Will she find a way to repair what matters most to her?Ī debut from a stunning talent, Post-Traumatic is a new kind of survivor narrative, featuring a complex heroine who is blazingly, indelibly alive. But after a family reunion prompts Vivian to take a bold step, she finds herself alone in new and terrifying ways, without even Jane to confide in, and she starts to unravel. She lives in a constant state of hypervigilant awareness that makes even a simple train ride a heart-pounding drama.įor years, Vivian has self-medicated with a mix of dating, dieting, dark humour and smoking weed with her best friend, Jane.

Privately, Vivian contends with the memories and after-effects of her bad childhood, compounded by the everyday stresses of being a Black, Latinx woman living in a white society. To the outside observer, Vivian is a success story – a dedicated lawyer who advocates for mentally ill patients at a psychiatric hospital. Reading Post-Traumatic feels like an illicit thrill.’ Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & NevĬan Vivian find happiness after what has been done to her? Johnson performs an extraordinary feat, delivering a psychologically astute story about the aftermath of trauma that somehow manages to brim with warmth, laughter, and hope.‘Vivian is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve read in contemporary fiction: self-aware and lost, cutting and wounded, resilient and vulnerable – all those misfit bits that add up to the whole of a real human being.

With razor-sharp prose and mordant wit, Chantal V. Will she find a way to repair what matters most to her?Ī debut from a stunning talent, Post-traumatic is a new kind of survivor narrative, featuring a complex heroine who is blazingly, indelibly alive. She lives in a constant state of hypervigilant awareness that makes even a simple subway ride into a heart-pounding drama.įor years, Vivian has self-medicated with a mix of dating, dieting, dark humor and smoking weed with her BFF, Jane. Privately, Vivian contends with the memories and aftereffects of her bad childhood-compounded by the everyday stresses of being a Black Latinx woman in America. To the outside observer, Vivian is a success story-a dedicated lawyer who advocates for mentally ill patients at a New York City psychiatric hospital. In this “deeply original” (Elif Batuman) and “violently funny” (Myriam Gurba) story, a young lawyer finally confronts her dark past so she can live in a more peaceful future.

Chantal johnson post traumatic