by David Arnold
First published 2019
Noah Oakman is sixteen years old. He loves David Bowie, swims competitively, and keeps track of history in his own precise way. Then he volunteers for a hypnosis demonstration. When Noah wakes up, everything looks the same but nothing is right. His mother now has a facial scar that never existed before. His elderly dog moves without the limp Noah remembers. His best friend has switched from reading DC Comics to Marvel. Small details and major memories have all shifted around him. Only his Strange Fascinations remain unchanged in this altered reality. Noah must figure out what happened during that hypnosis session and why his world has been transformed. The story explores how we damage our friendships without realizing it and how those same friends become our salvation.
Genres: science-fiction, coming-of-age, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
448 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books