Little Green - Softcover

"Stinson, thankfully, doesn't allow the narrative to wallow or glorify, and the hope found is hard-won and genuine." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Stinson's novel is a brutal but ultimately empowering story about the long road one girl has to travel, literally and figuratively, before she can find out who she is." --BOOKLIST

"Loretta Stinson's novel is about one lonely young woman's harrowing coming of age rings true at the same time it astonishes. Little Green is tender and tough, equal parts grit and grace. It's a riveting and unforgettable debut." --CHERYL STRAYED, author of Wild and Torch

"Little Green is an engaging novel about the kind of people who can save you from your own life and the kind of people who will starve you of it. It's about the people and the things that get a hold of us and won't let go. It's about Janie, a young girl who finds all of this in a dark bar on the first page and stays with the reader long after the last one. Stinson has written an accurate and honest portrayal of people trying to find their lives or leave them behind." --JILL TALBOT, author of Loaded: Women and Addiction

"Loretta Stinson's Little Green had me in its grip after the first sentence and didn't let me go until the end. Stinson's characters are vivid on the page and Janie in particular is a character I won't soon forget. We're dawn into a gritty world of drugs, booze, and horrible abuse along with this vulnerable teenager, and we watch in anguish as her dreams fail and her illusions shatter. Even though the circumstances are harrowing, Stinson does well to infuse love and hope and community into Janie's story, so that we're able to witness a lost young woman take the first triumphant steps toward self-discovery." --DEBRA GWARTNEY, author of Live Through This

In Little Green, Loretta Stinson’s stunning, redemptive first novel, tragedy leaves Janie Marek orphaned. The action begins in 1976, with Janie a runaway and stranded on the freeway outside a Northwestern town after hitchhiking. Janie ends up working at a strip club called "The Habit" and falls for Paul Jesse, a drug dealer who spirals into addiction and becomes physically abusive. As the violence escalates, Janie finds a job in a bookstore and her independence begins. After a brutal beating she must make the most difficult and dangerous choice she’ll ever make by leaving. This stirring first novel is a testament to the power of books, education, and a community of friends who help those in need.