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by Barbara Latinka (Created by)
In this second installment of the poetic memoir series Spells for Surviving a Haunted Childhood, the story picks up as the author begins to carve out space for healing, identity, and emotional survival after years of neglect and abandonment. Told in lyrical vignettes and woven with healing spells, Part Two explores what it means to grow up haunted-and still hold hope.
Now living with her father in a completely different home, the narrator begins third grade and meets Raven, the girl who becomes her first real best friend. But just as trust and joy start to take root, new shadows creep in: a brother fresh out of legal trouble, a volatile stepmother figure with claws painted red, and the ghosts of old wounds that haven't yet healed.
Themes of friendship, self-protection, boundaries, and emotional awakening run through every chapter, each one anchored by a symbolic object and ending with a spell crafted for survival. From sleepovers and secrets to family fractures and quiet courage, Book Two is about learning what you deserve-and daring to believe you can have it.
For readers of literary memoir, trauma narratives, and lyrical creative nonfiction, this book is both mirror and medicine. It resonates deeply with adult survivors of childhood emotional neglect, dysfunction, and complex family dynamics.
Spells for Surviving a Haunted Childhood: Part Two is a continuation, a reckoning, and a rising. It reminds us that surviving isn't just about what you escaped-it's about who you become in the aftermath.
