What do you do when the worst thing already happened—twice?

Six years ago, Kodak survived the car crash that killed his first love and closest friends. Everyone told him he was lucky. But Kodak doesn’t feel lucky. He feels alone. Broken. Untouchable.

Now, fresh out of college and drifting through a life that no longer feels like his, Kodak is trying to stay invisible—avoiding attachments, hiding his grief, and burying the fear that anyone he gets close to will end up gone. Then he meets Quinn. And against every instinct, something begins to stir. But healing isn’t linear. And the earth doesn’t stay still.

When a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami strike the Pacific Northwest, Kodak is once again thrust into chaos—separated from everything familiar, with only his memories and a rising tide. As the world around him fractures, he must confront the wreckage within: guilt, identity, silence... and the truth about what it means to still be here.

Raw, lyrical, and emotionally charged, I’m the Same is a literary reckoning with trauma, survival, and the quiet ache of living through loss. For readers of Bryan Washington, Ocean Vuong, and Hanya Yanagihara.