A scintillating, pulsing YA novel that ricochets around the sleepy, affluent shoreline town of Gently, Connecticut. Partly an LGBTQ+ love story, other times an obsessional and dark fable, the only lacking element is a moral compass.

Isolated sixteen-year-old Jay Souther is a rising sophomore at St. Andrew’s High School for Boys. Full of buoyancy and verve, Jay tries out for varsity football and makes the team as a third-string punter, but Jay is not prepared for the swirling darkness poised to consume him. He tries to outrun his attraction to Foster Gold, one of the football team leads, but eventually embraces his bisexuality, and is better for it.

What Jay doesn't realize is the object of his attraction, Foster, is the ringleader for some excruciatingly malevolent plans.  Foster is joined by six five, 235-pound two-time Parade All-American, Latino superstar Bear Santos. Bear is perpetually falling in and out of love with his best friend, Foster.

Bringing in love and light to this wild fable is the skateboarding waitress, Basil Sous, a sophomore at Gently Public High and her new pal, Tuck Reis, a neurodivergent senior at St. Andrew’s. Both Basil and Tuck grow close with Jay and use their natural empathy and compassion to chip away at the toxic masculinity of Foster’s rhetoric. Will it be enough for Jay to break free of the seniors’ cult-like influence in time to prevent an impending tragedy?