Author Spotlight: K.M. Walton

So after writing a few author spotlights and handing them in to Miss Katie, I finally realized that, dude, I can do it myself. Who'da thunk it?

Anyway: K.M. Walton.

She's good. Really, hard-hittingly, will-make-you-cry good. I binge-read Cracked and Empty, and felt simultaneously like I'd been gutted out and transferred back to my early twenties, and also like FINALLY SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS HOW I FELT. Predominantly with Cracked. It should seriously be mandatory for everybody to read her books.

She founded and directed a day camp called Camp Kindness, which honestly doesn't surprise me because she seems like just a genuinely good person.

Just a reminder for anyone out there struggling: you're not alone. This author gets it. Read her books. While listening to Bright Eyes. Only if you're really like "whoa." Or maybe not, that'd be super intense probably. But Conor Oberst is an adorable sad poetic puppy man.

But this isn't a Conor Oberst spotlight. And this isn't my typical chipper spotlight, but these books hit me. Like I honestly don't know what else to say. They took me back and made me cry. I discussed the books with my roommate, and where I could completely relate to Victor in Cracked, she could relate to Dell in Empty. These weren't fun reads, but they were good. And important.

Book summaries come from her website:

Cracked:

Victor hates his life. He's relentlessly bullied at school and his parents ridicule him for not being perfect. He's tired of being weak, so he takes a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills -- only to wake up in the hospital.

Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. He's the opposite of weak. And he's tired of his grandfather's drunken beatings, so he tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.

When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, things go from bad to worse. Until they discover they just might have something in common: a reason to live.

Empty:

Dell is relentlessly teased about her weight, and she’s devastated when a tender moment with her long-time crush turns violent. Distraught and isolated after the attack, Dell’s depression—and life—spins out of control.

Finding that food no longer eases her pain, Dell turns to her mother’s prescription pain pills. But what starts as a quick fix rapidly escalates. How far will Dell go to make the loneliness, the self-loathing, the heartbreak, the shame, and the name-calling stop?

Ultimatum: 

It's not Oscar's fault he's misunderstood. Ever since his mother died, he's been disrespected by his father and bullied by his self-absorbed older brother, so he withdraws from his fractured family, seeking refuge in his art.

Vance wishes his younger brother would just loosen up and be cool. It was hard enough to deal with their mother's death without Oscar getting all emotional. At least when Vance pushes himself in lacrosse and parties, he feels alive.

But when their father's alcoholism sends him into liver failure, the two brothers must come face-to-face with their demons--and each other--if they are going to survive a very uncertain future.





Along with her website, you can find K.M. Walton on facebook, twitter, and instagram. She'll also be attending YA Fest 💗