First published 2007
Christopher Nix navigates the chaos of 1969 Florida as a fourteen-year-old hippie caught between sex, drugs, rock music, and hostile rednecks who want him dead. His turbulent world shifts when a stranger named Jay Dumont contacts the Nix family with an unexpected offer. Dumont wants to pay for Chris to attend an exclusive private school, claiming that Chris's deceased grandfather Uvdall once saved his life during World War I. The debt must be repaid, Dumont insists. Chris accepts the offer but soon realizes Dumont's plan runs much deeper than gratitude for an old war debt. Supernatural Powers have always surrounded the Nix family, and Chris must awaken his own magical abilities to survive whatever Dumont has planned for him. As Chris grapples with these newfound gifts, he faces larger questions about faith, responsibility, and his place in the complex web connecting humanity, divinity, and the natural world.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, fantasy
Vibes: emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, found-family
Setting: Florida
Period: 1969
320 pages · Hardcover · Tor Books
Content warnings: drug-use, violence