My Name Is Venus Black: A Novel [Hardcover]

In this riveting, heartfelt debut, a young woman assumes a new name to escape her dark past and find the redemption she desperately seeks.

“A terrific debut, told gently, honestly, and with a generous amount of hope.”—New York Timesbestselling author Jamie Ford

Venus Black is a straitlaced A student fascinated by the study of astronomy—until the night she commits a shocking crime that tears her family apart and ignites a media firestorm. Venus refuses to talk about what happened or why, except to blame her mother. Adding to the mystery, Venus’s developmentally challenged younger brother, Leo, goes missing.
 
More than five years later, Venus is released from prison with a suitcase of used clothes, a fake identity, and a determination to escape her painful past. Estranged from her mother, and with her beloved brother still missing, she sets out to make a fresh start in Seattle, skittish and alone. But as new people enter her orbit—including a romantic interest and a young girl who seems like a mirror image of her former lost self—old wounds resurface, and Venus realizes that she can’t find a future while she’s running from her past.
 
In this gripping story, debut novelist Heather Lloyd brilliantly captures ordinary lives thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Told through a constellation of captivating voices,My Name Is Venus Blackexplores the fluidity of right and wrong, the pain of betrayal, and the meaning of love and family.

Praise forMy Name Is Venus Black
 
“It’s impossible not to root for this strong, willful girl as she finds her place in the world and for her brother as he tries to make sense of it. A badass bildungsroman.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Fans of realistic coming-of-age fiction will enjoy Lloyd’s fast-paced first novel for the freshly drawn orls)