ally

We don't experience memory in linear fashion, nor even in a strictly coherent one. It's peppered with tangents and strange loops. It's multithreaded. It's not always made up of words. Why should a memoir strive to strip memory completely of this context?

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Also available at many independent booksellers and, of course, Amazon

ally is an ergodic, arborescent, semiautobiographical work about identity, mental health, spirituality, and the mutability of the past. A lot of the information contained within is real, some of it isn’t. Each page is structured as a conversation between myself and my ally, a mirror reflection of myself.

Based off the interactive project at ally.id, this book explores different facets of my life — some true, some embellished, some wholly fictitious — in a non-linear, ergodic fashion, using color, page-layout, and mixed-media to create a book more experience than memoir.

Content warning

Several sections focus on suicide, self-harm, rape, sexual content, and poor mental health.

Praise

“Cleareyed yet powerfully immediate . . . A fresh, daring exploration of lived experience.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“I felt I was chasing down fractions of the author’s soul. Chasing them not because I got this to read and review, but because I deeply wanted to. So I could put them together and solve an ultimate puzzle whose picture would contain some incomprehensible beauty.”

— Linnea Capps

““That matters to me more than I expected,” said about someone else’s life, is my summary of this whole book.”

— Rax

“A recommended read if you enjoy listening to people tell their story . . . Scott-Clary’s writing is clear and creative prose, uniquely presented and powerfully honest.”

— Morgan Gangwere

“ally is an incredibly complex and beautiful glimpse into [Madison]’s mind and life. Personal and incomplete in a very intentional way.”

— Jay Shirou

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Purchasing options

The paperback is available for order direct from the author. All copies ordered direct are signed and come in a custom-made box by JD at Dog Paw Design. You can also order from Better World Books, Powell’s, or many other fine independent booksellers, as well as Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

The PDF ebook is available for order exclusively from me. I have yet to figure out how to sign those. Sorry.

Making of

ally from start to finish is a short companion book explaining how the project was made, both the website ally.id and the book. It talks about the structure, the tools and the pitfalls encountered along the way. It also comes with the source for itself so that you can see some of what goes into producing a book like this (as ally uses much the same structure).

Purchase ally from start to finish

Have you been at your Maddy-est about it?

Of course.

Press kit