The Boy With the Key Around His Neck is a haunting, heartfelt, and deeply personal coming-of-age memoir told through lyrical prose and unflinching honesty. Born into the chaos of addiction, neglect, and silence, a boy learns to navigate the world with a house key on a shoelace and instincts sharpened by survival. Raised in the shadows of his mother’s unraveling and his father’s emotional absence, he becomes a quiet observer—blending in, disappearing, pretending—while silently collecting the weight of every unspoken moment. From the smell of Kool 100s and broken promises to the echoes of sitcom laugh tracks and motel rooms with flickering TVs, this is the story of a latchkey child raised not by people, but by patterns. It’s about grief without maps, love without language, and healing without a manual. But it’s also about resilience. And fatherhood. And the hard-earned transformation of a boy who vowed to be different—and who now fights daily to break the cycle and raise his own children with presence, softness, and love. Unforgettable, poetic, and raw, The Boy With the Key Around His Neck is more than a memoir—it’s a reckoning with the past and a tribute to those who survive it.
