Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.
When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.
Calla, Dre, and Jamie are siblings without parents. Their father is deceased and their mother may as well be dead since she is less than useless. Calla has taken custody of teenage Jamie, with promises of help and support from middle sibling Dre, but that never did amount to much more than empty words.
"To raise a child was to guard them. To raise a child was to let them find their own path."
Jamie has always been a handful, and Calla is plagued with nightmares and visions of both brothers deaths. It's been a struggle all along to keep Jaimie out of serious trouble and she prays to whatever is willing to listen, to keep him safe. She is exhausted, and resentful, yet fiercely loyal in her love for her brothers but she is pushed beyond her breaking point. How can she protect them both at the same time? She is only one woman. Isn't she?
I can't say much else about the plot without spoiling it for you. So I will just say it's an original, imaginative, humorous yet horrifying debut novel.
"He'd knocked over a guest book, or possibly the Necronomicon because the last guests of this cabin were probably the undead skeletons in the basement."
This is a remarkable story of family, love, dysfunction, and grief. It is alternately hilarious, frightening, and heart rending. If you are in the mood for something wild and weird this is it.
My thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for the invitation to read an early e-copy.
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