This is a tasty little novella about coming of age, family secrets, and learning that the people you grew up with are not what you thought. It reminded me of the great Jack Finney novel “The Body Snatchers.”

The setup is straightforward. Twenty something Jake returns to the town he grew up in for the funeral of a high school friend. And things quickly get weird. 

I liked how this novel tapped into a particular phase we all go through, that stage in your late twenties when you’re into adulthood, but childhood is still close enough to taste (and pine for.) You return to your teenage bedroom and feel and certain swelling of emotion and regression to your past.

And that comes with it a certain fear—the fear of growing up, of being on your own, of, ultimately, I suppose, realizing that the search for meaning is on your shoulders alone.

Five stars.