Letters to Katherine begins with author Shelley Sams’s tumultuous childhood in Kansas. She struggled to know what “normal” was while living in a home that defined the term “dysfunctional.” Her earliest recollections are not where her life began; she was adopted. The family that took her in at one year of age had already adopted a boy four years her senior, who was a budding serial killer. His genius IQ, combined with the countless red flags that were overlooked by their parents, left them all in peril. 

In the search for safety and connection, and with an alcoholic father and a bitter, depressed, and emotionally absent mother, Sams sought escape. Part of that escape came in the form of letters to her great aunt, Katherine.