Award-winning bestseller now available in hardcover, softcover, and audiobook 

AVAILABLE for order from any bookstore or in audio format from Audible, Apple Books, Google Play Books 

"A unique story with echoes of The Glass Castle, infused with knowledge and a psychological thriller element."

"Gorgeously wrought."

"Vivid, Evocative, Riveting "

"Scott is a tough and compelling storyteller, sharing engaging tales with sadness, self-effacing humor, and honesty. A disturbing, poignant, informative, and ultimately triumphant remembrance."
Kirkus Reviews

The owl, Scott's symbolic night bird, serves as both a harbinger of death and a bearer of wisdom, reflecting the deep emotional and spiritual journey woven through this powerful memoir.

For readers of Tara Westover, Jeannette Walls, and Cheryl Strayed, Nightbird is a testimony to the power of truth-telling and the quiet courage it takes to break cycles of abuse. 

In Nightbird, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott delivers an unflinching and deeply moving account of her journey through unthinkable personal tragedy and into hard-won healing. With the insight of a seasoned clinician and the vulnerability of a survivor, she recounts a childhood overshadowed by religious extremism and emotional abuse, a marriage marked by psychological captivity, and the shocking revenge suicide of her husband after she asked for a divorce.

Through vivid storytelling and raw emotional honesty, Scott traces the long arc of trauma and how it echoes through generations. She reveals how the wounds of the past shaped her personal relationships—and how, despite the tragedy, she ultimately found strength, self-worth, and meaning.

This is not only a story of suffering, but of resilience and reinvention. As Scott confronts the shadows of her past, she also shares how her work with thousands of trauma survivors helped illuminate the path to her own recovery.

Essential reading for those interested in the psychology of trauma, domestic violence, and the redemptive power of facing the past, Nightbird reminds us that while trauma may shape us, it does not  have to define us. Nightbird isn't just about survival—it's a testament to the strength of the human spirit to rise and transform

"Nightbird is a heartrending story that will pull you in from the first sentence to the last. There is no holding back in Scott’s narrative and no mincing of words. Whether you are someone who has gone through personal strife or cares for someone who has, this is a must-read, first for the person needing validation and for the other hoping for understanding. Nightbird provides both."

Aria Ligi
Author, Blood, Bone, and Stone

"Shavaun Scott’s powerful memoir, Nightbird, will have you turning pages in the middle of the night to stay immersed in her fascinating and disturbing story. Born into a hardscrabble life, into a world where girls marry at 16, Shavaun presents herself as the descendant of generations of female suffering.

But there’s another Shavaun, dreamy and intelligent, who subconsciously plans herself an escape route. We meet both Shavauns, a trapped young woman who ultimately makes a disastrous second marriage after her early first marriage, and the seasoned professional therapist who can analyze her patterns and behavior with great insight and precision.

Meeting the young Shavaun gives the memoir a startling authenticity not usually found in books by psychotherapists. However, the professional voice and context give us the tools to understand the story and our own stories.

I recommend Nightbird. You won’t soon forget it."

Laurel Brett
Author, The Schrödinger Girl

"In Nightbird, experienced psychotherapist Shavaun Scott offers a remarkable memoir that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply human. Drawing from decades of clinical work and lived experience, Scott explores complex trauma, loss, and survival with a rare combination of honesty, restraint, and moral clarity.

Nightbird is a quiet but powerful achievement. It is a memoir that values attention over answers and presence over resolution. It stands out for its intelligence, compassion, and integrity, and it lingers long after reading. Highly recommended for readers interested in trauma, ethics, mental health, and a beautifully written memoir that honors complexity and human dignity."

Emma Ramos
Reviewer

Gut-wrenching, Nightbird is Portland, Oregon, author Shavaun Scott’s memoir of growing up in a deeply Southern family, one full of superstition, magical thinking, alcoholism, revival-tent Christianity, and an ingrained distrust of science and facts. From that upbringing, she met and married and had disastrous personal domestic violence encounters, ending in a devastating revenge suicide incident with her spouse. Yet, miraculously, she grew beyond her upbringing and circumstances, became a psychologist, author, and expert on the minds of American serial killers and mass murderers, as witnessed in her three non-fiction works on violence in America. Above all, this is a haunting story of survival, through and through, gripping from the first page onwards to the bittersweet end. One comes away changed. Not many books do that to me.

Björn Sigurðsson
Reviewer

"Shavaun Scott has written a no-nonsense account of the journey to—and from—life inside a damaging relationship. Scott shows us the kind of childhood influences that build characteristics leading a person, perhaps especially a female-bodied person, to get into relationships with abusive partners. Honest and without sentimentality, Scott shows us that these characteristics are both strengths and challenges. She rejects victimhood, then and now, as she reclaims, step by step, an empowered life of her own choosing."

Mary Mandeville
Author, What Lasts, A Narrative Reliquary

"Scott comes from a low-income family with Southern roots marked by superstition, religious zealotry, and mental illness. In Nightbird, she vividly portrays the struggles of damaged people coping with limited resources while reflecting on her own blind spots, failed coping attempts, and early, poor relationship choices. Despite these obstacles, Scott was driven to escape the legacy of her family history. Through education and determination, she broke free from an oppressive past to become an independent woman grounded in reality. Through difficult and complex themes, Nightbird is ultimately a story about hope, transformation, and thriving despite adverse circumstances—a tale of survival and hard-won wisdom."

William Calloway
Writer

"Shavaun Scott has written a mesmerizing story of her journey from being raised in a fundamentalist religion by a highly dysfunctional family to recreating herself gradually as she married, had children, and turned to psychotherapy and education to help her make sense of her life. The death of her second husband by angry suicide was yet another crisis that demanded she grow and trust herself more or withdraw into defeat and pain. 

Told in vivid, beautiful, and evocative language, Shavaun gradually builds a stronger self, educates herself even more, and learns to give to others what she never had. She becomes a remarkable psychotherapist, sought after, smart, and able to talk to clients who others can’t handle because she understands the desperate details of her own past and recognizes what her clients need. 

This memoir is an inspiring account of human resilience as she shows us how she gradually arrived at a place of inner peace that has allowed her to be of service to others. As a psychologist myself, I can say after reading Shavaun’s memoir that it would be a privilege to have her as a therapist."

Bonnie Comfort, PhD
Author, Staying Married Is the Hardest Part: a memoir of passion, secrets and sacrifice

Or from your favorite bookstore

Pencraft Awards Literary Excellence

Readers Favorite Five Stars