Book excerpt: Mike Hawthorne’s mother is left alone to raise her son in New York City, a city that torments them both with its unforgiving nature. But when Mike falls victim to an old world Santeria death curse, a haunting sign from the old country of something his mother could never truly escape—she begins a series of events that drive him away both physically and emotionally. For the first time ever, Eisner Award-nominated artist Mike Hawthorne (Superior Spider-Man) tells the true and tragic story of enduring abuse, discovering a love of art and a passion that helped him to build the home he never had in this graphic novel memoir about family, survival, and what it means to be Puerto Rican in America.