Late Blight in the Ko'olaus: A Novel

2022 'Best Literary' Book Award Winner, Indies Today

NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY

Seven years after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, Avery West agonizes over the reality that his time at the Hawai`i State Hospital is ending. He can’t imagine a life beyond the confines of his psychiatric facility, even if his schizophrenic symptoms are finally in remission. But having spent most of his adult life surviving with mental illness, he has found stability and is terrified of losing everything he’s fought for. Yet despite his reservations, Avery’s treatment team insists he’s ready to move on with his life.

After becoming the newest addition to a local sober home, Avery struggles to adapt to a world that fears and views him as damaged goods. Any slip-up will see him hospitalized again, tearing him away from a daughter who deserves to have her father back. But when he becomes involved with a coworker who believes Western Medicine has failed him to no end, Avery toys with the idea of what life in a perfect world would look like. Faced with controlling his destiny, can he hold it together or will he spiral into rapid decline?

From the award-winning author of One Hit Away comes Late Blight in the Ko`olaus, a galvanizing novel exploring the complexities and stigma of mental health, schizoaffective disorder, and where one goes after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

©2023 Jordan P. Barnes (P)2023 Jordan P. Barnes