Tomas Mournian, author of Hidden, Sept 1, 9PM EST

In his stunning debut novel, Hidden, Tomas Mournian captures the terror and raw emotions that runaway gay teens face after escaping ‘treatment’ facilities. The book is centered on the life of Ahmed a young queer boy whose homophobic parents unable to accept their son’s sexuality incarcerate him in Serenity Ridge a psychiatric hospital charged with ‘curing’ his queerness. We meet Ahmed as he’s just escapes the institution the physical effects of regular sedation and electroshock treatments still fresh on his body. 

Over the course of the novel we follow Ahmed as he escapes bounty hunters and becomes one of the lucky, taken into an underground network of safe houses designed to keep queer kids hidden and protected until people stop looking for them, or in most cases their 18th birthdays when legally they are able to escape their homophobic parents once and for all.

Tomas Mournian’s previous accomplishments have included investigative journalism pieces into the real underground safe houses for LGBT teens who have escaped mental hospitals.