Manic Pixie Suicide Mistress

by Tabatha Wharton

With one social media post, newly-30-year-old Tabatha's life makes an unexpected and irrevocable sharp turn. A housewife and blogger with two young children, she sits on the brink of leaving her repetitively unfaithful husband for an uncertain future when a single response to an online photo brings a new, unanticipated love into her life -- and a new role, as the one thing she never imagined she could be. Over the span of four years, Tabatha traverses the uncharted depths of a clandestine relationship and finding the love of her life at completely the wrong time the only way she knows how -- through gut-wrenching poetry and prose.

This is where the fairy tale ends, and the true story begins.

*****

'manic pixie suicide mistress' is a creative memoir written primarily in poetry and prose/essays being hailed as "a larger than life ode to a broken love story."

covering a long-term, on again, never entirely off again mostly secret relationship, 'manic pixie suicide mistress' approaches love, lust, heartbreak and healing in the digital age through the perspective of a woman coming to grips with her own identity through the lens of a digitized world.

330 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2017

About the author

Tabatha Wharton (Muntzinger) is a poet, essayist, and sociologist as bright as her formerly-hued mermaid hair. A diverse Millennial writer/blogger in Dayton, OH, Tabatha weaves eloquent stories from the material of daily life that cut to the heart of issues that plague women across the nation including divorce and infidelity, raising children with special needs, coping with mental and chronic illness, and living on a socioeconomic divide. Specializing in feminist theory, alternative parenting, and all things postmodern housewifery, Tabatha is a walking billboard for third wave feminism. Her BA and in-process graduate work in Sociology and Gender Studies give her keen insight to the daily grind of all manner of relationships, which she highlights in her insightful, raw and honest poetry and blogs. Her writing has been featured on BlogHer, HuffPo, BonBon Break, and Elephant Journal as well as various other blogs/sites, and her previous home renovation projects and design expertise were featured on The Snug, This Old House, HomeTalk, Home Depot, and HGTV.com as well as myriad home decor and DIY blogs. She was the recipient of the BlogHer 2014 Photo of The Year Award in the category of Selfie for an image from her participation in the #365feministselfie Instagram project, which is ongoing to this day. SheKnows once included another of her selfies in a listicle about hair, which she takes as a decent compliment. In 2015, she was featured on HuffPo's Love + Sex podcast about her Year of Celibacy project in 2016.

In her non-digital life, she is a single mom to her two children and the main herder of five cats and two dogs in her Midwestern home town. Her favorite color is purple, she loves coffee and good company, and fashion is her weakness. You can usually find her putzing around Instagram – but be warned, her personal feed is 85% selfies, with children and/or cats/dogs here and there for good measure.

Reviews

[Beth Klaisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manic Pixie Suicide Mistress is a beautifully written and assembled collection of intimately vulnerable expressions of the experience of heartbreak and the movement toward recovery. I recommend reading it more than once because of the layers of meaning and feeling and thought that dwell within it - and that it will evoke in the reader. It is a book that will linger in the heart and soul of the reader for a long time.

[Sarah Jankowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw. Powerful. Courageous. Loved the prose so so much.

It takes a lot of strength to expose your biggest flaws, all your weakness...especially when you can't control the audience. Well done.