First published 2018
Rain Thomas puts on borrowed reading glasses to review her resume before a job interview. Through a crack in one lens, she spots a young boy running down a subway car, screaming. When she looks for him, he has vanished. No one else saw him. Rain has been clean for three years after seven years of addiction. She gave up a baby for adoption at sixteen and still grieves the boy's father, who died in Iraq. Her family has abandoned her. She attends narcotics anonymous meetings and hears voices in her head. After seeing the boy, Rain loses chunks of time. The voices grow worse. Doctor Nine, a terrifying figure from her drug-fueled hallucinations, now stalks her in the real world. He also hunts the boy, who resembles Rain's dead boyfriend. Rain cannot tell if she is losing her sanity or if reality itself has broken. She begins searching for the child through a world where nightmares collide with the waking world.
Genres: addiction, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Iraq, Subway
Period: 3 Years, 7 Years
Audio CD · Macmillan Audio
Content warnings: addiction, mental-illness