut - The Basketball Diaries - Cherry - Kerouac

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR SKINLESS

"A must-read... Moor tells Charmay's experiences with abuse and betrayal in stark, unsentimental prose." - IndieReader

"Uncomfortable, occasionally overwhelming, and undeniably powerful... a portrait of survival that doesn't sanitize the mess." - BookLife

"An eloquent crime novel-street poetry renders the city in lush, sensual language and a heroine's raw will to live." - Foreword Reviews

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FVTRZ6HL
• ISBN13: 9798993121222
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Pearl of Peace Publishing
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"