Messed Up Inside

Messed Up Inside is a novel about identity, love and the complexity of human nature. Its central character is Sherman Frey, an 18-year-old described as sensitive and introspective. He has a slender build, yellow-orange skin, hazel eyes and short, bright red curly hair. Since childhood he has lived with conflicting emotions, and his preoccupation with sexual thoughts was intensified by early and overwhelming exposure to the internet. Now he stands at a turning point, caught between the life he has built and truths he can no longer avoid.

Sherman's past has left its marks. He grew up among social expectations that pressed him to conform and to hide who he was. Those pressures ended in a stretch of intensive rehabilitation therapy meant to bring what were called his misguided desires back in line with traditional norms. The therapy gave him an outward appearance of stability but left him with unresolved feelings and a fractured sense of self.