LOUD MESSY PERFECT

STACY HELTON

LOUD MESSY PERFECT 

In 1985, Chattanooga was built on church signs and drive-ins, where being different attracts attention. Gil stays small to survive, but a secret box of forbidden desires threatens to destroy him.

Seeking escape, he drifts along Brainerd Road, caught between hero worship for Colton, a charismatic local athlete, and a bully’s violent blackmail. One night pushes him to abandon everything and head for the raw energy of Times Square. He becomes Mattie in a city alive with risk and possibility.

In the Deuce, surrounded by dazzling lights and dark corners, he meets John, a street-smart hustler who knows the city’s dangers. Their passionate connection forces Gil to choose between safety and authenticity.

Loud Messy Perfect is a raw, emotionally intense novel about first love, reinvention, and the courage required to claim one’s true self in an unforgiving world.

1985

Listen up.

Over 5 hours of music from the novel, celebrating 1985 and the songs that got us there! featuring the smiths, prince, lou reed, madonna, bowie, donna summer, the stones, BANANARAMA, JOAN JETT, CHET BAKER, DIANA ROSS, dylan, dolby, go-gos, benatar, MILES DAVIS, velvet underground, duran duran, bad company, pink floyd, bee gees, steely dan, MELLENCAMP, rod stewart, tears for fears, blondie, billy idol, STEVIE NICKS AND MORE, MORE, MORE!

MATTIE ♥ JOHN

1985

TIMES SQUARE

“Chattanooga in 1985 wasn’t a place built for reinvention.

It was hemmed in by mountains and memories, a city stitched together by highways and hunches, church signs, and drive-ins. The air smelled like river mud and wet grass, and in the summer, the kudzu grew so fast that it could swallow fences and utility poles whole.

If you were different there, people noticed.”