Olmsted Park. Bedsheet noose. Seventeen years old.

This is where Sad Boy begins.

Chris Schneider's debut poetry collection plunges into a brutal coming-of-age: suicide attempts, psychiatric wards with confiscated shoelaces, romantic implosions, and a graduation ceremony that plays out like a mock execution.

This is not healing poetry. It is defiance written in cultural wreckage, where ancient history collides with teenage destruction.

Illustrated by Steven Bentley and introduced by poet DeQuan Wren, Sad Boy refuses to look away.

Content warning: Suicide attempts, self-harm, and psychiatric crisis.