[QCrit] Windpipe, Literary Fiction, 74k Words, 2nd Attempt
Dear [Agent],
BLUE FISTS. PAVEMENT. DEATH ON TAPE.
Ian’s a scrapper. 5’2” and feral.
Son of a hoarder, he knows how to fend for himself—even when he lands in juvie for killing a classmate with one punch.
Mag’s a ride-or-die. She’s Ian’s seventeen-year-old sister, timid and loyal to a fault. She has no problem duping social workers to paint him as a saint, all while CPS forces her out of her home.
Now, everyone wants her to testify that Ian was always violent. She lies for him, even when they show her the death tape. So, she’s haunted. Ian too.
In juvie, he dreams of cracked skulls and blue fists, then wakes to his bunkmate muttering about ghosts. He declares himself a real-life One-Punch Man and buries his grief in games, trying to charm his judge and fake depression for perks.
All his life, he’s protected Mag. Now, he needs her. But the closer she gets to her relatives, the more the questions rise: Where’s Ian’s remorse? Does he have any?
As the trial uncovers a history of violence, Mag must decide whether to fight for or against Ian.
With his fury turning on her and brutal evidence coming to light, she begins to wonder: is her brother even worth saving at all?
Told in dual POV, WINDPIPE is a 74,000-word literary adult drama in the vein of Bullwinkel’s gritty HEADSHOT and Lamb’s emotional THE RIVER IS WAITING.