When sixteen-year-old Ashlee Sutton’s home life falls apart, she is beset by a rare mental illness that makes her believe she’s clairvoyant. While most people scoff at her, she begins demonstrating an uncanny knack for sometimes predicting the future, using what could either be pure luck or something more remarkable. And when she helps her drug-addict father win enough casino cash to accidentally overdose, she becomes the target of violent people determined to exploit her, and she goes on the run. Ashlee reaches out to a distant relative, traumatized war journalist Mike Baker. Soon, at least in Ashlee’s eyes, they are both plunging dangerously into an existential rabbit hole where their core belief, that humanity and personal connections are a blight, will be put to the ultimate test. No, You’re Crazy is a multilayered novel that examines the many ways a family can wound and heal us. A page-turning thriller and a sensitive look at faith and neurodiversity, it ultimately dares to ask, Who gets to decide what’s real?
Targeted Age Group:: Adults
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always been interested in identity. Who we think we are, how we see ourselves, and how other people see us. But, more than that, how we see the world we live in. I am especially fascinated by how our minds can warp our perception of reality, maybe to protect us from danger, to protect us from ourselves, or to give us happiness. And, if it helps us, is this alternate view of reality so bad? So when I read an article about a strange disease called Cotard’s Syndrome, where the sufferer believes she’s dead, it caught my attention. I started to play the what-if game. What if someone thought they were dead and others believed her? Too far-fetched. Well, what if she believed she was physically dead but still spiritually alive and had special powers bestowed on her by God, namely the power of clairvoyance? Still, a stretch. Well, what if she did have a knack for knowing what would happen next, possibly by pure luck, possibly because of something else, and, oh yes, she helped her drug-addict parents win some large amounts of money gambling? Okay, now I was on to something.
I wanted to write a novel that left the reader to make many judgments. Throughout the novel, the reader will constantly ask the same question: Is the girl with Cotard’s Syndrome crazy or is there something to her wild beliefs?
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
I wanted to create two characters who had both given up on life, giving me a chance to help bring about great change in them. Mike and Ashlee spend large chunks of their teenage years without parental influence. Mike becomes an orphan at an early age, getting shunted from one group home to another and teaching himself what he needs to survive. Ashlee lives in the neglect of her parents’ drug abuse and runs her family’s dysfunctional home until her father’s death pushes her over the edge. Could these two find hope in a better tomorrow, thanks to love?
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