Praised as a modern and edgier Lolita meets The Catcher in the Rye, award-winning White Chalk is the eye-opening realistic look into the minds and actions of adolescents. Far from sugar-coated and rose-colored, this novel captures the raw, dark side of growing up. Hardened, awkward, and self-deprecating, Chelle Whitney wouldn't know a fairytale if it swooped down and saved her from a burning tower. She has spent her life hurting from the choices she's made, the scars she's created, and the bruises that identify her. She's one of the unlucky ones whose life is made up of demons that haunt her adolescence and threaten her adulthood. Chelle grasps desperately at whoever can rescue her from herself and her pain. Reaching for comfort from her best friend, who's outgrown her, and gripping naively to a teacher who takes entirely too much interest in her, she longs for someone who understands her. So when Troy Christiansen walks into her life, Chelle believes he could be the white knight who will finally save her. Her salvation. But can Chelle find salvation on her own terms, digging herself out of the Hell her life has created? Or will she forever be a victim of her circumstances, never breaking free of the restraints that define her?