The Crustacean

<p><b>''<i>The Crustacean</i> isn''t a novel, it''s an obsession . . . I would kill and die for this book'' ALISSA NUTTING, author of <i>Tampa</i></b><br><b><br>The year''s most spiky and powerful novella </b><br><br><i>"When I was 13 I knew <b>nothing</b> about <b>anything.</b></i><br><i>I only cared about love. </i><br><i>And the older man, who I thought I fell in love with, never told me he was divorced. </i><br><i>I made that up on my own."</i><br><br>Chichirim is a plain 13-year-old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, lonely seventh-grader. A girl with a <i>terrible</i> secret. <br><br> Her dad is worse than useless. And her mum spends all her days tattooing thick ugly eyebrows on old women.<br> Her parents forget her birthday and her sister hates them so much she wishes they were dead. <br>Chichirim does bad things at school. And still, no one cares. <br><br>Until, one day, an older man picks her up on the side of the road. <br>He tells her she is pretty.<br>Her tells her what to do. <br><br>Underneath her hard outer shell, her softness is being exploited and destroyed by the people she trusts and loves the most.<br><br><i>"I want to come back as a crab. A crab''s skin is made of bone and the flesh is inside the bone. But we''re the opposite. We have bone inside flesh."</i><br><br><b><i>THE CRUSTACEAN </i>is an intricately crafted novella exploring memory, exploitation, and the lasting effects of adult abuse and betrayal, for readers of <i>My Dark Vanessa </i>and <i>Tampa</i>.</b></p>