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Average rating3
On the eve of World War II, eight-year-old Eddie Alley lies in bed watching his first horror movie, hand-cranked and flickering on the bare wall of a backwoods cabin. In 2011, Eddie's daughter, Wallis, an anchorwoman for a twenty-four hour news channel, lies in bed with a stranger, spinning ghost stories. Between these two nights winds the story of the Alley family – Eddie's mother, Cora, an Appalachian mountain witch who slips out of her skin after nightfall; Captain Casket, Eddie's alter ego, a campy 1970's TV horror-movie host; and Jasper, the orphaned boy Eddie brings home, who is determined to destroy Eddie's illusions even if it means destroying himself.
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I liked much of it, but I'm really allergic to books that foreshadow, flash-forward and then back-fill. I get it as a story telling device, and I understand that people enjoy it, but it drives me bug shit.