When Michael Knapp brings his lover Dan Biggs home to meet his parents, he doesn't expect things to go smoothly. His mother's been trying to marry him off for years, and sometimes he isn't even sure his father knows he exists. He has always felt like the shadow son, competing with his terminally stupid older brother and smart-mouthed little sister for his parents' attention. Coming out to them over dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get noticed.<br><br>But an unexpected phone call interrupts his announcement -- Aunt Evie, the family matriarch, is dead. With Dan in tow, Michael follows his family to Sugar Creek, where he spent his summers growing up, to prepare for the funeral.<br><br>Amid an overabundance of memories and relatives, Michael's world begins to slip. His dysfunctional family, Evie's death, and an old friend's confession all threaten to smother him. Worse, in his grief and confusion he seems determined to inadvertently push everyone away, including his lover. Can he and Dan move beyond his family and his past to a new life together, before Michael's insecurities tear them apart?

It's All Relative

A stack of horror paperbacks that Evie bought for me from a garage sale, back when I was younger and would read anything even remotely scary. I went through these books in one summer, devoured them, sometimes reading two in one day. They’re quick, nothing spectacular, just a bunch of fluff tucked between the covers, stories about vampires and werewolves and a few true crime serial killers. I only remember a handful of the storylines—as I pick up the books one by one, the plots and characters whirl together in my mind, the equivalent of those outrageous B movies from the fifties. They go back into their paper bag, and the bag goes by the door.


Chapter 85