Overview

"From the INDIE-Gold-award-winning author of Sexism Ed comes a ""haunting, mesmerizing, and darkly funny"" memoir about mental illness, poverty, and inner strength. When Kelly J. Baker was two years old, her mother fled Baker's abusive father. A custody arrangement left Baker behind, the new target of his violence. But against all odds, she escaped from the trailer park to college and graduate school. But the pain of her childhood remained, buried deep. Final Girl is the story of Baker's journey from poverty to Ph.D., from trauma to therapy, with all of the bumps along the way. Whether talking about parenthood, finding a therapist, moving back home to her small town, or wrestling with the algae in an old swimming pool, Final Girl reckons with what it takes to build a home in a place where you never thought you'd find home again. If you enjoyed Tara Westover's Educated and Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle, you will love Final Girl. ""A haunting, mesmerizing, and darkly funny book."" -Katie Rose Guest Pryal, IPPY-Gold-winning author of Life of the Mind Interrupted"

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9781947834514

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Reviews

Praise for Kelly J. Baker's FINAL GIRL: A searing and intense reckoning with anger, family trauma, and loss. -Kecia Ali, author of Human in Death Baker gives us invaluable new ways to talk about what it means to live with a mental health diagnosis. -Kaya Oakes, author of The Nones Are Alright and Radical Reinvention A haunting, mesmerizing book. -Katie Rose Guest Pryal, award-winning author of Life of the Mind Interrupted and Even If You're Broken Praise for Kelly J. Baker's THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING: Reveals the deep ambivalence about modern culture the zombie apocalypse obsession suggests. -W. Scott Poole, award-winning author of Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting. A perfect guide through the unrelenting, decaying, hordes of our contemporary zombie apocalypse. -Sean McCloud, author of American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States Baker reminds us that apocalyptic fantasies have always been part of the popular American imagination. -Kathryn Reklis, author of Theology and the Kinesthetic Imagination: Jonathan Edwards and the Making of Modernity Should be read by anyone seeking to understand America's dark depths. -Jason C. Bivins, author of Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism As only she can, Baker lures readers down pop culture's dark alleyways, riddling out our inability to get over the end of the world or what comes after. This book is a jagged mirror held up to America's violent fantasies, deepest fears, and addiction to apocalypses-forcing us to admit that the real monsters just might be the homicidal misogyny, bloodthirsty white supremacy, and rabid consumerism we made along the way. -Megan Goodwin, author of Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions

Praise for Kelly J. Baker's FINAL GIRL: A haunting, mesmerizing, and darkly funny book. -Katie Rose Guest Pryal, IPPY-Gold-winning author of Life of the Mind Interrupted and Even If You're Broken A searing and intense reckoning with anger, family trauma, and loss. -Kecia Ali, author of Human in Death Baker gives us invaluable new ways to talk about what it means to live with a mental health diagnosis. -Kaya Oakes, author of The Nones Are Alright and Radical Reinvention Praise for Kelly J. Baker's THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING: Reveals the deep ambivalence about modern culture the zombie apocalypse obsession suggests. -W. Scott Poole, award-winning author of Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting. A perfect guide through the unrelenting, decaying, hordes of our contemporary zombie apocalypse. -Sean McCloud, author of American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States Baker reminds us that apocalyptic fantasies have always been part of the popular American imagination. -Kathryn Reklis, author of Theology and the Kinesthetic Imagination: Jonathan Edwards and the Making of Modernity Should be read by anyone seeking to understand America's dark depths. -Jason C. Bivins, author of Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism As only she can, Baker lures readers down pop culture's dark alleyways, riddling out our inability to get over the end of the world or what comes after. This book is a jagged mirror held up to America's violent fantasies, deepest fears, and addiction to apocalypses-forcing us to admit that the real monsters just might be the homicidal misogyny, bloodthirsty white supremacy, and rabid consumerism we made along the way. -Megan Goodwin, author of Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions

Author Information

Kelly J. Baker, Ph.D., is the INDIE-award-winning author of Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia (Blue Crow 2018) and The Zombies Are Coming: The Realities of the Zombie Apocalypse in American Culture (Blue Crow 2020) among many other books. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and more. She's the editor of Women in Higher Education and The National Teaching & Learning Forum.

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