Hurt People Hurt People , Ben Young, Edmund Stone, Leigh Kenny, and Gage Greenwood

5 stars

For some people, trauma is something that can be dealt with, even if it takes awhile. For others, trauma defines them; it breaks them and changes their life irrevocably. In Hurt People Hurt People, we meet four people whose trauma completely rewrote their lives and dramatically changed their world.

In The Surgeon, a man recalls watching his father abuse his mother to the point of disfiguring her. Now a doctor, his only mission is to fix his mother’s face, no matter the cost. He just needs to practice first….

Next is The Patient. Rona was a victim of our Surgeon’s practice. Now horribly disfigured, she goes on the hunt for the man who ruined her life. And she’ll find him, even if she has to go through innocent bystanders to get there….

Then we meet Amber, a mother who was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Attacked by the Patient, she’s doing her best to try and move on from the trauma. But “The Beast” won’t leave her alone, but maybe her hallucinations are a good thing! Maybe next time, she can stop the attack from ever happening, and no one will get in her way to fix this mess….

And finally, Charlie. The girl who survived her best friend’s mother’s crazy rampage as a child. Charlie is in college now, and she has to get this dance scholarship and get out of dodge. Maybe then she can outrun her trauma, and she won’t let anyone take that away from her….

This was an excellent set of stories, and I loved how they connected back to each other! Even the last one had a fun little Easter egg in it that made everything really come full circle. As soon as I saw who was collaborating on this, I knew it was going to be a knockout, and yet I was still blown away by how good it was!

Now, here I am shouting at Ben to MAKE A VOLUME TWO!!!!