Overview

Practically Still a Virgin is the riveting memoir of a fifteen-year-old adoptee's rape -and the pregnancy that changed her life. During Alaska's rough-and-tumble 1970s oil boom, a time when prostitution, violence, and lawlessness reigned, Monica Hall rebels against her strict Catholic parents in a downward spiral of delinquency. Overwhelmed by guilt and shame when the unthinkable happens, Hall is forced to make impossible choices. Will she keep her rapist's identity a secret and defy her parents when they demand to know who fathered her baby? Will Hall, an adoptee herself, crumble under pressure and relinquish her only known blood relative for adoption? Will she ever feel the sense of belonging she craves by reuniting with the mother who gave her away? Adopted during infancy, Hall's childhood is marked by trauma and dysfunction. As a teenager, she dulls her pain with risky behavior and petty crime. In adulthood, she turns to drugs and alcohol. This gutsy memoir chronicles her decades-long quest for identity, healing, and redemption. As she uncovers secrets and searches for her roots, she makes a shocking discovery about her baby's father, smashing the narrative that shaped her reality for decades. Hall tells of her troubled youth with candor and compassion for herself and everyone around her. Her story will resonate with anyone who knows loss, secrets, and family dysfunction. Practically Still a Virgin is both harrowing and heart-warming-a must-read for any reader who enjoys honest and vulnerable stories of survival, courage, wisdom, and love.

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Monica's memoir, Practically Still a Virgin is based on her experience as a young girl who was born in Canada, adopted by American parents, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. It was there where she spent the first sixteen years of her life and had many of the foundational experiences that drive her writing today. Monica's essays have been published by Women Writers, Women's Books and the Anchorage Press, and she is a member of a group for women writers. Her writing focuses on themes of identity, rebellion, self-doubt, and-most importantly-healing. She loves to write in the early morning hours when her world is quiet and her mind is open. Monica lives in Northern California and loves spending time with her family, including the biological family she discovered in Canada and the daughter she was reunited with eighteen years after relinquishing her for adoption.

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