Disposable

by Susan McAdam

Lilah Black has spent her young life shrinking in the shadow of a dead older brother—painfully aware of how unwanted she's always been, and tormented by a shame she could never quite shake. But when she finally steps into the light, starts questioning everything she's been told, and unearths the self she'd learned to deny, everything changes.

Disposable is the story of that awakening: of surviving a world that condoned abuse and called her less, of struggling under the invisible weapon of shame—and discovering that her hidden self may be the only key to real freedom. Darkly humorous and quietly ferocious, this literary debut shreds the lies of more than one dysfunctional family, challenges the authority of superficial faith, and upends the rules of belonging, all while clinging to the wild tenacity of hope.

For readers who loved the unflinching honesty of Douglas Stuart and the charged intimacy of Sally Rooney, Disposable is a rare, radiant portrait of resilience—and of the crooked, beautiful path to survival.

419 pages, Paperback

Published August 25, 2026

About the author

Susan McAdam is a former librarian and technical writer who traded cataloging other people’s stories for writing her own. She holds an MLS, runs Old Glitch Town Road Press, and illustrates as well as writes, all from the Arizona desert, where the sun is relentless and so is her dark sense of humor.

Her debut novel, Disposable, follows Lilah Black, a young woman raised on shame who decides she’s done shrinking. Readers’ Favorite called its villain one of the most hiss-worthy in fiction, which Susan considers a personal triumph.

She is currently at work on Negotiable, the next chapter of Lilah’s story.