as i was

Coming-of-Age Literary Fiction | Novel
Status: Writing first draft
Setting: new york city
Themes: childhood, survival, attachment, family,
resilience, memory, emotional abuse

A coming-of-age novel about childhood, survival, and the fragile places a lonely boy learns to call home.

Nine-year-old Jaidon Vallejo knows the rules of his mother’s apartment: keep quiet, keep clean, get good grades, don’t ask questions, and never tell anyone what happens at home.

In Washington Heights, Jaidon lives with Gabriela, his beautiful, volatile mother, whose rare tenderness keeps him hoping. He loves books, basketball, the solar system, and dinner-table conversations with her, even when her moods shift without warning. But when Gabriela loses her job and a dangerous man moves into their apartment, the fragile life Jaidon has learned to survive begins to collapse.

At school, with his best friend Nick, and inside the warmth of the Gravino family’s home, Jaidon finds glimpses of safety, affection, and the childhood he wants so badly to keep. But as the secrets grow heavier, he must decide what bravery means when the person he loves most cannot protect him.

As I Was—the prequel to As We Are—is a tender, devastating prequel about survival, chosen family, and the small, stubborn light of a child who refuses to disappear.

For Readers Who Like:
Quiet coming-of-age stories, emotionally complex family dynamics,
child narrators, New York City childhoods, chosen family,
memory-driven literary fiction, and stories about tenderness surviving
in difficult places.