Blog Tour: THE FAMILY THAT FINDS US by Phoenix Blackwood

 

THE FAMILY THAT FINDS US

Phoenix Blackwood

 

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GENRE:  LGBTQIA+ Coming of Age

 

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BLURB:

 

Phee hides her secrets well, until they become too much to bear. Her biggest secret is one she’s kept even from herself. Her longest-kept secret is one that hurts her every day. Her final secret is one that will set her free.

 

In a school that doesn’t accept them, Phee, Theo, and Alex fight for a community close to their hearts. The community desperately needs the trio to help the rest of them leave the shadows without fear of violence and discrimination. Through some heroic activism, the three push the school officials to their limits — forcing them to act — for better or worse.

 

For Phee, the fight for a place where she can be herself doesn’t stop when she gets home. The strain of taking care of her alcoholic and abusive mother threatens to break Phee away from her family bond forever. Her mother can go from a messy drunk to an angry one in an instant, turning Phee’s home life from an obligation to a war zone.

 

Theo’s house offers respite to Phee. With compassion scarce in her life, Alex and Theo are Phee’s light in the dark. They protect and cherish her. At Theo’s, Phee is free to be herself and explore her identity safely — her chosen family ready to catch her if she falls. That’s what family does, how family finds us when we feel lost and alone.

 

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Excerpt One:

 

“Thank you, my preciou-ous-es son.” She slurred her words as she spoke into the table, and I sighed inaudibly.

 

At least she wasn’t angry-drunk. This was the drunk I could handle, the drunk I knew how to care for. I’d been doing it half my life, it would be strange if I weren’t good at it by now. I finished the dishes and laid them out on the drying rack after wiping them dry with a kitchen towel, then sat down in the chair next to her at the table.

 

“Do you need anything, mom? Have you eaten? Drank anything?”

 

“Mmno.” She rolled her face to look at me, her deep dark eyes glistening but not completely there.

 

I got a plastic cup from the cupboard and filled it with some ice water and handed it to her. Her hands shook as she tried to lift the cup from mine, so I helped her guide it to her mouth and take a couple sips, then set it back down on the table in front of her. I rummaged through the fridge to pull out some milk and went to the pantry for some cereal. Only, as lifted the milk to pour, I felt objects hit the side of the carton. I opened the cap to take a whiff and gagged; the milk was sour. Sighing, I dropped the carton into the trash and opened the barren fridge to search for another option.

 

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 GUEST POST

The main character in The Family that Finds Us, Phee, is driven so completely by a need to be herself. She’s spent her life forcing herself to be what everyone else wants, and it really comes to a head in this book. She can’t do it anymore, she can’t lie to herself, about herself, about who she is and wants to be. So desperately, she wants to please everyone around here, and she’s tried so hard to do so to a point that she’s hurting herself. It’s impossible to please some of the people in her life, give them what they want all the time. Their actions show no consideration for her needs and wants, yet she feels an accountability to consider theirs in every decision she makes.

Things start to fall apart around her as it becomes harder and harder to deny who she is. She confides in her best friend, Theo, and finally admits her true identity to herself as well as them. Self-denial being her biggest obstacle, she must now face a new one: her tumultuous relationship with her mother. Her mother hadn’t reacted well when she’d come out as gay — what wrath would the news that she was trans bring upon her?

So she decides to keep it a secret, play the game of being her mother’s precious son when she’s at home. It’s a game that hurts and does so much damage, it leaves Phee crawling out of her skin in every waking moment. Behind the locked door of her bedroom, she experiments with her presentation, letting herself be more feminine and less like a boy hiding in baggy band t-shirts.

At Theo’s house, she can be free. Theo’s girlfriend, Alex, is eager, if not a bit over-enthusiastic, about giving Phee the makeover of her dreams. They spend hours picking out clothes, doing makeup, braiding hair, all the things Phee wished she’d experienced in her childhood, the things she’d longed for. She explains her longing for Theo’s confidence to be themself, even in the awful environment of the school the three of them attend.

The school is another difficult obstacle for Phee – she’d been bullied before, even though she hadn’t really even come out as gay. She’d never had a boyfriend, never expressed interest in anyone. Apparently her cobbled together facade hadn’t been enough to fool the other kids at school, even though she’d been doing a pretty good job fooling herself. Theo had always been there to stand up for her, and she knew they’d always have her back, but what about the times when Theo wasn’t around?

What will Phee’s future hold, and how will she overcome these obstacles? Will she ever truly feel safe enough to be herself? Find out in the final book of the Surviving Youth Trilogy, The Family that Finds Us.

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Born and raised in New England, Phoenix has always been a creative – whether it’s painting or writing. From a very young age, Phoenix has envisioned and created characters, writing them into existence and exploring them through visual arts. Having graduated to first-time short story author, Phoenix is embarking on a journey towards novel writing as they finally bring characters they’ve known for years into the world. Phoenix is neurodiverse and intersex and hopes to bring more representation to both topics with their writing. They believe in creating relatable characters that people can find themselves in and empathize with.

 

Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Family-That-Finds-Us-ebook/dp/B0CQVC7WQ3/ref=sr_1_1

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GIVEAWAY

Phoenix Blackwood will award a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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