Skinless

<p>Lower East Side NYC 1999-2001. Fresh from teenage homelessness and trauma Charmay-velvet‑voiced street‑tough-sings to find the self she lost. Struggling to survive the PTSD she calls Skinless-and alcohol's grip-she invents a glittering alter ego Cindy an elegant high‑earning magnet for power and manipulators. Past and present blur as she slips through the city's underground; three forces converge: a mercurial producer she chases a hustler‑lover she needs to trust and a Wall Street financier who bets on Cindy not Charmay-each claws her raw pulling her toward a different self. Family ties-and a father's silence-pull her toward Cindy; the music pushes her to face Skinless. Pressure builds-hustles collide-masks switch places tangling her in a web of deceit control and longing for intimacy. Cindy makes a play. Beats. Bullets. Bedsheets. When the curtain falls her choice is stark: wear the mask that kept her alive-or sing in her honest voice and walk into the unknown. Told in Charmay's raw first‑person voice Skinless is razor‑taut literary psychological suspense-a portrait of a woman fighting to heal. For readers of <em>The Bell Jar</em> <em>Just Kids</em> and literary noir.</p>