Julia “Turtle” Alveston

Julia “Turtle” Alveston is a fourteen-year-old girl who has had little social interaction with the exception of her relationship with her father and her grandfather. This novel tells the story of Turtle’s journey to the realization that her father is abusive and that he is a threat to her and to anyone she cares about. Turtle begins her journey with an idea that there is something about her relationship with her father that is not right, but she lacks the ability to identify what is wrong.

One night after Turtle’s father ruins the knife that Turtle’s grandfather gave her and then makes her do pull-ups while he holds the knife between her legs, Turtle runs aways. She happens to run into two high school boys, Jacob and Brett, whom she takes care of because they are lost in the woods during a rainstorm...