Shattered: A Fictional Look at Real-Life Teen Struggles

Forged Series: Themes & Tropes

Shattered: A Fictional Look at Real-Life Teen Struggles

Tessa’s story, a hero’s journey of adventure, touches on several elements key to the YA genre. At the heart is a coming-of-age theme where Tessa matures emotionally, mentally, and physically as she navigates challenges that lead her to personal growth and self-discovery. She challenges authority, grapples with social injustices (high school is a festering sess pool of social class discrimination), and faces her own internal challenges with survivors’ guilt.

Self-Identity

As we follow Tessa’s story through the series, her personal growth focuses on three stages of identity. In Shattered, book one of the Forged series, Tessa explores her self-identity. Book two, Merged, shifts to look at her social identity—how she fits among her peers. And book three, Forged, takes a broader look as she determines her cultural identity.

Cara glanced sideways at me as they walked up to grab the bar and muttered, “C’mon, stick.”

Cara’s word choice was meant to unsettle me. My presence felt threatening to them for some reason, so their disdain for me was evident by the animosity in their voice. Jenna claimed Cara thought of me as competition. But their attitude would suggest something more was going on.

I rolled my shoulders back and stood taller, determined to ignore Cara. Instead, I focused on the task as I stepped forward.

Excerpt from Shattered, book one of the FORGED Series, coming in 2025 from Provender Press

In this moment, Tessa must decide if she should take offense at the slur that Cara called her—a stick is a derogatory term for a person from the Wilds of the country, a non-urban dweller who is considered to be simple-minded and behind-the-times compared to those in the urban centers. Or, she can choose to ignore the unkind and hurtful word—to “take the high road”—and concentrate on her own actions and words.

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Emotional Accountability

A lesson Tessa must learn is dealing with emotional accountability. She blames herself for not saving her family from the accident that took their lives. Depression, survivor’s guilt, and shame color her interactions with others. In a moment of light-heartedness, she experiences a sudden gripping pain of guilt. She wonders if she deserves to be happy—to feel joy, to laugh—when her sister is no longer alive to do the same.

Isaiah said I needed cheering up, but did I deserve to be happy? In the pit of my stomach, I knew their deaths were my fault. Now I was here, in Aunt Clari’s loving embrace. I shouldn’t be here. This was not supposed to be my life.

Excerpt from Shattered, book one of the FORGED Series, coming in 2025 from Provender Press

No one person’s journey through depression is like anyone else’s, but Tessa finds comfort in the words of her therapist and the arms of her only surviving family member. She learns to move with the emotions—to acknowledge her emotional state of mind—and not suppress them or let them swallow her up.

Tessa develops the skill to find the edges of grief, allowing her to release the guilt of continuing to live.

Other Exciting News

Don’t forget, you can pick up a copy of the anthology, The Midnight Vault, which has the short story, The Sun and the Moon, a prequel set 33 years before the opening of Shattered, along with 28 other Twilight Zone-inspired tales. The anthology will be available in paperback ($19) and ebook ($10) through most major retail channels worldwide on March 15th, or you can preorder the ebook now.

Again, a special shout out to

Sean Thomas McDonnell

and

J. Curtis

for organizing the event. And huge thanks to

J. Curtis

and

Shane Bzdok

for all their hard work and creative powers to make the anthology a reality.

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What I’m reading

Normally, I pick five interesting reads to share. But this week I’m going to give you ONE. I’ve been (somewhat) patiently waiting for the episodic serial novella, Sayblood’s Children from

S.E. Reid

, to be completed before binging it. I find this the best way to read Sally’s writing. When I got to the last chapter, she announced a bonus epilogue coming! 🥳

If you haven’t read any of her work, you should go check out her extensive catalog on

Talebones ✨

. (She just celebrated 3 years on Substack, so you can do a deep dive and find some great fiction.) My introduction to her was The Shell; then I read some of her Ferris Island stories. Imp and Hey Eye are both rather disturbing… in a good way. (Can I say that something ‘disturbing’ is ‘good?’)

But I digress. Instead of five different works from five different writers, I wanted to feature her latest serial, Sayblood’s Children. Here are some of my favorite lines from the serial. To read all chapters, start HERE.

1. “He had heard plenty of voices in his lifetime from various places all over the world, many languages, a tapestry of human sound, and could not place her thread within it.” (Part Two: One Night)

2. “Most nights I sat alone, surrounded by what might as well have been a tableau of living statues overtaken by the music.“ (Part Four: The Storm)

3. “He was mocking me. I knew, because it was too much. But I took his bait, though I pulled back, felt the hook tear at my lip. ‘What is the sea?’” (Part Five: Ghosts and Spirits)

4. “He hesitated, and she watched his good manners argue and debate behind his eyes.” (Part Seven: Gift)

5. “It was only a moment, yet how often ruin begins in quiet and weakness tells on itself. He smiled down on me, his eyes alive with the knowledge of my secret. He knew. He saw it in me, written on my skin, reflected in my eyes, guttering like a fretful flame in the flinch of my muscles.” (Part Eight: Emissary)

6. “This caught a thread in the wild man’s soul and something shivered through his face. Something old and wise and strange, beyond Sayblod’s understanding.” (Part Nine: The Arrival)

See! Her writing is magical. Go binge this series before it goes behind her paywall. Or buck up and pay for a subscription to Talebones—you won’t be disappointed!

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Before you go

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Questions

1. What emotion played a predominant role in your teen years?

2. Have you pre-ordered your copy of The Midnight Vault? All the “Substack Zone” stories are now behind paywalls on the ‘Stack, but you can put your very own copy on your (virtual) bookshelf with 29 short stories from your favorite Substack authors. Pre-order here.

3. Have you been to/held a book release party? How about attended an author event? What did you like about the events? Wish was different? What display/giveaway impressed you? (Authors: what would you do differently?)