Synopses & Reviews
Every small town in America has one: the family whose daughters are perpetually pregnant and whose sons go directly from the eleventh grade to the county lock-up. In the town of Loomis, in rural New York, that family is the Mayborns. Long haunted by accusations of incest and infanticide, the Mayborns have become a tribal clan of pariahs, with a roster of monstrosities attached to their name.
June Mayborn, a fourteen-year-old with a preternatural sense of smell and a dubious code of morals, has an affair with a married candy-store owner. When the affair sours, June sets a deadly fire, accidentally killing an elderly man who had, over a decade before, established a cult-like commune in the foothills of Loomis. The subsequent funeral draws the beautiful and capricious Iris Utter, whose two-year-old son went missing from Loomis eight years earlier. Both Iris and her somber sixteen-year-old daughter, Lee, embark upon a dangerous and disturbing relationship with the Mayborns, which will both ravage and redeem their lives.
Review
"Toby-Potter introduces one uniquely creepy character and one strangely plausible plot point after another, without losing her focus or confusing the reader....Deliciously strange, this is a notable debut." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[I]n true gothic literary style, reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor, first-novelist Toby-Potter's strong, dark narrative reveals the strangeness even in those who appear most 'normal.'" Hazel Rochman, Booklist
Synopsis
When young June Mayborn sets a deadly fire after being jilted by her married lover, Iris Utter and her somber 16-year-old daughter embark upon a disturbing relationship with the Mayborns which will both ravage and redeem their lives.