The summer after Steve finishes 6th grade three things happen:
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His baby brother is born, though he is sickly and must return to the hospital for numerous tests. Steve learns that he might never, walk, talk, or feed himself. If he survives.
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Angels visit Steve in a dream.
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Wasps start building a nest in the eaves of his home.
Steve is afraid of everything, from the wasps in the backyard, to the dark, to whatever is keeping the baby sick. Steve tries to keep his fears at bay with a set of rituals – making lists, washing his hands, and hiding beneath his covers at night – though he still spends much of his time afraid. When the angels make Steve a proposal, that they can fix the baby, if only Steve helps, he is quick to agree. But things take a turn for the sinister as Steve comes to realize just what “fixing” the baby truly means. As the deadline to the angels’ proposal creeps closer, and Steve begins to discover strange and eerie things about the wasps and their nest, he must struggle against his own fear and prejudice to save his brother from a dire fate.
Half-fantasy, half-thriller, The Nest blurs the line between the real and imagined to offer commentary on the societal perception of mental and physical ability and the dangerous pressure to be “normal.”
–Jessie Ulmer, Inklings Bookshop, Yakima, WA
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