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The Moment Before the Blow-Up
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $54.99
ISBN13: 9785847100649
Publisher: Adelina Foxworth Cray
Published: Oct 1 2026
Pages: 32
Weight: 0.13
Height: 0.07 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Every one of these stories lives inside the same half-second: the moment between the thing that triggers you and the thing you do about it.
The Moment Before the Blow-Up is a collection of twelve composite stories about ordinary people catching an old, automatic reaction just before it lands: a husband who almost turns a six-word text into a two-hour fight, a mother who almost mistakes a teacher's mild feedback for an accusation, a bride who almost detonates two nights before her own wedding over a seating chart. None of these characters transform overnight. What each story captures is a single, difficult choice, made once, under real pressure, in the narrow space where an old wound and a new response briefly collide.
Written for anyone who recognizes the pattern in their own life: the reaction that arrives faster than thought, the trigger that traces back further than the person standing in front of you, and the quiet, unglamorous work of choosing differently anyway.
What's inside:
- Twelve self-contained stories, each built around a different, common reactive pattern
- Honest portrayals of the old wounds behind ordinary overreactions, without judgment or easy fixes
- Moments of real repair and real restraint, shown in specific, human detail
- A closing reflection on what these moments do, and don't, prove about lasting change
Perfect for readers of trauma-informed fiction and anyone doing their own quiet work of catching the reaction before it catches them.
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