Orphan Love: Bozak's Raw & Unforgettable Debut Novel

Orphan Love is a novel that feels both raw and tender, like a wound exposed to the cold air of northern Ontario. Set in 1989, it begins with Bozak — a young woman running from a buried secret and the weight of betrayal — and quickly places her alongside Dave, a Native rocker whose past is as fractured as his beat-up canoe. Their path toward New York City becomes less of a road trip and more of a reckoning, as danger shadows every mile and desire turns into something darker than romance.

What makes the book linger is not just its plot but the way it stitches landscapes and subcultures together. The lonely forests of Black Dew Seat are set against the sprawling chaos of New York City, while heavy metal riffs clash with the pulse of punk. Outcasts and misfits, Bozak’s characters feel jagged and unfinished — but it’s in that roughness that they become deeply human. The story brims with the intensity of people desperate for identity and aching for redemption, even as violence and revenge gnaw at the edges of their choices.

Reading Orphan Love is like listening to a live track: raw, unpolished, sometimes discordant, yet undeniably powerful. Bozak writes with a sharp eye for detail and a willingness to walk into the darker corners of emotion. Her debut doesn’t flinch from pain, but it also offers flashes of resilience, humor, and fragile hope. It’s a book that surprises, unsettles, and ultimately leaves you thinking about the thin line between love and survival.