A mischievous, moving, and darkly funny memoir about growing up strange in small-town America—before the fall, before the drugs, before the booze, before it all came apart. Keith Howard wasn’t supposed to be here. Adopted at six months old. Fired from Orange Julius for laughing. Arrested three times before he could legally vote. A class clown with a taste for acid, mischief, and burning questions, Keith was the kid who pulled down his pants in kindergarten, who founded a cult (sort of), who nearly bankrupted the Catholic Church by knocking over a font of Holy Water. But behind the antics was a boy desperate to be seen, to belong, to understand where he came from—and where he might be going. Unclaimed, But Loud is a wildly original coming-of-age memoir told in sharp, self-aware prose with laugh-out-loud lines and gut-punch moments of unexpected grace. It’s a story of basements and bonfires, chickadees and shame, dangerous islands and minnow sacrifices.