She Woke Anyway

In a town where silence is safer than truth and stillness is survival, sixteen-year-old Natalie learns how to endure. She doesn’t speak unless she must. She doesn’t draw attention. And she certainly doesn’t reveal the magic coiled beneath her ribs like a secret too dangerous to name. At home, her voice is punished. At school, her presence is ridiculed. But in the attic, she is sovereign. There, in the cold, quiet hush of a space all her own, Natalie rebuilds herself from the inside out.
She Woke Anyway is a hauntingly lyrical exploration of trauma, resilience, and the quiet rituals that hold us together when everything else tries to pull us apart. With quiet fury and unflinching tenderness, Athinia Tandino weaves a story where every whisper is a spell, every bruise a boundary, and every act of survival, no matter how small, is a declaration of magic.
Set against the eerie stillness of a town that looks away too easily, Natalie’s journey isn’t about becoming louder. It’s about becoming heard. Through the clatter of school hallways, the coldness of dinner tables, and the muffled rituals of the Crooked Hearth café, Natalie pieces together her power one silent choice at a time. Not to fight. Not to escape. But to live.