Maggie Moor: Skinless, Kartoniert / Broschiert

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STREET POETRY. BEAUTY. DANGER. SURVIVAL.

"A deeply moving, deliciously weighty work of fiction." - Kirkus Reviews

Just off the road, homeless, Charmay-hard-boiled but "skinless"-is the orphan-misfit of the 1999 NYC underground, creating songs from hidden pain. While navigating gritty clubs, an indifferent entertainment industry, and a "bullets or bedsheets" marriage, she masks up as Cindy: a glittering alter ego and "everything Charmay wants to be," built to shield her from Skinless-her raw PTSD and internal tormenter.

Hustling through Lower East Side crime, subterranean haunts, and Fifth Avenue glam, her pursuit of the American dream ensnares Charmay in a maze of predatory power and "family snipers," as Skinless relentlessly "forces Charmay's traumatic past... to the fore." When her identities collide in a fever dream of hallucinations and betrayal, she is hurled into surviving a brutal reckoning.

"Moor's poetic, stream-of-consciousness prose drops readers directly into the mind of a trauma survivor... equally profound is the author's careful unpacking of a common, problematic archetype in the noir genre. While Charmay might appear to be a typical femme fatale... her gifts for introspection and observation make her the perfect lynchpin for the author's subversion. She is not the object of an external gaze-she's a character with agency and authority.

"Those who surrender to the flow will be rewarded."-KIRKUS REVIEWS

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR SKINLESS:"A must-read... Moor tells Charmay's experiences with abuse and betrayal in stark, unsentimental prose." - INDIEREADER "Uncomfortable, occasionally overwhelming, and undeniably powerful... a portrait of survival that doesn't sanitize the mess." - BOOKLIFE BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "An eloquent crime novel-street poetry renders the city in lush, sensual language and a heroine's raw will to live." - Benjamin Welton, FOREWORD REVIEWS "A humane, unsparing portrait-wringing hope from the drug-drenched, sex-soaked streets of 1990s New York City." - Danielle Ballantyne, FOREWORD REVIEWS | Interview

THE EXPERIENCE: SERIES: Book 1 of the Charmay: New York Noirseries. Standalone. SECOND EDITION: Writer's Edit, Expanded & Revised, November 2025. COMPANION ALBUM: Skinless: Songs from the Book. Jazz-noir and downtempo featuring Kenny Rampton (Wynton Marsalis) and Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister). SUBSTACK SERIES: Explore Skinless: Inside the Story. A multi-media experience from the author.

Psychological Crime Noir-breathes like a jazz record.

FOR READERS OF: Milkman, In the Cut, The Bell Jar, The Basketball Diaries, Cherry, and the beat-style prose of Kerouac.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: SKINLESS is an expanded x-ray of the things we hide and the art that speaks through us-urgent, unfiltered-and a raw look at how we adapt to survive. I'm not much for hellos or goodbyes. Simply, now. Stay on the growing side of diminished. - MM