Raising the Shades

Casey needs a way out of the dark

Ever since his mother fled the scene, thirteen-year-old Casey has taken over her role: cooking, cleaning, and looking after his father when he's "sick." In denial about his father's secret drinking and drug problem, Casey is increasingly isolated, angry, and overwhelmed. But Dad's addiction isn't as secret as Casey thinks, as he learns when his aunt announces that an intervention is in the works. Casey is conflicted. He wants to help save his father, the person he loves most in the world, but he doesn't want to betray him.

In this powerful novel, Doug Wilhelm shows how denial can cut both ways, as Casey stops overriding his own feelings and discovers his own way toward confronting his father directly, face-to-face, for the first time.