'My mom leans back, smiles, and strokes my cheek. "That's all right, Charlie. Never you mind. You just got soft living with your grandparents, is all. You forgot that most people don't have it so easy--that you have to be tough to make it in this world."'

Set in the 1980's, Dyed Souls follows the life of 13-year-old Charlie; an intelligent, troubled teen, taken from his grandparents by his drug addicted mother, only to end up at Hawthorne Residential Treatment Village.

There he ponders Darwin, Socrates, and Plato, and unexpectedly falls in love with a girl named Margo. When she breaks his heart, Charlie runs away, beginning a new journey that will leave him shattered before he finally makes it to Virginia. Back with his grandparents, the return of his mother forces him to learn a bitter truth that changes his life forever.

Dyed Souls is a thought-provoking, gritty novel, that will appeal to fans of literary fiction and philosophical literature. A coming-of-age novel, it is suitable for both young adult and adult readers.