Elliot Hase is a sharp, observant nine-year-old girl growing up on a horse farm in 1980s North Carolina, where the adults are far less stable than the barn animals. Her mother, a charismatic alcoholic with a flair for drama and denial, careens through life in a haze of wine and self-pity. Her father, a distant doctor with a new family and a wife who rewrites history, offers more guilt than guidance. Caught between the two is Poppy—Elliot’s older sister, partner-in-crime, and cautionary tale—whose battles with addiction and self-destruction echo through Elliot’s own attempts to break the cycle.

As Elliot navigates funerals, failed interventions, AA and Al Anon meetings, and an elite boarding school that teaches more about co-dependency than calculus, she slowly begins to question not just the people raising her, but the identity she’s been forced to adopt to survive them. Her coming-of-age is shaped by secrets she didn’t ask for, betrayals she doesn’t deserve, and moments of brutal clarity that land like aftershocks.

The central conflict is Elliot’s internal struggle to define herself apart from the chaos of her family—trying to reconcile loyalty to her mother and sister with self-preservation, and survival with healing. Through humor, heartbreak, and sheer stubbornness, she learns that resilience isn't about being unbreakable—it's about breaking and rebuilding, again and again.

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About the Author

Hays Blinckmann is a writer, journalist, teacher, and recovering painter. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband and two sons. Her other novels include In the Salt, Where I Can Breathe, Here, Kitty, and the young adult novel Yell Out Loud. They are available on Amazon and at bookstores throughout Key West. If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. As this is a published novel, your reviews and recommendations on social media help Tiny Little Earthquakes reach a wider audience. Thank you for spreading the word—places, people. Places! For more about Hays, visit: www.authorhaysblinckmann.com and follow her on IG @authorhaysblinckmann.