Book details

  • Genre:family & relationships
  • Sub-genre:Dysfunctional Families
  • Language:English
  • Pages:296
  • eBook ISBN:9798350967876
  • Paperback ISBN:9798218277376

Lipstick on a Pig

By Rebecca Butt

Overview


Lipstick on a Pig is a darkly humorous and poignant account of a fractured family's journey to rebuild their lives in Laconia, New Hampshire. Haunted by both literal and figurative ghosts and morbidly obese, young Becky struggled to find a place in a home filled with chaos and pain. As she battled night terrors and a crippling binge-eating disorder, Becky found solace in an unexpected source, a ghost relative whose visits provided a lifeline of hope amidst the overwhelming emotional and physical weight of childhood trauma. Through candid humor and searing honesty, Rebecca's story is transformative-from a girl paralyzed by fear and self-loathing to a woman who learns to face her demons and fight for a future she can believe in.
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Description


Lipstick on a Pig is a raw, haunting, and deeply evocative narrative—one that blends gritty realism with spectral elements to explore trauma, survival, and the fragile hope that flickers in the darkest corners of family dysfunction. The Butt family's story, especially Becky's, is told with unflinching honesty and poetic intensity. What makes this piece so compelling and layered is the consistent themes throughout that focus on: Generational Trauma & Dysfunction: Jane's rage and detachment echo the unresolved pain of her own upbringing, which she passes down to her children in volatile, damaging ways. Addiction as Coping: Becky's compulsive eating isn't just a symptom—it's a shield against the emotional and supernatural violations she endures. Supernatural as Metaphor: The ghostly presence of Abigail and the entities in Pine Street serve as both literal and symbolic manifestations of trauma, memory, and salvation. Sibling Dynamics: The triangle between Becky, Ethan, and Diana is fraught with jealousy, survival tactics, and silent suffering—each child adapting differently to the chaos. Neglect & Systemic Failure: Becky's descent into obesity, anxiety, and school dropout status reflects how easily vulnerable children can slip through the cracks when society turns a blind eye.
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About The Author


As a young child, Rebecca escaped into books, and wrote happy stories accompanied by bright and cheerful pictures with houses, trees, flowers, and birds, that were a contradiction to her real-life circumstances. Her childhood love for reading and writing endured, and she eventually wrote and published her short stories and poetry in a literary journal in college. Lipstick on a Pig is her lengthiest writing endeavor. A licensed Speech Language Pathologist with a master's degree in communication sciences and disorders, she is the Director of Special Education for a school district in New Hampshire, where she resides. 
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