Lead Poisoning: A memoir

Some people are raised to be winners. She was raised to be a hater. The miracle is that she learned to love anyway.

For anyone who's ever felt contaminated by their past, who's tried to outrun the poison in their bloodstream, or who's wondered if you can ever truly escape what shaped you—this raw memoir proves that sometimes the only way out is through.

Meet Janet, a woman who discovers that shame works like lead poisoning—invisible contamination that warps everything that follows. From the suffocating New Jersey suburbs to the underground music scenes of New York and Seattle, she's a survivor who refuses to apologize for the life she's lived. Through assault, addiction, and abandonment, she searches for the one thing that keeps eluding her: a self untainted by the labels others force upon her.

This isn't another recovery story or cautionary tale. It's about what happens when the family scapegoat fights back, when the girl they branded "damaged" builds an extraordinary life from the wreckage. Through seven explosive parts spanning four decades—from Hater to Woman—Janet transforms poison into power, collecting scars and wisdom from suburban hell to underground scenes, from addiction to recovery, from single motherhood to widowhood, finally finding rebirth in Mexico City.

If you loved Educated by Tara Westover but wished it had more underground music and dark humor, or if In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado needed more suburban rage and fewer metaphors, then Lead Poisoning will be your next obsession.