A coming-of-age narrative about ghosts, friendship, and household
secrets and techniques.
Jake Baker is a neurosurgeon who takes us again to the summer time
when he was 12 years outdated and rising up amid the tackiness of Niagara Falls, a
panorama desperately in want of redemption. Though Jake is one thing of a
loner, he hits it off with two youngsters new to the neighborhood, Billy and Dove
Yellowbird. Whereas Billy is identical age as Jake, Dove is 2 years older, and
Jake is instantly captivated with her energy and self-confidence. There to assist
all of them of their transition out of childhood is Jake’s eccentric Uncle Cal,
like Jake, an “odd duck” who is sort of like a baby himself. Cal owns a store
referred to as the Occultorium and has over time “cultivated a community of mystics and
paranoiacs and those that noticed the world at a distinct skew.” By way of
motivations mysterious even to himself, Cal proposes that they type a Saturday
Evening Ghost Membership to discover arcane locations round their neighborhood, together with
a Screaming Tunnel (“Cataract Metropolis’s most well-known haunted spot”), a automotive that has
been submerged for years within the bend of a river, and the stays of a home
that had been ravaged by fireplace. As he strikes by way of these adventures, Jake
transitions from being terrified to accommodating himself to each the
strangeness of his uncle and the strangeness of the world. By way of his mother and father,
Jake finally learns how Cal is related to every of the venues he takes the kids
to although Cal himself doesn’t perceive the depth of those
connections. On account of these experiences throughout this memorable summer time
when he’s on the cusp of adolescence, Jake’s understanding and compassion are
enlarged: tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner.
By way of the depth of his characters’ experiences, Davidson
reconnects us to our personal recollections of rising up.
