Forget This Ever Happened
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes there's a town called Indianola.
And sometimes there isn't.
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
June, 1993. Claire has been dumped in rural Indianola, Texas, to spend her whole vacation taking care of mean, sickly Grammy. There's nothing too remarkable about Indianola: it's run-down, shabby, and sweltering, a pin-dot on the Gulf Coast.
Except there is something remarkable. Memories shimmer and change. Lizards whisper riddles under the pecan trees. People disappear as if they never existed. Yesterday keeps coming unspooled, like a video tape. And worst of all, a red-lightning storm from beyond our world may just wipe the whole town off the map, if Claire and her maybe-girlfriend Julie can't stop it.
Because reality doesn't apply in Indianola. Indianola is not supposed to exist.
Surprising, brilliant, and, like, totally tight, Forget This Ever Happened is speculative horror at its finest, featuring a queer romance from a Pushcart Prize-nominated queer author and dark, dazzling world-building.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Small-town politics, weird creatures, and LGBTQ first love elevate this fast-paced piece of speculative horror from nostalgic homage to gleeful update. It's 1993, and 17-year-old Claire Whitmore is stuck in her mother's retrograde hometown of Indianola, Tex., for the summer, caring for her chronically ill grandmother. But when furred lizard-creatures speak to her in the backyard, Claire learns about the town's secret: the monster colony in its old power plant, whose reality-bending powers force anyone leaving Indianola to forget them. But as Polish American Claire and 17-year-old Mexican American monster exterminator Julie Alvarez investigate the monsters' interest in Claire as well as a cheerful, ominous neighbor they discover the buried connection between their families, a hidden love affair, and the truth behind Indianola's monsters. Clarke (Star's End) unfolds the town's mystery with a compulsively building menace, while delightfully alien monsters, sweet queer representation, and a riot grrrl soundtrack keep even tense moments fun. Fans of Brenna Yovanoff, Christopher Pike, and Stranger Things will enjoy this light, smart thriller. Ages 14 up.