Overview
Lower East Side, NYC, 1999-2001. Fresh from teenage homelessness and trauma, Charmay-velvet-voiced, street-tough-sings to find the self she lost. Struggling to survive the PTSD she calls ""Skinless""-and alcohol's grip-she invents a glittering alter ego, Cindy, an elegant, high-earning magnet for power and manipulators. Past and present blur as she slips through the city's underground; three forces converge: a mercurial producer she chases, a hustler-lover she needs to trust, and a Wall Street financier who bets on Cindy, not Charmay-each claws her raw, pulling her toward a different self. Family ties-and a father's silence-pull her toward Cindy; the music pushes her to face Skinless. Pressure builds-hustles collide-masks switch places, tangling her in a web of deceit, control, and longing for intimacy. Cindy makes a play. Beats. Bullets. Bedsheets. When the curtain falls, her choice is stark: wear the mask that kept her alive-or sing in her honest voice and walk into the unknown. Told in Charmay's raw first-person voice, Skinless is razor-taut literary psychological suspense-a portrait of a woman fighting to heal. For readers of The Bell Jar, Just Kids, and literary noir.
Full Product Details
Author: Maggie Moor
Publisher: Pearl of Peace Publishing
Imprint: Pearl of Peace Publishing
Edition: 2nd Second Edition, Expanded & Revised; Writer's Edit (2025) ed.
Dimensions:
Width: 14.00cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.599kg
ISBN: 9798993121239
Pages: 390
Publication Date: 12 November 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
- ""An eloquent crime novel-street poetry renders the city in lush, sensual language, and a heroine's raw will to live."" - Foreword Reviews (Benjamin Welton) ""A humane, unsparing portrait-wringing hope from the drug-drenched, sex-soaked streets of 1990s New York City."" - Clarion Reviews (D. Ballantyne) ""Quirky, singular-language so original it vanishes words as we know them. In a word, Skinless is a stunner."" - Stacey Donovan, author of Red Shoe Diaries ""Maggie Moor has a voice unlike any I've encountered-hip and illuminating."" - Kate Lardner, author of Shut Up, He Explained: The Memoir of a Blacklisted Kid ""A unique writing style that takes you directly inside the narrator's mind... twisting right up to a suspenseful ending."" - Barbara Hodge, Foreword Reviews
Author Information
Maggie Moor is a New York City author, recording artist, licensed psychoanalyst, and three-time National NPC fitness competitor. Her voice-driven fiction explores resilience, recovery, and self-union, infused with NYC grit and a jazz-blues pulse. She is the author of I AM: Mind and Body Union (Archway Publishing/Simon & Schuster distribution) and Skinless: The Story of a Female Survivor, reissued in 2025 as her definitive Writer's Edit after rights reclamation. A New York theater-trained actress, Moor has appeared on stage, television, and film, and has released three jazz-blues albums. Her psychoanalytic thesis, ""Coloring Outside the Lines,"" was a Gradiva Award nominee. She provides pro bono mental-health outreach at Rikers Island, The Treatment Service Clinic, and youth homeless centers; a portion of proceeds supports youth homelessness programs.
