It’s 1992, and ten-year-old Molly is tired of living in the fire-rotted, nun-haunted House of Friends: a Semi-Cooperative Living Community of Peace Faith(s) in Action with her formerly blind dad and grieving Evelyn. But when twenty-three-year-old Jeanie, a dirt bike–riding ex-con with a questionable past, moves in, she quickly becomes the object of Molly’s adoration. She might treat Molly terribly, but they both have dead moms and potty mouths, so naturally Molly can’t seem to leave Jeanie alone.

When Jeanie fakes her own death in a hot-air balloon accident, Molly runs away to Chicago with just a stolen credit card and a sweet pair of LA Gear Heatwaves to meet her pen pal Demarcus and hunt down Jeanie. What follows is a race to New Year’s Eve, as Molly and Demarcus plan a séance to reunite with their lost moms in front of a live audience at the World’s Fair.

A surrealist and bold take on the American coming-of-age novel, Holly Wilson’s debut is about the interstices of loss, grief, and friendship.